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THE CARE ALTO.

This peak, if less favourably placed than theAdamello , commands a noble view. In the east deepforested glens, fertile valleys and green ridges crownedby ruddy crags contrast with the eternal snow-fieldswhich stretch away for miles towards the west. Fromthe Care Alto, as from an outpost, the genius of wintermay look down on the country he has lost since thegreat ice-epoch, on the trenches through which hisrivers flowed, on the hills they rounded, and see even,far off in the haze, the mounds which he erected asmonuments of his widest power, the huge terminalmoraines of Somma and Solferino . Behind him lieshis last refuge, the great granite castle from whosesummit his forces cannot be dislodged even by thesummer sun of Lombardy .

Across this fastness we intended to make our way.For the next six hours we steadily pursued a westwardcourse over the snow-fields. Now we wandered at thefoot of Monte Folletto 1 amongst snow-caves huge enoughto puzzle for a moment even the herd of chamois whosegambols we had interrupted. Then we passed througha narrow gap, the Passo di Cavento, on each side ofwhich the grey and red pinnacles shot up in a fantasticfence, while at their base a great ditch waited theunwary mountaineer. Beyond it we found another snow-reservoir, almost as flat as a cricket-field, feeding theice-streams of Yal di Fum and the Lobbia Glacier. Abroad gap, the Passo della Lobbia Alta, let us through

1 Payer’s account of the answers given to his enquiries about thissummit, furnishes a good illustration of the difficulty of naming apeak:—‘ Botteri declared the mountain was nameless; from others I gotthe names Monte Mulat, Monte Folletto, Monte Marmotta (from Marmot),Monte Calotta (from cap). I chose finally the name Folletto (from moun-tain-spirit, Kobold ).’