16 MY FIRST VISIT TO THF ENGADINE. 



peak?" and was not the assumption therefrom justifiable that 

 ladies could ride to the foot of the peak and back again, and 

 would only have to use their own legs for the ascent and 

 descent of the last peak ? We had our breakfast earlier than 

 usual and started on our ascent at half-past eight, having 

 lost some little time in waiting for the horses. A young 

 German gentleman, also bound for the Piz, asked to join our 

 party, and being assured that when there were ladies it was 

 best to take a guide to the Piz Languard, we were also pro- 

 vided with a guide ; and as there was a lad to each horse, we 

 formed quite an imposing cavalcade as we set off for the 

 mountain. The road turns off up the hill before you are out 

 of the village of Pontresina, and then ascends rather rapidly 

 in zio-zags throuo-h a wood of larch and arolla trees. After 

 a time we got to a place where the ascent was more gentle, 

 and we had fine views of the snow peaks ; we passed along 

 some Alpine pastures, where long-eared sheep and Berga- 

 masque cattle were grazing, and gradually worked our way 

 upwards, till we had fine views into the Engadine valley and 

 could see the village of St. Moritz and the green little lake 

 of St. Moritz at its foot. At one point of our ascent we had 

 very fine views of the Morteratsch glacier, but at the foot of 

 the last peak, the point beyond which we had all to trust to 

 our own legs, an intervening ridge screened the Morteratsch 

 glacier from our view. 



Whilst ascending the hill we had met a led horse with no 

 rider descending, but it had not occurred to us to draw the 

 conclusion from this sight which we might have done. We 

 now found, however, that the horse was only intended to 

 take one up the hill, and that you were expected to find your 

 own way down again. On remonstrating with the guide, he 

 said it would not be safe to ride down, and certainly there 

 were places, where I could well understand this might be the 

 case, though there were long tracts of comparatively level 



