X 



CHAMOIS-HUNTING 



[Reprinted from Fraser's Magazine, August 1851.] 



I HAD been staying at Fend (one of the highest 

 inhabited spots in Europe), existing on a Hght and 

 wholesome diet of hard-boiled eggs, harder-baked 

 rye-bread, and corn -brandy. After some pleasant 

 days spent in exploring the magnificent scenery 

 round me, I had returned, by the way I came, to a 

 collection of brown packing-boxes, by courtesy called 

 a village, which rejoiced in the euphonious name of 

 Dumpfen, nestling cosily under the grand belt of 

 pines that feathered the flanks of the mountains 

 rising high and clear behind. In front roared, 

 rattled, and grated a wide glacier torrent, the colour 

 of ill-made gruel ; and on the opposite side stretched, 

 for some quarter of a mile, a flat plain of gravel and 

 worn boulders, here and there gemmed with patches 

 of short sweet turf, till it reached the base of a noble 

 range of cliffs, which rose gray and steep into the clear 

 blue sky, so lofty that the fringe of world-old pines 

 along their summits could scarcely be distinguished. 



