REPORTING TO HEADOUARTJJRS : LA GRAVE;, I^RANCK 



The leader of the detachment of 125 men who crossed the Col de la Lauze making up 

 his report ten minutes after their arrival. "Pardon, madame," he said to an interested 

 tourist, "but this is my office." 



derftil country they traverse. How many 

 of them there are, and all so beautiful ! 

 Loveliest perhaps that through the Eg- 

 gen-Tal, with the Rosengarten and the 

 peaks of Latemar at one end, Schloss 

 Karneid on its proud eyrie at the other, 

 the noisy little river running between 

 rocks hand in hand with the road ; but 

 when I think of Tre Croci's flower-clad 

 slopes I hesitate. Nowhere, I was about 

 to say, are there so many flowers as about 

 Cortina di Ampezzo, but a memory as- 

 sails me — a great pasture high in the 

 French Alps, gay as a Persian carpet and 

 fragrant with millions of violets. Ah 

 well ! each in its own time and place. 



The Eggen-Tal leads down to Bozen 

 from Karersee, and in and out of Bozen 



run many fascinating little roads, up the 

 Ritter, to Schloss Runkelstein and its 

 frescoes ; and that broad, smooth white 

 one, the Dolomiten Strasse, which comes 

 from Cortina di Ampezzo, but turns aside 

 at Vigo di Fassa to avoid the Eggen-Tal, 

 which forbids motor-cars. 



A STRONGHOLD OF BYGONE) DAYS 



From end to end, but especially in the 

 valley of the Cordevole, the Kaiser jager 

 keeps guard. In this valley — the first be- 

 yond the Falzarego Pass and Ampezzo- 

 tal as one leaves Cortina — the tiny silvery 

 stream trickling through the grasses at its 

 bottom marks the dividing line between 

 Austria and Italy. The Dolomiten Strasse 

 clings to a terrace now hieh above the 



348 



