192 The Alps in September. 



man knows whether he shall find his own sheep ; 

 some wander away and are lost, and some few a 

 fact of interest to me are not too big to be carried 

 off by the Golden Eagles that dwell in the vast 

 precipices of the Titlis above the valley. 



Above Gadmen the valley rapidly narrows, soon 

 becoming little more than a cleft in the mountains, 

 until it opens out into a pleasant little basin of 

 uneven rocky pasture, much of which has been 

 eaten away by a great mass of glacier which has 

 descended into it within the present century, and 

 is now again rapidly retreating. In this little 

 basin the Stein-alp, as it is appropriately called 

 is an excellent little inn ; and here is the very 

 place to catch the migrants of the Hasli and Gad- 

 men valleys, if they should be passing this way ; 

 for the narrowing of the glen below must bring 

 them all into this little basin, before they rise to 

 the final ascent immediately above the inn. On 

 the morning of September 1 7, as I was greeting 

 Anderegg, and suggesting to him that we should 

 make a second attempt to find the rare Wood- 

 pecker, he informed me with animation that he 

 had seen, first a large collection of small Finches 



