| 312 | 313 | 314 | 315 | 316 |
| 1 | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 |
|
the vivid green of the grass in the valley was reflected more or less
upon all objects from the curtain of vapor that still hung overhead,
as if loth to take its total departure from a scene so enchantingly
beautiful.
The little vale into which I thus peered down from under the fog canopy
could not have been more than four hundred yards long; while in breadth
it varied from fifty to one hundred and fifty or perhaps two hundred.
It was most narrow at its northern extremity, opening out as it tended
southwardly, but with no very precise regularity. The widest portion
was within eighty yards of the southern extreme. The slopes which
encompassed the vale could not fairly be called hills, unless at their
northern face. Here a precipitous ledge of granite arose to a height of
some ninety feet; and, as I have mentioned, the valley at this point was
not more than fifty feet wide; but as the visiter proceeded southwardly
from the cliff, he found on his right hand and on his left, declivities
at once less high, less precipitous, and less rocky. All, in a word,
sloped and softened to the south; and yet the whole vale was engirdled
by eminences, more or less high, except at two points. One of these I
have already spoken of. It lay considerably to the north of west, and
was where the setting sun made its way, as I have before described, into
the amphitheatre, through a cleanly cut natural cleft in the granite
embankment; this fissure might have been ten yards wide at its widest
point, so far as the eye could trace it. It seemed to lead up, up like a
314
Page
Quick Jump
|