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CHAPTER XXIX. 



THE KARWENDEL MOUNTAINS. 



The weather being favourable, I started with my trusty 

 companion for the Eng, a narrow valley between high 

 and abruptly-rising mountains at some distance off. We 

 left soon after noon, and the evening was just setting in 

 when we saw a light twinkling through a crevice in some 

 hut, and knew we had arrived at our destination. The 

 dwellings here are much the same as those where we 

 had lately been. I had been here before, and was there- 

 fore prepared for their primitive arrangements. 



Day was already coming up over the snowy tops of 

 the mountains opposite when we went forth next morn- 

 ing. On going further we reached a knoll at the outlet 

 of the valley, and here the grandeur of the scenery 

 showed itself in all its vastness. Before us rose the 

 peaks of the Karwendel, broken, sharp, and jagged, — a 

 ridge impracticable save for the eagle or vulture. The 

 mountain was a stupendous barrier : on the right it took 

 a semicircular sweep, hemming you in and shutting out all 

 hope of egress, — no possible outlet, visible at least, any- 

 where. It seemed like the boundary of a world, and 

 yet just below on the other side lay the Tyrol, the lovely 

 valley of the Inn. 



The scene is the more striking, because you come upon 



