THE LESGHIAN MOUNTAINS. 269 



commonest, a deep lilac ; the other, a pure white ; 

 we also found some sweet violets, which, together 

 with the primulas, made a handsome bouquet 

 for Christmas time. The trees in the woods we 

 passed through were almost entirely beech, every- 

 where covered with the beard moss, which gave 

 them a quaint old-world look ; amongst them were 

 a few medlars and pears ; while underfoot the 

 blackberry briars made our upward progress dif- 

 ficult. Bracken and ' trichomancs ' were the only 

 representatives of the fern family which I noticed 

 during the day. 



On this our first essay on the mountain-side 

 we only just reached the upper edge of the wooded 

 belt, and it was here, when we had scarcely left the 

 trees behind us, that I got my only shot during 

 the day. Passing through a small recess in the 

 mountain-side, where all was still dark and chill, the 

 sun not having penetrated there since night left it, 

 I heard a bound and a rustle, and a chamois gave 



~ 



me a fair running shot, of which I did not make 

 the most, only wounding, and eventually losing 

 him, after a day wasted in pursuit. So we 

 turned back sore-footed and empty-handed, trudg- 

 ing down the mountain to the rising mist waves 

 that crept up to meet us, and, plunging into them, 

 felt for a time like men lost in the night, where 

 neither the peaks of the mountains above, nor the 

 fires of the valley beneath, were visible to us ; 



