THE HINTER HISS. 341 



mountain would appear, all white in its robe of snow. At 

 last it cleared up, and a blue sky shone brightly over 

 the whitened fir-trees and the dazzling craggy peaks. 

 So we got ready for our departure. 



As the place we were going to was some distance off, 

 it would be necessary to remain absent about four days, 

 and accordingly a stock of bread and coffee and sugar, 

 with a couple of bottles of wine, were put into our 

 rucksacks. We set off in the afternoon, and soon leav- 

 ing the road, turned aside into the wide bed of a 

 mountain torrent. This Lechbach is one of the most 

 destructive of the streams that pour down their waters 

 to the vale. All around it is desolation. Year after 

 year it carries away the bridge that here spans its bed : 

 for though built with all possible forethought, and 

 though protected by raised dams of large stones, with 

 whole trees for beams, firmly bound together, as soon 

 as the snows melts, the Lechbach comes leaping down, 

 and with one sweep hurls the strong pile away. A nar- 

 row path, broad enough for a single person to walk along, 

 has been cut in the hill-side ; and for nearly two hours 

 we kept on mounting, being all the while within the 

 gorge formed by the waters during many ages. When 

 at last you reach the ridge overlooking the scene below, 

 then it is you see how great the havoc and destruction ; 

 and how the waters, like the scathing fire on the prairie, 

 lay waste all that comes across their path. Not a patch 

 of soil is left on which a shrub could vegetate : a bare 

 waste of stones and sand alone lies bleaching in the sun. 



Having reached the ridge, we came upon a vale formed 

 by a dip in the mountains. In summer this spot must 

 have been enlivened by the herds sent up here for the 

 pasturage; but now the huts were empty, and the 

 ground covered with snow. Here we began to descend, 



