200 TKANSACTIONS AND PEOCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. Lxm. 



where. He said that the great Creator sent angels with 

 bags of languages to all peoples, who, on their return, 

 rendered an account of their stewardship. To his pressing 

 inquiry whether all the tribes had been supplied, it occurred 

 suddenly to one angel that he had seen one tribe, brave in 

 endurance, living among the snows and rocks of a lonely 

 valley in the Tyrol, who had been unaccountably omitted. 

 But there was no language left for them. One last 

 resource was tried. On collecting the empty bags, they 

 were all turned inside out and well shaken, when here 

 and there words of all shapes and sizes, of all sounds and 

 meanings, fell out into a goodly heap. An angel was com- 

 missioned anew, and -instructed to convey this mixture of 

 all languages to this corner of the mountains. Hence, 

 while Ladin is like no one speech, it yet resembles 

 them all. 



This story has given time for the Herr Pfarrer to return 

 from duty, and in a harsh German patois to promise us 

 everything — beds for the night, a trusty guide, and grand 

 weather for the morrow. Here a bit of ill-luck befell us. 

 The most intelligent guide was accompanying Herr Porta, 

 whose name is well known in connection with Primulas, in 

 his botanical researches in these regions. What was left 

 for us was a strapping, stolid youth, who cared nothing for 

 flowers, w^s acquainted only with the frequented paths of 

 the mountains, and spoke only Ladin — even more unin- 

 telligible when sounded through teeth closed on a heavy 

 Tyrolese pipe, which, from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m., was only 

 removed from his lips for the admission of sausage and 

 brown bread and cognate et c^eteras. However, and that 

 was a lively satisfaction to at least one of the three, he 

 undertook to return us safely to our quarters at nightfall. 



So we started at 5 a.m. prompt for the Muttenjoch, 

 which is a pass over the mountains separating Gschnitzthal 

 from the Obernbergthal. Crossing the rushing Gschiiitz, 

 which was there not far from its glacial source, our way 

 led along a mountain-side shaded with firs, larches, and 

 pines, and carpeted with Linncca horealis, !>. Here and 

 there in bushy places a dark form of an Aquilegia, possibly 

 Aquilegia atrata, Koch, looked still darker in the gloom 

 of its setting. Other interesting plants caught our gaze. 



