288 THE LIFE OF JAMES I). FORBES. [CHAP. 



'It is a long and wild glacier pass, and while descend- 

 ing its northern snow slopes, we were shocked to find the 

 body of a man, in his clothes, which were in good pre- 

 servation, but the body was terribly disfigured. He had 

 lain there since last autumn! His purse and clothes 

 untouched. We took his purse, which contained small 

 coins amounting to about ,three francs, and left it with 

 the Cure of Evolena to be given to his friends. . . . 

 Lower down, we found the remains of another man, of 

 much older date ; then the bones of two chamois, and 

 finally, the bones of a third man at some distance. Such 

 a thing neve,r occurred to me before, and you may be 

 sure that we resumed our journey silent and awestruck. 



* The valley of Evolena is a populous one only a few 

 hours from Sion, the capital of the Vallais but a more 

 wivirhcd j.l.K-c for an unlucky traveller to fall into, you 

 never met with ; no sort of comfort, cleanliness, or good 

 fare even the curd was reduced to, if not below, the 

 level of his parishioners. Having some notion of the 

 sort of places we were going through, we had fortunately 

 taken a provision of meat, rice, tea, and coffee, as if we 

 were travelling in Siberia ! ' 



Journal, August 17th. 



' Our reception at Evolena was none of the pleasantest. 

 The cure', a timid worldly man, gave us to understand 

 that, owing to his mother's illness, we could not lodge in 

 his house ; arid as we had no possible alternative but to 

 eat there, we were obliged to submit to the rudeness of 

 his sister, who appeared to be constantly drunk, and was 

 evidently the terror of this ill-regulated household. At 

 length it was announced that one bed was to be had in 

 the village. We inspected it ; room for two was out of 

 the question. We drew lots for it. I won ! hard, and 

 knotty, and short it was, but tolerably clean. M. Studer, 

 who slept I know not where, came to me in the morning 

 with a rueful countenance, declaring that he would not 

 stay another hour in Evolena, and he accordingly went 

 off to the Val d'Anniviers.' 



