310 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



" No, I walked over : that I did not mind at all. 

 But the other place, near the top, is much worse : it is 

 a steep slope of ice ; we were obliged to cut steps with 

 a hatchet all the way, and got on well enough. But 

 the coming down is the worst, for if you slip there 's 

 an end of you." 



"And no accident happened?" I asked. 



" No, all went on well ; however we were obliged 

 to leave some of the party behind, one at the ridge 

 and three at the ice : they would not venture, and 

 waited till we came back. Luckily we had a very 

 fine day; the snow was quite hard in the morning, 

 but later it grew much softer." 



"But, Neuner, the other day when I was at the 

 Ammergau, I heard that an idiot who wanders about 

 there had been up and alone ; is it true?" 



" Yes, quite true : he has always had a passion for 

 ascending mountains, and sometimes he goes up one, 

 sometimes another. Once he came home and told 

 everybody he had been on the Zug Spitz. They 

 all laughed at him of course, for no one believed it. 

 This, it seems, hurt the poor fellow very much ; so off 

 he set, and after being absent several days, came home 

 again and told the people he had been up the Zug 

 Spitz, and that if they looked they would see a pole 

 at the top. No one believed the tale now more than 

 before ; yet when they looked with their glasses, there 

 sure enough was the pole stuck on the very highest 

 point." 



" Yes," I said, " I have seen the pole : but how get 



