232 SPORT AND TRAVEL PAPERS 



roll down in immense bodies into the valleys, often filling them 

 completely. Upon the higher peaks snow lay thickly, and 

 lovely glaciers were very plentiful, the glistening pure white 

 snow contrasting most strikingly with the pale blue of the 

 ice often hundreds of feet in thickness. 



Feeding on the grass just below the upper bare rocky 

 portion of the mountains the goats are generally found, and 

 before many days were over there we discovered a herd 

 looking like tiny white dots from below. It being then too 

 late the stalk had to be postponed until morning, when the 

 goats had disappeared. As they, however, could not have 

 wandered very far, we scrambled up the steep mountain-side, 

 puffing and blowing terribly, to their feeding-ground 

 of the day before, only to find them after a lot of 

 spying on the almost perpendicular side of the mountain 

 opposite, a huge glacier and moraine intervening. C. and I 

 had had enough climbing, at least we thought so, but Fred, 

 anxious to display his qualities as a mountaineer, volunteered 

 to try and get behind the game and drive it back, C. to 

 remain where he was, and I to climb down to the moraine 

 and scramble to the glacier. C. sat down contentedly and 

 smoked; I accepted the proposal as if delighted with the 

 prospect it was our first day among the mountains and 

 started on the expedition getting safely to the bottom, but 

 not without great difficulty and many a slip on to the 50-feet 

 high pyramidal ledge of loose stones at the foot of the glacier, 

 Fred did succeed by lighting a fire and shouting in driving 

 the goats back across the latter, but they took up a position 

 on an overhanging ledge of rock high up on the mountain 

 on my side and altogether out of reach. The terrible Fred 

 having rejoined me answered my suggestion of home and 

 dinner by the horrible proposal of a climb up the moraine 

 with a chance of a shot from the top. Unable to suggest 

 this exploit to C., who still sat smoking hundreds of feet 

 above, I started with Fred, who had in the meantime refreshed 

 himself by eating more tobacco, up the very steep incline, a 

 mass simply of loose stones worn smooth by ice action all 

 ready to move at the slightest touch. We scrambled up on 

 hands and feet with many halts for breath, slipping down a foot 

 in every two and constantly falling. As we got higher up the 



