Coming shortly to the foot of the mountain, the Sarka, which is upwards of 6000 feet in height, we made a temporary halt.  We had now to change our leiterwagen for horses.  All signs of a road had long ceased.  On the green knoll in front were a herd of shaggy mountain horses with their Wallack drivers—­as wild a scene as could well be imagined.  Here we unpacked our various stores of provisions, fortified ourselves with a good dinner, and made necessary arrangements for the change of locomotion.  There was some trouble in properly distributing the things for the pack-horses.  Care had to be taken to give each horse his proper weight and no more.  It was also very important to see that the packages were rightly balanced to avoid shifting.

I had left my own horse at Karansebes, because he was in need of rest; so F——­ and I had to select horses from amongst the promiscuous lot brought up by the “hunt.”  We chose out a couple of decent-looking animals—­indeed I rather prided myself on my selection, drew attention to his good points, and rallied F——­ on his less successful choice.

At length everything was ready.  Judging from the amount of baggage, the commissariat department was all right.  The order of march was this:  ten gentlemen, like so many knights on horseback with lances in rest, rode on in front, in Indian file:  our long alpen-stocks really somewhat resembled lances.  Each man had his gun slung behind.  In the rear of these gallant knights came a dozen pack-horses heavily laden, each with his burden well covered up with sheepskins; behind again followed a lot of Wallacks—­these irregulars were to act as beaters.

On we went in this order for seven hours.  The pace was so slow that I confess it made me impatient, but our path through the forest was too narrow and too steep to do more than walk our horses in single file.  The character of the vegetation visibly changed as we ascended.  We left the oak and beech, and came upon a forest of pine-trees, and I thought of the lines—­

    “This is the forest primeval.  The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
    Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight.”

The grey moss which hangs in such abundant festoons from the fir-trees has a most singular effect, almost weird at times.  These ancients of the forest, with their long grey beards and hoary tresses, look very solemn indeed in the gloaming.

What unheeded wealth in these majestic trees, which grow but to decay!  Enormous trunks lay on every side:  some had passed into the rottenness which gives new life; and here fungi of bright and varied hues, grey lichen, and green moss preserved together the contour of the gigantic stem, which, prostrate and decayed now, had once held its head high amongst the lordlings of the forest.