But it is not the lower world of men that holds us captive here. The sweet, white peace of the high Alps invades and dominates the soul. In a pure, stainless air, which we inhale more rapidly, perhaps, and yet with keen delight, we look upon a vast horizon walled with snow-white towers, domed by a sapphire sky. So many are these ice-clad peaks and sparkling minarets, that they suggest a great white city of the upper world. The Ortler is its royal palace, whose colossal roof, supported by huge, glassy walls, is rimmed by miles of spotless cornices, and leagues of elfin arabesques. The lesser structures compass it in silent grandeur, seeming to stand in a gigantic garden of the northern gods, where trees are pyramids of ice, and paths are valleys of untrodden snow, and where the lawns are glaciers spangled with innumerable crystal flowers. So glorious is this panorama that we are loath to leave it; though well aware that the descending road (no less superbly built than that we have ascended) will lead us to the softness of Italian skies and Como's castled lake. We ask ourselves, with sad misgiving, if we shall ever gaze on such a scene again; for even should we once more stand upon this height, who can assure us that the same unclouded sky would give perfection to the prospect? Hence we desire to linger till its splendor pales, or veils itself in clouds. But no ! the time to leave it is precisely when the tide of inspiration is bearing us exultantly upon its flood.

Stainless Snowfields Of The Upper Air.

The " White Knot," And Monument To The Conqueror Of The Ortler.

The Ortler Group, From Italy.

Franzenshohe On The Stelvio.

A Garden Of The Northern Gods: The Ortler, Koenigsp1tze, Cevedale, Etc.

Thus would I fain remember it, till earthly scenes are fading from my vision, and the dark valley lies before me, leading on to the unknown. If there be yet reserved for me in the vast universe a grander pageant of sublimity, the recollection of this scene will have prepared me to enjoy it. If not, the memory of it, clinging to my consciousness, may nevertheless continue to delight me ages hence - surviving both the dissolution of the body and the wreck of worlds.