XIII AN ASCENT OF MONT VENTOUX 185 



provisions as connoisseurs ; one praises the olives, 

 stabbing them singly with the point of his knife ; 

 another lauds the anchovies as he cuts up the 

 little yellow-ochre fish on his bread ; a third speaks 

 enthusiastically of the sausages ; and one and all 

 agree in praising the asses'-pepper cheeses, no bigger 

 than the palm of one's hand. Pipes and cigars are 

 lighted, and we lie on our backs in the sun upon the 

 grass. 



After an hour's rest it is, " Up ! time presses ; 

 we must go on ! " The guide and luggage were to 

 go westward, along the wood, where there is a mule 

 path. He will wait for us at Jas or Batiment, at 

 the upper limit of the beeches, some 1550 metres 

 above the sea. The Jas is a large stone, but 

 capable of sheltering man and beast at night. We 

 were to go upward to the crest which we should 

 follow so as to reach the highest part more easily. 

 After sunset we would go down to the Jas, where 

 the guide would have long arrived ; such was the 

 plan proposed and adopted. 



We have reached the crest. Southward extend, 

 as far as eye can see, the comparatively easy slopes 

 by which we ascended on the north. The scene is 

 savagely grand, the mountain sometimes perpen- 

 dicular, sometimes falling in frightfully steep terraces, 

 little less than a precipice of i 500 metres. Throw a 

 stone, and it never stops till, bound after bound, it 

 reaches the valley where one can see the bed of the 

 Toulourenc wind like a ribbon. While my com- 

 panions moved masses of rock and sent them rolling 

 into the gulf that they might watch the terrible 

 descent, I discovered under a big stone an old 



