349. But low down to our right, and surrounded by the sheltering mountains, is an object the beauty of which startles those who are unprepared for it. Yonder we see the naked side of the glacier, exposing glistening ice-cliffs sixty or seventy feet high. It would seem as if the Aletsch here were engaged in the vain attempt to thrust an arm through a lateral valley. It once did so; but the arm is now incessantly broken off close to the body of the glacier, a great space formerly covered by the ice being occupied by its water of liquefaction. A lake of the loveliest blue is thus formed, which reaches quite to the base of the ice-cliffs, saps them, as the Arctic waves sap the Greenland glaciers, and receives from them the broken masses which it has undermined. As we look down upon the lake, small icebergs sail over the tranquil surface, each resembling a snowy swan accompanied by its shadow. 350. This is the beautiful little lake of Märgelin, or, as the Swiss here call it, the Märgelin See. You see that splash, and immediately afterwards hear the sound of the plunging ice. The glacier has broken before our eyes, and dropped an iceberg into the lake. All over the lake the water is set in commotion, thus illustrating on a small scale the swamping waves produced by the descent of vast islands of ice from the Arctic glaciers. Look to the end of the lake. It is cumbered with the remnants of icebergs now aground, which have been in part wafted thither by the wind, but in part slowly borne by the water which moves gently in this direction. 351. Imagine us below upon the margin of the lake, as I happened to be on one occasion. There is one large and lonely iceberg about the middle. Suddenly a sound like that of a cataract is heard; we look towards the iceberg and see water teeming from its sides. Whence comes the water? the berg has become top-heavy through the melting underneath; it is in the act of performing a somersault, and in rolling over carries with it a vast quantity of water, which rushes like a waterfall down its sides. And notice that the iceberg, which a moment ago was snowy-white, now exhibits the delicate blue colour characteristic of compact ice. It will soon, however, be rendered white again by the action of the sun. The vaster icebergs of the Northern seas sometimes roll over in the same fashion. A week may be spent with delight and profit at the Æggischhorn. § 51. _The Bel Alp._