trees outside. It is not easy at first to see how the green
manages to find its way inside the church, but the grass seems to
get in everywhere. I had already often seen green reflected from
brilliant pasturage on to the shadow under the eaves of whitewashed
houses, but I never saw it suffuse a whole interior as it does on a
fine summer's day at Giornico. I do not remember to have seen this
effect in England.

Looking up again against the mountain through the open door of the
church when the sun was in a certain position, I could see an
infinity of insect life swarming throughout the air. No one could
have suspected its existence, till the sun's rays fell on the wings
of these small creatures at a proper angle; on this they became
revealed against the darkness of the mountain behind them. The
swallows that were flying among them cannot have to hunt them, they
need only fly with their mouths wide open and they must run against
as many as will be good for them. I saw this incredibly
multitudinous swarm extending to a great height, and am satisfied
that it was no more than what is always present during the summer
months, though it is only visible in certain lights. To these
minute creatures the space between the mountains on the two sides
of the Ticino valley must be as great as that between England and
America to a codfish. Many, doubtless, live in the mid-air, and
never touch the bottom or sides of the valley, except at birth and
death, if then. No doubt some atmospheric effects of haze on a
summer's afternoon are due to nothing but these insects. What,
again, do the smaller of them live upon? On germs, which to them
are comfortable mouthfuls, though to us invisible even with a
microscope?