vin.] TRAVELS, 1837. 237 



Tuesday. On this state of things a thick mist descended, 

 which completely enveloped us ; whereupon he insisted 

 on sitting down every five minutes, and drinking water 

 when he could not get brandy, for he had no private 

 store, and my flask was soon exhausted. At length he 

 evinced symptoms of perplexity about the way, which 

 made me suspect he was feigning in order to gain time, 

 and was in the pleasant predicament of doubting between 

 my guide's honesty and his fallibility, when a happy 

 opening in the mist showed the path far below us, just 

 when we were about to be cut off from it by precipices. 

 As it was, we had a difficult scramble over a snow-bed of 

 extreme steepness. 



'TheVellar-Thal, into which we now descended, was very 

 wild and precipitous, forming lower down a tremendous 

 horseshoe of precipices like the Oules of the Pyrenees 

 over which innumerable cascades poured their waters, and 

 it was late before we reached Mittersill, where I slept. . . . 



* Landeck is beautifully situated. The limestone crags 

 which surround it are very steep and bare ; but in the 

 midst of them, and on the wrong side of the Alps too, 

 fruit-trees and Indian corn abound, and even the vine 

 grows hardily. When noon sounded to-day from the 

 church at Obsteig as I passed, I saw the field labourers 



off their hats one knelt and remain in an attitude 

 of prayer until the bell ceased. At the same place I was 

 greeted by an old woman with the < xtranrdinary saluta- 

 tion, " Hlibsches Gesichts," which, I presume, may be 

 translated "good dinners!" But the most common form 

 of greeting is " Gelobt sei Jesus Christus," to which the 

 answer is, "In Ewigkeit!" . . . 



* I left Mais early, to cross to Bormio by the pass of 



Maria, through the Grisons, purposing to return by 

 the St.'lvio ii charming expedition. The road to Santa 



Maria lii-s tlu-nu^li -\ pl.-asant valley, \\ here the Roinaiiee 

 laie_:ua<_M- Mill lin-ji ing Taiilns and Minister, the 



latter in all the l.rillianey nf a IV-te day; and then a Sfc { 

 but good h<-i>e hark it mi, always thiough the. 



16 ravine, sn th.it it i> mi|M,^il,le {" nii^s the jath, 



