188 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



and unimportance, with, being a "mere insect of an 

 hour" crawling about among the grasses when 

 compared to the stately forest kings that towered 

 above. The trees and the heights swallowed up all poor 

 mortality and that which appertained thereto, their 

 huts and their tents, so that though many were 

 encamped the place seemed deserted, and it was only 

 by wearisome walks backwards and forwards that the 

 size of this green oasis was realised, and what in the 

 distance looked like white specks proved to be tents. 



These passing visitors were strangely at the mercy 

 of the elements in their tiny, fragile shells. Fearful 

 storms swept down from the heights and came rushing 

 down the deep valleys which cut off the nills above 

 Gulmerg from the neighbouring heights, tempests of 

 thunder and lightning echoed and re-echoed round the 

 encircling mountains, and sudden swift drifts of snow 

 would descend ; and yet the charm of the existence was 

 very great, practically cut off from all the society and 

 people of the populous valley, alone among the pine 

 forests and the mergs. For only by chance accident was 

 it possible to learn the identity of any fellow- so journers, 

 and as the " season " had not yet commenced, no people 

 of sociable tastes had yet arrived, they not considering 

 Gulmerg worth a visit till summer had made herself 

 more decidedly felt. Eventually storms and rain up- 

 rooted me, as they will uproot the strongest, for few are 

 proof for long periods together against constant and 

 daily drenchings if dry clothes are an impossibility, 

 for the reason that every part of the temporary home is 

 soaking, and the descending floods will not allow of a 

 fire; but it was with the deepest regret that I left 

 Gulmerg and those flower-besprent meadows with their 

 grave forest sentinels cut off from the rest of the valley, 



