24 GLETSCH 



three days later the splendidly daring South-American 

 aviator started on his flight across the Alps, only to die 

 after victory — a hero, whose courage and fatal triumph 

 were worthy of a better cause. After some hours, passing 

 many a black-timbered mountain village — the houses of 

 which, set on stone piles, are the direct descendants of 

 the pile-supported lake dwellings of the Stone Age on 

 the shores of the Lake of Neuchatel — we came to the 

 upper and narrower part of the valley. The road as- 

 cended by zig-zags through pine forests, in which the 

 large blue gentian, with flowers and leaves in double 

 rows on a gracefully bowed stem, were abundant. In 

 open places the barberry, with its dense clusters of 

 crimson fruit, was so abundunt as actually to colour the 

 landscape, whilst a huge yellow mullen nearly as big as 

 a hollyhock, and bright Alpine " pinks," were there in 

 profusion. Before the night fell, a long, furry animal, 

 twice the size of a squirrel, and of dark brown colour, 

 crossed the road with a characteristic undulating move- 

 ment, a few feet in front of our carriage. It was a pine- 

 marten, the largest of the weasel and pole-cat tribe, still 

 to be found in our own north country. It must not 

 be confused with the paler beech-marten of Anne of 

 Brittany, which often takes up its abode in the roofs of 

 Breton houses, according to my own experience in Dinard 

 and the neighbourhood. Night fell, and our horses were 

 still toiling up the mountain road. Impenetrable chasms 

 lay below, and vast precipices above us. We crossed a 

 bridge, and seemed in the darkness to plunge into the 

 sheer rock itself, and, though thrilled with a delightful 

 sense of mystery and awe, were feeling a little anxiety at 

 the prospect of another hour among these gloomy, in- 

 tangible dangers, when we rounded a projecting rock, and 

 suddenly a brilliant constellation burst into view in the 

 sky. It was the electric outfit of the Belvedere Hotel, 



