Part I. A LITTLE TO US. IN THE ALPS. 95 



with flowers, as every one of these caves was literally lined with 

 the pretty little yellow Viola biflpra. Every cranny was golden 

 with its flowers ; every seam between the rocks and stones 

 enlivened by it. On entering one of these caves, I saw some 

 crimson blooms peeping from under the snow about the roof or 

 brow. They were those of the first Alpine Rose {Rhododendron 

 ferruginezim) I had ever seen wild. One might meet it under 

 more agreeable circumstances, but I shall remember the shallow 

 caves lined with the yellow Violet and crested by the Alpine 

 Rose longer than many sunnier scenes. Occasionally, pressed 

 by the snow, the handsome flowers of a crimson Pedicularis 

 might be seen ; and in almost every place where a little soil was 

 seated on the top of a rock or stone, so straight-sided that the 

 snow only rested on the top, the beautiful, soft, crimson, white- 

 eyed flowers of Primula viscosa were to be seen. It grows in 

 all sorts of positions — wherever, in fact, decomposed moss, &c. 

 forms a little soil. In dry places it is smaller than in wet ones, 

 and is usually particularly luxuriant on ledges where a gradual 

 or annual addition of moss or soil takes place, so that the 

 tendency of the stems to throw out rootlets is encouraged. 



Several hours in falling snow, feet saturated with deep snow- 

 water, and extremities beginning to chill, notwithstanding the 

 hard walking, make Saas, and Saas only, the one object to 

 attain. To gain it, we passed through one or two small hamlets, 

 the inhabitants of which were as much surprised as ourselves 

 at the sudden and heavy fall of snow in June, and eventually 

 reached this poor collection of houses just as evening was fall- 

 ing. By this time nearly a foot of snow had fallen on the corn, 

 already far advanced in the ear. Unhappily we found the hotel 

 closed, as the tourist season had not yet commenced. Standing 

 on its threshold, thoroughly soaked with snow, waiting till some- 

 body came to open it, and realising a hotel in such a region and 

 on such a day without an inmate or a fire, was cold comfort in- 

 deed. Among the first of those who came to see us was the cur^, 

 who wondered how we got there in such weather ; and he imme- 

 diately set to work to dispel the hunger and the cold by instruct- 

 ing a maid to make a fire with all haste, and by ordering dinner. 

 A change of clothing was indispensable. I had something to 

 take off, but nothing to' put on : what was to be done ? I 

 appealed to the curd for a pair of breeches. He soon brought 

 me a most antiquated-looking specimen from the wardrobe of a 



