The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-17

winter and three months cold" re- fcrrinG to the 40 degrees zero in win ter and maximum of 76 degrees above IT, summer.
 The ether charm was the aged, storm beaten pines that fight for existence upon tne very edge of the tree limit of the Alps. They are yeritable ar- boral hermits and far away from their companions upon the lower ground seem to enjoy their isolation and revel in their loneliness. They used to sing to me. too, and many an hour have whiled awak hardening to their wild and melancholy runes; runes that only a scop or scald of the Alps could give birth to-
 Notwithstanding that the summers of the Ensadine are spoken of as three months cold" the climate is unparalleled and as it is not sensible to any influence from the ocean it is termed the most perfect type of continental climate The atmosphere is phenoinenally dry and is so charged with electricity that your very hair erackles as the comb passes through 1t and every strand stands upon end to follow the teeth of that article of toilet. Despite the fact that the warm air draws up from Italy the dampness that it might otherwise bring with 1t is eliminated by the intervening heights and the rain clouds that form in the lowlands break upon the peaks and discharge their mois- ture ere they have a chance to get near to St. Moritz. There is less rainfall in the Engadne than anywhere else in all Switzerland and when it does happen to rain all dampness disappears at it's ces- sation. No mud is ever seen, grass wet with dew when cut in the morning be- comes hay by nightfall, fresh meat hung out of doors will desiecate before it will spoil and an inkstand left open will find It's contents vanishing with annoying rapidity. This lack of moisture, combined with the rarefaction of the atmosphere furnishes an extraordinary transparency to the air so that novices are completely baffled in calculating distances. All ma. t1re is clear, brilliant and clean-cut , heights are silhouetted against the in tense blue of the sky and every inequal. ity in their Hanks appears as though il had been ,chiseled in amethyst by tho hand of Wotan. The flowers of the slopes and meadows fashion a glory of varie gated color incomparable in distfnctness while the intensity of sunlight is sucf that the whole vista seems to be satu rated with the vapor of gold. Then il the evening, when the sun kisses tn, mountain tops good night and suffuse, them with roseate nue all the golt seems to have been sifted from the vists and concentrated upon tine peak and cliff their to hang until the aureate garnish ment grows pale and melts into the sl yer of the Alpine crepuscule. Elsewher in Switzerland the snow line Is S0Oo feet but In the Engadine it retreats to nearl, 10,0o0 feet and while glaciers usually hal at an altitude of about 5000 feet her their progress is arrested much farthe up in the summer season. The vegetation limit is much higher than normal in tn Fngadne and whortleberries and straw berries abound in the woods
 Consequently it makes hut little differ ence what Is the object of your quest il visiting Switzerland for St. Moritz ha ample to offer for the most fastidiou taste and the most cratic vagary D you love wild flowers? Nowhere else wi you find them in such extraordinary pro fusion and brilliancy as here. To nam them would be to call every mountai