KREUTH. 115 



brink of it ; and before us, reaching np to the very sky- 

 line, was the rent in the mountain that frost or water, 

 or some other of the powerful agents by which Nature 

 works her changes, had made in its steep side. It was 

 like a stone- quarry, but of gigantic size, — wild, forlorn, 

 and desolate. 



" There they go, but slowly," said Solacher, watching 

 the retreating herd. " Now they stop and graze. There's 

 one lying down, — the maledite brood !" 



" Could we not get down to the right, and stalk up 

 round the mountain, and so meet them ?" I asked, not 

 knowing the ground. 



" Yes, we might, but the wind is now coming upwards, 

 and they would be off: it is no good. If I had only 

 seen them directly I looked over, we might have crept 

 round and had a capital shot." 



We sat down and watched them — the usual consola- 

 tion on such occasions ; and we pulled out and ate our 

 crust. From here we saw the massy Plau Berg, slightly 

 covered with snow. It is the first considerable mountain 

 between Tegernsee and the Tyrol, and rises like a strong 

 rampart above the narrow valley of Kreuth. 



We now went downwards, and across a lawn-like 

 meadow, on which stood a hut. In a glade lower down 

 we soon after tracked a good stag ; ' c And he has been 

 here lately too," said my companion, distending his 

 nostrils and sniffing the tainted air. 



As we were going homewards we discovered among 

 the trees a man with a rifle at his back. On approaching 

 nearer we found it was old Solacher, the uncle of Max 

 and brother of the old aunt at Baierisch Zell. 



" He is seventy-two years old," my companion told 

 me ; " and he will still go up any mountain. He has no 

 breath at all !" by which he meant to say that he never 



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