Part 31 (1/2)

Further on, the Professor drew the attention of his friends to the beautiful blue colour of the holes which their alpenstocks made in the snow. ”Once,” said he, ”while walking on the heights of Monte Rosa, I observed this effect with great interest, and, while engaged in the investigation of the cause, got a surprise which was not altogether agreeable. Some of the paths there are on very narrow ridges, and the snow on these ridges often overhangs them. I chanced to be walking in advance of my guide at the time to which I refer, and amused myself as I went along by driving my alpenstock deep into the snow, when suddenly, to my amazement I sent the end of the staff right through the snow, and, on withdrawing it, looked down into s.p.a.ce! I had actually walked over the ridge altogether, and was standing above an abyss some thousands of feet deep!”

”Horrible!” exclaimed Emma. ”You jumped off pretty quickly, I dare say.”

”Nay, I walked off with extreme caution; but I confess to having felt a sort of cold shudder with which my frame had not been acquainted previously.”

While they were thus conversing, a cloud pa.s.sed overhead and sent down a slight shower of snow. To most of the party this was a matter of indifference, but the man of science soon changed their feelings by drawing attention to the form of the flakes. He carried a magnifying gla.s.s with him, which enabled him to show their wonders more distinctly.

It was like a shower of frozen flowers of the most delicate and exquisite kind. Each flake was a flower with six leaves. Some of the leaves threw out lateral spines or points, like ferns, some were rounded, others arrowy, reticulated, and serrated; but, although varied in many respects, there was no variation in the number of leaves.

”What amazin' beauty in a snowflake,” exclaimed the Captain, ”many a one I've seen without knowin' how splendid it was.”

”The works of G.o.d are indeed wonderful,” said the Professor, ”but they must be `sought out'--examined with care--to be fully understood and appreciated.”

”Yet there are certain philosophers,” observed Lewis, ”who hold that the evidence of design here and elsewhere does not at all prove the existence of G.o.d. They say that the crystals of these snow-flakes are drawn together and arrange themselves by means of natural forces.”

”They say truly,” replied the Professor, ”but they seem to me to stop short in their reasoning. They appear to ignore the fact that this elemental original force of which they speak must have had a Creator.

However far they may go back into mysterious and incomprehensible elements, which they choose to call `blind forces,' they do not escape the fact that matter cannot have created itself; that behind their utmost conceptions there must still be One non-created, eternal, living Being who created all, who upholds all, and whom we call G.o.d.”

Descending again from the heights in order to cross a valley and gain the opposite mountain, our ramblers quitted the glacier, and, about noon, found themselves close to a lovely pine-clad knoll, the shaded slopes of which commanded an unusually fine view of rocky cliff and fringing wood, with a background of glacier and snow-flecked pinnacles.

Halting, accidentally in a row, before this spot they looked at it with interest. Suddenly the Professor stepped in front of the others, and, pointing to the knoll, said, with twinkling eyes--

”What does it suggest? Come, dux (to Slingsby, who happened to stand at the head of the line), tell me, sir, what does it suggest?”

”_I_ know, sir!” exclaimed the Captain, who stood at the dunce's extremity of the line, holding out his fist with true schoolboy eagerness.

”It suggests,” said the artist, rolling his eyes, ”`a thing of beauty;'

and--”

”Next!” interrupted the Professor, pointing to Lawrence.

”_I_ know, sir,” shouted the Captain.

”Hold your tongue, sir!”

”Ay, ay, sir.”

”It is suggestive,” said Lawrence, ”of an oasis in the desert.”

”Very poor, sir,” said the Professor, severely. ”Next.”

”It suggests a cool shade on a hot day,” said Emma.

”Better, but not right. Next.”

”Please, sir, I'd rather not answer,” said Lewis, putting his forefinger in his mouth.

”You must, sir.”

”_I_ know, sir,” interrupted Captain Wopper, shaking his fist eagerly.