520 Notes on Sport and Travel x 



with treacherous moss and cowberry plants, but before 

 sunrise we had left all vegetation behind us again, 

 and were up among the crags and the snow. 



As we ascended, we saw a valley to our left filled 

 to the brim with dense mist, which, as soon as the 

 sun began to tinge the highest peaks, rose in swirling 

 columns to shut out everything that was not in our 

 immediate vicinity. This was advantageous, as, 

 although it prevented our seeing, it at the same time 

 prevented our being seen from the cliffs before wc 

 reached our best ground. We toiled on steadily, 

 crossing vast beds of snow and occasionally the 

 roots of some glacier that threw itself into the valleys 

 to our left, climbing, scrambling, and slipping, but 

 still steadily ascending, till we got to where Joseph 

 expected to fall in with chamois, when we called a 

 halt, and sheltering ourselves behind a mass of rock 

 from the keen morning wind, waited for the clearing 

 of the mist. 



The Alp-spirit seemed to be amusing himself 

 mightily with this same mist. At one moment, 

 catching it up in huge masses, he piled it on the 

 sharp peaks, as if to make himself a comfortable 

 cushion ; and then, sitting suddenly down to try its 

 efficacy, drove it in all directions by his ' lubber 

 weight' Enraged, he tossed and tumbled it about 

 for some time, and at last spread it into one broad 

 level plain, with the higher peaks standing out clear 

 and sharp, like rocks from a calm sea. Now and 

 then the mist would disappear entirely for a few 



