As the air grew chill and the golden radiance of the sunbeams died out of it the mountain forms exchanged their flaming splendours for a cool grey-blue tint. In some strange way this bloom in the air seemed to thicken until it became no longer transparent. A thin shadowy film grew into being, and the huge spectral dolomites faded away into it like genii of the 'Arabian Nights.'
Their battle was over; they had done their worst; and the Pala and Vezzana, knowing themselves vanquished, might well be imagined, like respectable Afreets, to have retired into the bottles with which their conquerors had, after the custom of climbers, provided them. But the Alpine Club has no seal of Solomon with which to bind its captives. The Primiero giants have doubtless by this time come forth again, and are ready for fresh encounters with human foes.
[64] This part of the road was being remade in September 1874.
[65] Canale is a frequent synonym for 'Valle' in the Venetian Alps, and travellers have been led to suppose that a fanciful analogy between the glens of the mountain provinces and the water-streets of the capital led to the use of the word. But 'canale' was used in the sense of valley before the period of Venetian rule, and it is found at the present day in mountain districts of the Apennines near Spezzia, far removed from any Venetian influences. See Du Cange's 'Glossarium' for some curious details and quotations as to this word.
[66] An inn will probably be established before long at Gares. The ascent of the Cima di Vezzana from that side is a fine expedition, free from the slightest difficulty.
Lacs de moire, coteaux bleus, Ciel où le nuage passe, Large espace, Monts aux rochers anguleux.--THÉOPHILE GAUTIER.
THE VENETIAN TYROL--VAL DI ZOLDO--PASSO D'ALLEGHE--SAN NICOLÒ--CAMPO DI RUTORTO--ON THE PELMO--A LADY'S ASCENT--THE PEOPLE OF VAL DI ZOLDO.
Even in the Venetian Tyrol the tendency of tourists to choose the colder pine-clad north in place of the more tender and varied grace of the south has become observable. Cortina, Caprile, and the Val Fassa are even now on the, in everything but prices, downward path of corruption. But away to the south and outside the 'regular round' there are still many quiet nooks known as yet only to those who