Ur THE MOUNTAIN. 265 



air, which is felt at no other time. To the left was 

 the Kramer Berg, with its steep wall of rock and 

 abrupt precipices. From every point on this side the 

 Kramer presents itself in great picturesqueness ; the 

 grey stone and overhanging pines, and the deep ra- 

 vine, are mingled together so finely that your eyes turn 

 thitherward almost unconsciously ; it juts out too, and 

 rises at once from the plain, and the bold upward line, 

 especially when seen in profile, gives it a commanding 

 aspect. 



" What a thorough chamois mountain that seems to 

 be," I observed to Neuner : " what capital places every- 

 where for them to maintain themselves in, just such 

 places as the chamois love. Are many there now?" 



" Formerly it was one of the very best places : now 

 I doubt if there are any, two or three perhaps. You 

 might go out day after day and not see the trace of 

 a living creature. And how the poachers used to be 

 about ! You might have heard rifle-shot after rifle- 

 shot on the mountain continually. Garmisch, you 

 see, lies close at the foot of it, and the Garmisch 

 people were always out." 



"As it is so conveniently at hand, most of them, I 

 suppose, were poachers?" 



" Nearly all. They are a bad set there : work they 

 will not, and so they take their rifles and amuse them- 

 selves. I know most of them ; but if I met one on 

 the mountain, and went afterwards to the authorities 

 to inform against him, the fellow would have a dozen 

 witnesses ready to swear that at that very hour he was 



