66 FLOWER-FIELDS OF ALPINE SWITZERLAND 



utters the one resounding word " Kolossal ! " 

 Even the Englishman loses his habitual reserve, 

 and, if he does not voice his wonderment as 

 loudly as does his Teutonic brother, he is at 

 least amazed in his own insular way. Assuredly, 

 if these flowers themselves could speak, and speak 

 out frankly, they would declare our seemingly 

 over-coloured appreciation a very tame perform- 

 ance ; they would vouch that we are a long way 

 from being in the shoes of the proverbial amateur 

 fisherman. 



But let me, without further ado, attempt to 

 describe some of the cause for this. Let me turn 

 again for example to Champex and to notes made 

 on the spot, and speak of a seven-hours' walk down 

 the rapid southern slopes which fall away from 

 the lake, by the village of Prassorny, along the 

 Val Ferret to Praz de Fort and the massif of 

 Saleinaz, and back again to Champex by that 

 scramble of a path which mounts the slopes 

 directly from the village of Ville d'Issert. This 

 walk takes us from 4,800 feet down to some 3,300 

 feet, and affords us as representative a range of 

 slopes and fields as we could find anywhere. 

 Starting amid rolling hectai^es of Orchids and 

 Lilies, passing along wide slopes bestrewn with 



