12 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



among another race than those we left behind in the 

 flat country. It sounds pleasantly too gratefully fall- 

 ing on the heart rather than on the ear that friendly 

 " Gruss di Gott!" (God greet ye!) with which each 

 one salutes you as he enters the inn or place where 

 you may be. There is a heartiness and simplicity, an 

 absence of all conventional formality in the salutation 

 and the manner of it, very characteristic of, and ac- 

 cording well with, a mountain people. And how 

 clean the village looks, how neat and healthy its in- 

 habitants ! They live better and work less hard than 

 the peasantry of the more northern provinces; they 

 are not exposed to a burning sun during the harvest 

 season, nor to the wet and cold attendant on field 

 labour. They are up on the mountain pasturages in 

 summer, and in autumn and winter are comfortably 

 housed in their snug cottages in the valley. Their 

 corn they buy, and from their herds on the mountain 

 they derive milk and butter and cheese in abundance ; 

 and thus may be said to live literally on the very fat 

 of the land. 



But how distinct the blue peaks become ! We shall 

 soon be at their base, nor will it be very long, we hope, 

 before we are mounting their sides, and stepping care- 

 fully along yonder ridge that cuts the sky so sharply ! 

 For that is the Plau Berg, and some chamois are still 

 there, and it is the place where we hope, with the 

 forester's permission, to get a few days' stalking. How 

 clear the air is ! The outline of every distant object 

 is seen with wonderful distinctness : there is not a 



