20 Summer Studies of Birds and Books chap. 



know what wonders may not meet you there. One 

 year I suddenly found myself in a little revolution — 

 very small of its kind, like so many alpine plants, 

 yet a complete and determined revolution, full of 

 political interest. Once my way was blocked by 

 the sudden breaking out of a great glacier lake, 

 and next day I had to cut steps in ice which the 

 rushing water had polished like a looking-glass. 

 I have seen quiet lakes torn up into foam, lashed 

 with rain, and illuminated with incessant lightning, 

 and have been for an hour in a steamer in the 

 very centre of the storm. You are constantly on 

 the tracks of flood, and landslip, and avalanche; 

 you see Nature working everywhere with a mighty 

 hand. 



Yet in such a spot as the Engstlen Alp, on a 

 fine June day, the rest, and peace, and fragrance 

 are delicious. I have known the alp for twenty- 

 three years, and, though it has seen its changes 

 and is a trifle more civilised than of yore, I can 

 enjoy it as well as ever before the crowds descend 

 upon it. I venerate the name and memory of the 

 man who first told me of it at Nancy in 1871 ; 

 I have never seen him since, but if he should 

 chance to read these lines, I shall feel that I have 

 discharged my debt to him. 



Let us then set out for the Engstlen Alp, noting 

 on our way such objects as the ornithological 



