Year: 1869

in, and tell them his adventure on the
Pechwand, over a glass of punch. AS
the sun had now set, the company went
into the house, and all seated themselves
expcctantly around the hunter. who upon
the arrival of the punch began to snuff the
fragrant steam. He quaffed deep
draught, aud then begaa> with heavy
sigh.


cay, the gamsen. they have broken
many a mans neck. and mine very near
ly. I had a narrow escape of it the last
time, and since then I havr quit the high
mountains and come to the Rigi, which is
a reasonable sort of hill. TCf course there
are places where bodyscan break his
neck if he wants to; but up there in the
high mountains, at the Peehwand. it's a
miracle how any one can escape breaking
it.


"You might not think tito look at me.
but such as you see me, { was the most
daring hunter in all the mountains, and
lived in winter the whole-ysar round, for
in the winter season I was down in the
valleys in the snow, and in the summer |
clambered among the glaciers and snow
up there. Well, when ras up in the
neighborhood of the Pechwand, came
upon the tracks of herd Of gamsen that
nearly drove me out Of my senses. for |
never could find out their feeding g-place.
All tracks stopped at the Pechwand. as if
the pamsen had vanished i,fo the air
Up the wall they could nos possibly get
for the rocks are absolutely perpendicular,
and no ledge lower than twenty feet: a
leap which no gams could pessibly make.


80 I was sitting one day 10 the tavern
in the valley. looking at thf mountains,
when I saw the agcravating gamsen-the
whole herd-marching up TO the Pech-
wand, and hang me if thek didn't run
right up the side like flies Cd Q wall. and
then promenade along the h ael at the top,
all in row like geese! Icsnld not be-
lieve my eyes; and yet I caa see like a
telescope. and where anothercsn scarcely
perceive speck, there sed man and
can tell you what he has on ind what he
is carrying: For this reasonI had never
looked through a spF1glass. gud thought
I should never have occasio1 fka, =
Rut-therh5uas al E6d - tsv-
ern who had telescope viz! n they
said you iepld-seess, krcass-4l@ OF fks very
topmost peak !; and SO I begged him to let
me have look through it. and I turned
it on the wall where I had seen the gam
sen running up. And there I see behind
an angle regular fight of stairs going to
the top. up which the gamsen had gone
quite at their ease. And now [ recollect-
ed that good many years before there
had been an Englshman who wanted to
get to the top, and had had these steps
cut in the rock. Now. thought. have
got you! l examined the wall carefully,
and on top, at one end, 1 see lovely
patch of grass, which was where the gam
sen fed. As it was only possible to get
down from the wall by traversing long
barrow ridge, I had the gamsen in bag,
so to speak so [ sold them in advance to
my Englishman. who wanted to give a
grand gamsen-feast to some countrymen
of bis.


80 I 60 up into the mountain. spend
the night in COW keepers hut, planning
to reach the steps in the wall the next
morning before day-break, so as to cut off
my game. I took piece of pitch torch
along. in order to find the steps in the
darkness; but determined not to light it.
for fear the light and smoke might betray
me to the gamsen. I found the steps
very easily in the gray twilight, and as
cended without difficulty to the topmost
ledge. From here I crawled up to the
ridge; and hard job it was, for [ had
to pass two places where the rotten rock
was crumbled so fine that it slid away at
every step. At one of these places. which
was about three hundred PAGES wide, it
took me two hours to get over, and the
labor to keep in straight line almost
killed me, for the shingle slid under my
feet like water. and kept carrying me
down towards the edge. where it poured
with a laundering noise into chasm a.
bout two thousand feet deep, and threat
ened to sweep me away with it.


''Scrambling and crawling on all fours,
with the sweat running from every pore
of my body, I succeeded. in about two
hours, in getting over. and reached the
other side half dead, and lay down to rest
little.


after taking dram of kirschwasser,
I clambered over the rocks. to the highest
part of the wall. And here came the
hardest piece of work had had yet; for
[ had to cross long ridge as sharp as the
back of knife, and as rotten as brim-
stone. I could as well. have walked across
upon wire as upon such an edge; and [
had to make up my mind to work my way
over it astraddle, at the risk Of cutting
myself in two. or that the old rock would
break off, and I 60 head-foremost down
with the broken piece. But what will
one not venture for gains? So [ take
my seat on the ridge, one leg hanging
over ravine thousand feet deep, and
the other over an abyss of three thousand.


where could see below the tavern and in


front of it my Englishman with bis teles-


COPE And nov started to work myself


along. In three minutes my leather
breeches were cut to rags, and l had to


crawl along or hands and knees. and
whenever piece of the rotten old rock