190 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



it was pointed out that to do so would involve the cer- 

 tainty of a late return. We did not get much of a 

 view when we got to the top, as a sudden change in the 

 weather brought the clouds upon us, and snow began 

 to fall. We stumbled upon several ptarmigan, one of 

 which evidently had a young brood, as she could hardly 

 be induced to fly away from the two black spaniels 

 which accompanied us. We also picked up a gerfalcon's 

 feather newly shed and after crossing several snow- 

 slopes, down one of which some of our party glissaded, 

 we got back to the house a little after nine o'clock. 

 The weather below had been much worse than we 

 had experienced above. A perfect deluge of rain had 

 caused a torrent, which had washed away the paths in 

 places where the incline was steep, as the drains were 

 not capable of accommodating so great a quantity of 

 water. 



The next day all clouds had disappeared, and 

 every rock and shrub was mirrored in the lake. We 

 spent the morning and part of the afternoon in 

 exploring the immediate neighbourhood, visiting the 

 mountain farm and dairy ; greeting the kindly soeter 

 girls, and being initiated into the mysteries of the 

 manufacture of cheese and "waffel-kok," a kind of soft 

 cake made by pouring a soft thick paste of barley or 

 rye meal into the front of a pair of flat iron tongs, 

 which are then held over a wood fire for about ten 

 minutes. The logs of which some of these soeters were 

 constructed were nearly three hundred years old, still 

 the timber was perfectly sound, and had only needed 

 planing on the outside to make it indistinguishable 

 from that of the newer log-houses around. The dry 

 keen mountain air has extraordinary preserving 



