was frightened at the extravagant price; and so was obliged to
content myself with a second-hand pair, still pretty good and
strong, which the beautiful fair-haired youth who kept the booth
handed over to me with a cheerful smile, wishing me a prosperous
journey. I went on, and left the place immediately by the northern
gate.

I was so lost in my own thoughts, that I walked along scarcely
knowing how or where. I was calculating the chances of my reaching
the mine by the evening, and considering how I should introduce
myself. I had not gone two hundred steps, when I perceived I was
not in the right road. I looked round, and found myself in a wild-
looking forest of ancient firs, where apparently the stroke of the
axe had never been heard. A few steps more brought me amid huge
rocks covered with moss and saxifragous plants, between which whole
fields of snow and ice were extended. The air was intensely cold.
I looked round, and the forest had disappeared behind me; a few
steps more, and there was the stillness of death itself. The icy
plain on which I stood stretched to an immeasurable distance, and a
thick cloud rested upon it; the sun was of a red blood-colour at the
verge of the horizon; the cold was insupportable. I could not
imagine what had happened to me. The benumbing frost made me
quicken my pace. I heard a distant sound of waters; and, at one
step more, I stood on the icy shore of some ocean. Innumerable
droves of sea-dogs rushed past me and plunged into the waves. I
continued my way along this coast, and again met with rocks, plains,
birch and fir forests, and yet only a few minutes had elapsed. It
was now intensely hot. I looked around, and suddenly found myself
between some fertile rice-fields and mulberry-trees; I sat down
under their shade, and found by my watch that it was just one