Another animal which hibernates through the winter is the marmot, and I often think of them sound asleep under the snow as I pass along the slopes of some high valley.  They are said to have breathing holes, but I have never seen them, unless this was the explanation of some holes which puzzled me on the Schiltgrat above Muerren.  I was traversing uphill a long way ahead of my party and noticed some isolated holes in the snow, very like Ski stick holes, but with no Ski tracks near.  As I passed a grey hen flew out of one of the holes, and, looking back, I saw several black cocks and grey hens flying away.  It is more likely that they had made their own holes to shelter in rather than that these were marmot holes.

Ptarmigan often greet one on the higher ridges and sometimes a capercailzie will get up with a noise which is very apt to upset one.

The choughs are persistent followers of a Ski-ing party, flying over one’s head and chirruping for lunch.  When at last we stop and take our nosebags out of our Rucksacks, they perch on a cliff near and wait till we move on, when they immediately fly down to see what we have left for them.  I have seen a paper lunch-bag, which they were unable to tear, absolutely surrounded by a circle of their footmarks, some eight feet in diameter.  How they must have worried it and each other in their endeavour to get at the contents.

At Muerren a pair of ravens also accompany the Ski-ers.  They take their perch high up and watch the many luncheon parties, croaking now and then to remind us of their wish to share our slices of beef and sausage.  These “packed lunches” are usually so plentiful that the choughs and the ravens get a goodly feed.  The tidy Ski-er who buries all his paper and orange peel and other debris will often find next day that the whole thing has been dug up by a fox.

At many of the Alpine huts, the snow-finch has adopted the habits of the sparrow and is often so tame that he will almost take crumbs from one’s hand.

Another bird I love among the Alps is the dipper or water ouzel.  Ski-ing along the snow banks of the rivers, I have often watched him hop down into the water and run along the bottom picking up whatever his food is among the pebbles.

Surely most Ski runners can spare time to watch all these little people, whose rights to the snow fields are even greater than their own.

Very little vegetation shows in winter, but it is wonderful what a lot one can find if one looks carefully and it certainly makes Ski-ing more interesting to me if I can recognize the trees, plants and seeds.

A very fair estimate can be made of the different heights by noticing what grows.