the Carinthian Highlands. 341 



attention, in respect to the numerous rarities it affords, I must 

 not forget to warn him of the danger which attends collecting 

 here. The fall of great stones and blocks from the heights, de- 

 tached either by the progressive decay of the rock, or from the 

 melted snow in sunny weather insinuating itself among the cre- 

 vices, is an every-day occurrence. I myself saw a falling stone 

 strip the scalp off a herd-boy to the brows, from the effect of 

 which he tumbled down stunned from the spot on which he was, 

 and sustained some dangerous injuries. 



The partial ascent of the upper Sattel, which is next to be ac- 

 complished, is rather more laborious ; for although the path is 

 not very steep, the blocks which lie strewn all about and the loose 

 stones make it arduous. The western angle of the mountain 

 once attained, the pedestrian's toil is amply recompensed by the 

 sight of the gigantic pyramid of the Grossglockner with its two 

 peaks of ice. In a short half-hour the descent is made to the 

 plain of ice, over which a great sweep is taken to reach the pre- 

 cipice on the east, called the Gems-grube. 



The plain of ice, the Pasterze* as it is called, lying 8000 feet 

 above the level of the sea, is a league and a half long by three- 

 quarters wide, and is traversed by a multitude of deep cracks, 

 which generally originate at the middle, running towards the east 

 and west, and which must be avoided by taking a circuit where they 

 are too broad to be leaped. To the east it is inclosed by the upper 

 Sattel and the Gems-grube ; to the west by the rocky ridges and 

 ice-blocks of the Grossglockner, and northwards by the Johanns- 

 berg covered with perpetual snow ; while southward it stretches 

 away to the ravine in which the Moell has its outlet. After three- 

 quarters of an hour of circuitous deviation and leaping over ice- 

 cracks, the grand object, the Gems-grube, is reached. This lies, 

 as was mentioned before, eastward of the plain of ice, and pre- 

 sents an abyss between the opposite precipices, in which the 

 melted snow from the heights collects, and is drained off into the 

 crevices of the ice. The chamois is often to be seen here, from 

 which the spot derives its name, Gems-grube, the Chamois' -hole. 



Here and there the face of the rock is diversified with patches 

 of green sward and with lichens of a pale grayish shade, and 

 though the place at first sight seems to yield but a scanty herb- 

 age, it is in truth rich in plants, and will still, in spite of diffi- 

 culty, be sought by the ardent lover of nature for the sake of 

 the unrivalled prospect of the Grossglockner. Breya alpina and 

 the rare Zomatogoniwn carinthiacum reward the botanist, — the 

 rare Melitcea asteria, and many species of Lepidoptera besides, 



* From Passeriza, in Sclavonic a meadow ; from the nature of the ground 

 over which the road to it passes. 



