5 00 Notes on Sport and Travel x 



and a mighty wallet on his back. There was no 

 escape ; I was in for it ! 



Setting our faces to the mountains we entered 

 the pine forest, and toiled up and up through the 

 dark, silent trees, turning neither to the right hand 

 nor to the left, till the day began to break, some 

 three-quarters of an hour after our start, when we 

 stopped with one accord ; of course only to look 

 back and see the sunrise, though I doubt if either of 

 us could have kept up that steady treadmill pace 

 much longer with any degree of comfort. 



Well, we halted to look, perhaps for the last time, 

 at the valley and the village, now far below us. We 

 had got to the height of the cliffs on the opposite 

 side, and could look over their summits at the 

 tumbled Alp-billows that tossed their white crests 

 for many a league beyond ; the sun steeping the 

 snow-peaks in tints of purple, pink, and crimson, 

 and here and there a rock-peak shone with the 

 brightest silver and the reddest gold, — enough to 

 send one ' clean wud ' with their exquisite beauty. 

 Down below in the valley the sun had not yet risen, 

 thoueh man had : the little columns of blue smoke 

 wreathed gracefully upwards in the calm morning 

 air ; and the lowing of the cows, and the faint tinkle 

 of their bells, as they were being driven to their 

 morning pasture, floated up ever and anon in 

 strangely diminished tones that seemed to come 

 from some fairy world far down in the Alp-caverns. 



Having rested, we turned our faces again to the 



