54 THE MO UN TAIN RA TS. 



utterance to an audible murmur of contentment, just as if he 

 were reciting his Benedicite. Will it be in allusion to this 

 characteristic that the common French phrase has originated, 

 Mar matter des prieres ? * 



During the summer the marmots inhabit the snowy sum- 

 mits of the Alps. At the beginning of autumn they descend 

 to a lower level, for the purpose of excavating the burrows in 

 which they pass the winter, completely benumbed by the 

 frost. This is the time when the hunters easily capture them ; 

 they have nothing to do but to dig (creuser is the technical 

 word) ; and frequently they are found as many as ten or 

 twelve in the same burrow, rolled up like balls, and buried in a 

 litter of hay. Their sleep, says De Saussure, is so profound, 

 that the hunter deposits them in his sack and carries them away 

 without awakening them. The Chamounix hunters, he adds, 

 have already entirely expelled or destroyed the goats formerly 

 so abundant on their mountains ; and it is probable that, in 

 less than a century, we shall see neither chamois nor marmots. 



This prophecy of De Saussure's is on the point of being 

 realised. Still, even at the present day, marmots are not very 

 rare in the Valais and the canton of Ticino (du Tissin), where 

 they are called Mure montane (mountain rats) ; a phrase from 

 which is derived, without doubt, the appellation marmot. 

 They prefer as their abode the stony islets which rise here 

 and there in the midst of the rocks. The ears of travellers 

 who venture into the barrenest recesses of the Alps of the 

 Bernese Oberland are sometimes struck by a very sharp 

 * That is, muttering, marmot-wise, one's prayers. 



