310 LIFE IN THE ALPS. 



picturesque wooden edifices to which this term is usually 

 applied. It has to bear, at times, the pressure of a 

 mighty mass of snow. The walls are therefore built of 

 stone, and are very thick. 



I could give you many illustrations of the breakages 

 produced by snow pressure, but one will suffice. Our 

 kitchen chimney rises from the roof near the eave, and 

 the downward pressure of the snow lying on the roof 

 above it was, on two occasions, so great as to shear away 

 the chimney and land it bodily upon the snow-drift 

 underneath. At present a tall pine tree constitutes a 

 strut which will prevent a recurrence of this disaster. 

 When we arrive early we usually find, here and there, 

 heavy residues of snow. Once, indeed, to obtain en- 

 trance to our kitchen we had to cut a staircase of six 

 .steps in the drift at the back of the house. 



A stream, brawling down the mountain, leaps forth 

 as a cascade thirty paces from our dwelling. We have 

 a cistern beside the stream high enough to command 

 the whole of our cottage. A plentiful water supply for 

 ordinary purposes is always at hand. For drinking 

 purposes there is a spring which bursts, crystal-clear, 

 from the breast of the mountain, a quarter of an hour 

 below us. From this, especially when the flocks and 

 herds are on the alps, the drinking water ought in all 

 cases to be drawn. 1 



An hour ago our little cataract * leaped in glory.* 

 It is now gone whither ? I climb to the top of it, and 

 follow upwards the forsaken bed of the stream. In 

 half an hour I hear the sound of water, and soon after- 

 wards come to a point where the bank of the stream is 



1 During the lifetime of its late proprietor I succeeded in 

 getting this water introduced into the Bel Alp Hotel. It may be 

 useful to remark that impure drinking water is just as obnoxious in 

 a bedroom as at a table d'hote. 



