SCRAMBLES AMONGST THE ALPS. 17

The transport of wood from the mountains into the valleysoccupies most of the mules during a considerable portionof the year. The fagots into which the wood is madeup project some distance on each side of the beast, andit is said that they walk intuitively to the outside of pathshaving rocks on the other side to avoid the collisions whichwould otherwise occur. When they carry tourists theybehave in a similar manner; and, no doubt, when thegood time for mules arrives, and they no longer carryburdens, they will still continue to do the same. Thishabit frequently gives rise to scenes. Two mules meet;each wishes to pass on the outside, and neither will giveway. It requires considerable persuasion, through themedium of the tail, before such difficulties are arranged.

I visited the baths of Leuk, and saw the queer assemblageof men, women, and children, attired in bathing-gowns,chatting, drinking, and playing at chess in the water. Thecompany did not seem to be perfectly sure whether it wasdecorous for elderly men to chase young females from onecorner to another, but it was unanimous in howling at theadvent of a stranger who remained covered, and literallyyelled when I departed without exhibiting my sketch.

I trudged up the Rhone valley , and turned aside at Vispto go up the Visp Thai, where one would expect to seegreater traces of glacial action, if a glacier formerly filledit, as one is said to have done.

I was bound for the valley of Saas , and my work tookme high up the Alps on either side; far beyond the limitof trees and the tracks of tourists. The view from the slopesof the Weissmies, on the eastern side of the valley, 5,000or 6,000 feet above the village of Saas , is perhaps the finestof its kind in the Alps . The full height of the three-peaked Mischabel (the loftiest mountain in Switzerland )is seen at one glance—11,000 feet of dense forests, greenalps, rocky pinnacles, and glittering glaciers. The summits