The fine soft grass was watered by the streams that
trickled through the fissures in the cliffs; the soil was continually
enriched by the deposits of loam which storms washed down from the
heights above. The pool might be some three acres in extent; its shape
was irregular, and the edges were scalloped like the hem of a dress;
the meadow might be an acre or two acres in extent. The cliffs and the
water approached and receded from each other; here and there, there
was scarcely width enough for the cows to pass between them.
After a certain height the plant life ceased. Aloft in air the granite
took upon itself the most fantastic shapes, and assumed those misty
tints that give to high mountains a dim resemblance to clouds in the
sky. The bare, bleak cliffs, with the fearful rents in their sides,
pictures of wild and barren desolation, contrasted strongly with the
pretty view of the valley; and so strange were the shapes they
assumed, that one of the cliffs had been called "The Capuchin,"
because it was so like a monk. Sometimes these sharp-pointed peaks,
these mighty masses of rock, and airy caverns were lighted up one by
one, according to the direction of the sun or the caprices of the
atmosphere; they caught gleams of gold, dyed themselves in purple;
took a tint of glowing rose-color, or turned dull and gray.
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