登陆注册
5425200000031

第31章 CHAPTER V--THE ICE-PLOUGH(5)

Or again, if you ever go up Deeside in Scotland, towards Balmoral, and turn up Glen Muick, towards Alt-na-guisach, of which you may see a picture in the Queen's last book, you will observe standing on your right hand, just above Birk Hall, three pretty rounded knolls, which they call the Coile Hills. You may easily know them by their being covered with beautiful green grass instead of heather. That is because they are made of serpentine or volcanic rock, which (as you have seen) often cuts into beautiful red and green marble; and which also carries a very rich soil because it is full of magnesia. If you go up those hills, you get a glorious view--the mountains sweeping round you where you stand, up to the top of Lochnagar, with its bleak walls a thousand feet perpendicular, and gullies into which the sun never shines, and round to the dark fir forests of the Ballochbuie. That is the arc of the bow; and the cord of the bow is the silver Dee, more than a thousand feet below you; and in the centre of the cord, where the arrow would be fitted in, stands Balmoral, with its Castle, and its Gardens, and its Park, and pleasant cottages and homesteads all around. And when you have looked at the beautiful amphitheatre of forest at your feet, and looked too at the great mountains to the westward, and Benaun, and Benna-buird and Benna- muicdhui, with their bright patches of eternal snow, I should advise you to look at the rock on which you stand, and see what you see there. And you will see that on the side of the Coiles towards Lochnagar, and between the knolls of them, are scattered streams, as it were, of great round boulder stones--which are not serpentine, but granite from the top of Lochnagar, five miles away. And you will see that the knolls of serpentine rock, or at least their backs and shoulders towards Lochnagar, are all smoothed and polished till they are as round as the backs of sheep, "roches moutonnees," as the French call ice-polished rocks; and then, if you understand what that means, you will say, as I said, "I am perfectly certain that this great basin between me and Lochnagar, which is now 3000 feet deep of empty air was once filled up with ice to the height of the hills on which I stand-- about 1700 feet high--and that that ice ran over into Glen Muick, between these pretty knolls, and covered the ground where Birk Hall now stands."

And more:- When you see growing on those knolls of serpentine a few pretty little Alpine plants, which have no business down there so low, you will have a fair right to say, as I said, "The seeds of these plants were brought by the ice ages and ages since from off the mountain range of Lochnagar, and left here, nestling among the rocks, to found a fresh colony, far from their old mountain home."

If I could take you with me up to Scotland,--take you, for instance, along the Tay, up the pass of Dunkeld, or up Strathmore towards Aberdeen, or up the Dee towards Braemar,--I could show you signs, which cannot be mistaken, of the time when Scotland was, just like Spitzbergen or like Greenland now, covered in one vast sheet of snow and ice from year's end to year's end; when glaciers were ploughing out its valleys, icebergs were breaking off the icy cliffs and floating out to sea; when not a bird, perhaps, was to be seen save sea-fowl, not a plant upon the rocks but a few lichens, and Alpine saxifrages, and such like--desolation and cold and lifeless everywhere. That ice-time went on for ages and for ages; and yet it did not go on in vain. Through it Madam How was ploughing down the mountains of Scotland to make all those rich farms which stretch from the north side of the Frith of Forth into Sutherlandshire. I could show you everywhere the green banks and knolls of earth, which Scotch people call "kames" and "tomans"-- perhaps brought down by ancient glaciers, or dropped by ancient icebergs--now so smooth and green through summer and through winter, among the wild heath and the rough peat-moss, that the old Scots fancied, and I dare say Scotch children fancy still, fairies dwelt inside. If you laid your ear against the mounds, you might hear the fairy music, sweet and faint, beneath the ground. If you watched the mound at night, you might see the fairies dancing the turf short and smooth, or riding out on fairy horses, with green silk clothes and jingling bells. But if you fell asleep upon the mounds, the fairy queen came out and carried you for seven years into Fairyland, till you awoke again in the same place, to find all changed around you, and yourself grown thin and old.

These are all dreams and fancies--untrue, not because they are too strange and wonderful, but because they are not strange and wonderful enough: for more wonderful sure than any fairy tale it is, that Madam How should make a rich and pleasant land by the brute force of ice.

And were there any men and women in that old age of ice? That is a long story, and a dark one too; we will talk of it next time.

同类推荐
  • 缁衣

    缁衣

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 南有嘉鱼之什

    南有嘉鱼之什

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 宜斋野乘

    宜斋野乘

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Gold Bag

    The Gold Bag

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说八阳神咒经

    佛说八阳神咒经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    追妻无门:女boss不好惹

    青涩蜕变,如今她是能独当一面的女boss,爱了冷泽聿七年,也同样花了七年时间去忘记他。以为是陌路,他突然向他表白,扬言要娶她,她只当他是脑子抽风,他的殷勤她也全都无视。他帮她查她父母的死因,赶走身边情敌,解释当初拒绝她的告别,和故意对她冷漠都是无奈之举。突然爆出她父母的死居然和冷家有丝毫联系,还莫名跳出个公爵未婚夫,扬言要与她履行婚约。峰回路转,破镜还能重圆吗? PS:我又开新文了,每逢假期必书荒,新文《有你的世界遇到爱》,喜欢我的文的朋友可以来看看,这是重生类现言,对这个题材感兴趣的一定要收藏起来。
  • 大明党首

    大明党首

    陈铮穿越到了明末,练了一支排队枪毙的近代化新军,玩了一场只打土豪不分田的革命,组建了一个工农军商大杂烩的利益同盟,成立了一个向全球输出儒家大同主义的党派。面对东林阉党的党同伐异,面对建奴的野蛮暴行,面对朱明皇室的猜疑排挤,面对欧洲诸国为抵御大同传播而组建的神圣同盟,陈铮淡然的回应,咳咳,是时候扫清这些牛鬼蛇神了……
  • 转生游戏异世界

    转生游戏异世界

    被召唤穿越游戏世界的人,传承了游戏中等级和装备。新人仿文、同人,写得不好欢迎吐槽!
  • 傲娇男神:鲜妻慢点虐

    傲娇男神:鲜妻慢点虐

    所谓真爱,没有任何阻拦又怎么能够长久。重生而来的安柠笑看渣男贱女互相伤害,却不想自己也成了别人的盘中肉。当初不过是买了一个刺激渣男的玩意儿,却将自己也赔了进去,可不正是如此。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 俩世为泥—少侠请饶命

    俩世为泥—少侠请饶命

    五十二只当是她自己倒霉,活了两辈子了,居然自己还是个泥巴,不仅被人天天嫌弃,还被人当垃圾丢在水沟里!!!尤其是某人仗着自己有两手仙法就对她百般凌辱,好歹自己也是女娲娘娘座下的塑泥师啊!啊呸!(这词似乎不是这么用的)反正叔叔能忍婶婶都忍不了啊!再世为泥,看她如何在六界翻云覆雨!严肃一点!这不是个搞笑类小说!
  • 盐河旧事

    盐河旧事

    《盐河旧事》是一部短篇小说集。作者围绕盐河两岸的风土人情、民俗掌故、世事变迁,一口气创作了数以百篇计的精品力作。每个短章篇幅虽小,却都令人回味无穷。故事背景大都是晚清、民国那个年代,创作手法上极尽渲染,把力道积攒到最后,文末一抖包袱,让人恍然大悟。
  • 奇迹可以创造(走向成功丛书)

    奇迹可以创造(走向成功丛书)

    怎样走向成功?成功的要素有哪些?有理想的青少年朋友都会思考这样的问题。为此,我们组织编译了世界著名的成功学大师们的代表作,希望用大师们自己的成功灾例和经验,帮助青少年朋友塑造自己,一步步走向成功之路,成为人生的赢家。
  • 老子修仙回来了

    老子修仙回来了

    林尘,仙界最强仙尊,威名震四方!然而这一天,当他醒来,却发现自己居然回到了少年之时。可算是重生了。”他嘴角一扬。从此刻起,这个世界,因他而改变……
  • 相师堂

    相师堂

    作女子时,她出身名门、容貌一绝、亦有凌云志。这时,她是顾谙,相师堂少主。扮男子时,她才谋冠绝天下、善攻心。这时,她又是名扬天下的简兮公子。居朝堂时,他三岁起蒙、四岁发问、五岁骑射如今六艺皆精。这时,他是南杞国王子南宫轶。处江湖时,他一身惊绝武艺、满腹谋略奇计。这时,他是闻名于世的半璧公子。他,一心逐鹿天下,却遇到生命里的克星——她。他,自小便沾不得女人身,却几次三番被她戏耍。越戏越耍越难舍。情,不知为何起,起时却惊天动地。情到深处,爱江山爱美人?
  • 星际之永生计划

    星际之永生计划

    一觉醒来,她成为世上最后一位神……生存艰难,如何长生