vegetation, which reach up into the thinner air of higher altitudes and lead straight to the ice.  At both sides of this path, steep ledges plunge down, and by this natural causeway the snow-mountain is joined to the “neck.”  In order to surmount the ice one skirts it for some distance where it is surrounded by rock-walls, until one comes to the old hard snow which bridges the crevasses and at most seasons of the year bears the weight of the climber.

[Illustration:  A MOUNTAIN SCENE From the Painting by H. Reifferscheid]

From the highest point of this snowfield, two peaks tower up, of which the one is higher and, therefore, the summit of the mountain.  These pinnacles are very hard to climb.  As they are surrounded by a chasm of varying width—­the bergschrund—­which one must leap over, and as their precipitous escarpments afford but small footholds, most of the tourists climbing the mountain content themselves with reaching the bergschrund and from there enjoy the panorama.  Those who mean to climb to the top must use climbing-irons, ropes, and, iron spikes.

Besides this mountain there are still others south of the valley, but none as high.  Even if the snow begins to lie on them early in fall and stays till late in spring, midsummer always removes it, and then the rocks gleam pleasantly in the sunlight, and the forests at their base have their soft green intersected by the broad blue shadows of these peaks which are so beautiful that one never tires of looking at them.

On the opposite, northern, eastern, and western sides of the valley the mountains rise in long ridges and are of lower elevation:  scattered fields and meadows climb up along their sides till rather high up, and above them one sees clearings, chalets, and the like, until at their edge they are silhouetted against the sky with their delicately serrated forest—­which is indicative of their inconsiderable height—­whereas the mountains toward the south, though also magnificently wooded, cut off the shining horizon with entirely smooth lines.

When one stands about in the centre of the valley it would seem as if there were no way out or into the basin; but people who have often been in the mountains are familiar with this illusion:  the fact is, diverse roads lead through the folds of the mountains to the plains to the north, some of them with hardly a rise; and to the south where the valley seems shut in by precipitous mountain-walls, a road leads over the “neck” mentioned above.

The village is called Gschaid and the snow-mountain looking down upon it, Gars.