ON PLAIN AND PEAK 



path of an avalanche, where the great fir-trees were 

 snapped off like reeds, and huge boulders lay scat- 

 tered to the water's edge. 



The mist had cleared off by this time, and the 

 mountains rose up on each side of us in all their 

 grandeur ; whilst the warm rays of the afternoon 

 sun lit up their weather-beaten sides, and cast those 

 wonderful purple shadows over the grey rock. 



There is a strange charm in mountain scenery a 

 feeling of awe that steals over one as one looks 

 at these mighty products of nature, so solemn, so 

 still, so massive, in their silent majesty ! 



I have heard people say that a mountain is a 

 mountain, and that each one is like every other. 

 To me it is not so. Each mountain has its own 

 distinctive features, its own character, if one may 

 say so. One can almost fancy that they are not 

 inanimate things these great peaks but living 

 feeling monsters, unchangeable and immovable in 

 their sublimity ! 



" Hansel " had but one fault a mania for walk- 

 ing along the edges of precipices. He also re- 

 sented my interfering with his course ; and, when I 

 did so, had a disagreeable way of standing on three 

 legs on the brink of a perpendicular descent, with 

 one hind leg dangling over the edge. It was not 

 quite pleasant, but I gave up trying to guide him 

 in the end, and let him follow his own sweet will. 



158 



