A SWISS INTERLUDE 161 



stretched in their immense repose. One feels on seeing 

 them thus free from every scrap of cloud and clothing as 

 though one had intruded upon a glorious company of 

 titanic beings innocently sunning themselves in perfect 

 nudity. It is with the sense that humble apologies for 

 the intrusion are due to them, and will be graciously 

 accepted because we hold them in such profound admira- 

 tion and reverence, that we venture, little by little, to let 

 our eyes dwell on their wondrous beauty. There are 

 moments, it must be confessed, when we feel a qualm of 

 modesty and are unwilling to take advantage of our rare 

 chance moments when we should not be surprised if 

 one of the giants were to lyarl a command at us in 

 terms of thunder and avalanche ordering us at once to 

 retire to the other side of the Gummihorn and leave 

 them to their rightful privacy. There is no great view 

 of snow mountains at close range not even that from 

 the Gornergrat which is at once so fine and so easily 

 accessible. 



In the following year I went early in June in search 

 of another Alpine delight, the spring flowers not those 

 of the highest " downs " and sheltering rocks 8000 or 

 9000 feet above sea-level, but those of the higher 

 meadows, where the pine forests are beginning to thin 

 out, and rich crops are cut before July by the skilful 

 workers of the great Swiss industry, that of cow-herding 

 and the production of cheese. It is difficult to define 

 properly the term "Alpine" as applied to flowers. It is 

 now used by horticulturists very generally for those 

 exquisite small plants, the Saxifrages, Androsacae, 

 Gentians, etc., which grow in the highest regions to 

 which plant-life extends regions which are often covered 

 by the winter's snow until June, and even late into that 

 month. Some of these plants (as, for instance, the 

 ii 



