504 Notes on Sport and Travel x 



rediscovered an old secret, or, more likely, learned 

 it on the shores of the Bodensee \ then the greased 

 patch and the ball, and all is ready. On we go ! 



After leaving the meadow we entered again into 

 the pine forest, which gradually became more open, 

 the trees more stunted and fantastic, and their long 

 straggling arms clothed more and more, as we 

 ascended, with the ash-gray baumhaar ; dead trees 

 and thunder-riven stumps became frequent, rotting 

 in and into the black bog mould, which gives a 

 scanty root-hold to the blushing alpen rose. Soon 

 we leave the trees behind us altogether. There is 

 nothing now but wild chaotic masses of gravel and 

 stones, tossed and heaped one on the other by the 

 fierce avalanche, — the very rocks gray and crumbling 

 with age ; here and there patches of black bog, with 

 little oases of emerald -green turf perched in their 

 centre, the black orchis growing thick upon them 

 and perfuming the air for yards around. Ere long 

 even these traces of vegetation became more scarce, 

 and the appearance of everything around us wilder 

 and more sterile. Still the brilliant peaks of the 

 Wildgrad Kogle gleamed brightly before us, and 

 beckoned us on. 



Our path lay now, steep and rugged, along the 

 edge of a ravine, at the bottom of which we heard 

 the torrent chafing and roaring many a yard below 

 us. There was a precipitous bank of rocks and 

 screes to our right, quite unclimbable, which seemed 

 only to want the will, — they certainly had the way 



