Page 265 - Third Book of Reading Lessons

264 THIRD BOOK OF
motest ages, and rmed a thick border of white oth. This grand spectacle was illuminated by the sun, and the shade which covered the western side of the rocks, rendered their aspect still more tremendous. The height of those rocks could not be ascertained ; but everything was on so grand a scale, that a point of comparison could not be a orded by any ordinary
known objects.
2. On landing, the party discovered a grotto, rmed of rocks, with a sur ce washed smooth by the waves, and having within a spring of esh water. The only accessible spot in' the vicinity was a large hill, surrounded by enormous crags. From the sum­ mit of this hill, turning towards the sea, they per-· ceived to the right a prodigious mountain, attached · to the cape, and rearing its sterile mass to the skies. To the left, a neck of land, covered with less ele­ vated rocks, against which he surges dashed with great violence, closed the bay, and admitted but a contracted view of the ocean. In order to see as r as possible into the interior, our traveller limbed nearly to the summit of the mountain, where a most
singular landscape presented itself to the view. A lake in the reground had an elevation of at least ninety et above the level of the sea ; and on the top of an adjacent, but less lo y mountain, was an­ other lake. The view was closed by peaked rocks, chequered by several patches of snow.
3. A.t midnight the sun still remained many de­ grees above the horizon, and continued to ascend higher and higher until noon, when having again descended, it passed the north, without dipping be­ low the horizon. This phenomenon, which is equal­ ly as extraordinary to the inhabitants of the torrid