. Alpine flowers for English gardens . Mountain plants. 9° ALPINE FLOWERS. Part I. ous-looking from almost perpendicularly rising hills of loose stone. Presently a little rough weather-beaten wooden cross was passed beside the footway. " Why a cross here ?" said I to the guide. " That great stone or rock you see, killed, in its way down, a man returning with his marketings from the valley," he replies. Poor fellow ! he must have formed but a small obstacle to that ponderous mass—hard as iron and big as a small cottage—which fell from its bed with such impetuosity that it le
. Alpine flowers for English gardens . Mountain plants. 9° ALPINE FLOWERS. Part I. ous-looking from almost perpendicularly rising hills of loose stone. Presently a little rough weather-beaten wooden cross was passed beside the footway. " Why a cross here ?" said I to the guide. " That great stone or rock you see, killed, in its way down, a man returning with his marketings from the valley," he replies. Poor fellow ! he must have formed but a small obstacle to that ponderous mass—hard as iron and big as a small cottage—which fell from its bed with such impetuosity that it leaped from point to point, and at last right over the torrent-bed, resting on a little lawn of rich grass and bright flowers on the other side. Ten minutes afterwards we came to a group of three more rough wooden crosses, almost projecting into the pathway, and loosely fixed in the stones at its sides. They marked the spot where three human beings, two women and a man, had been buried by an avalanche. " And how," said I, "do you recover-people's bodies who are thus ; "We wait till the snow melts in spring, and then find and bury ; If our interesting friends the'lrish could be traced back to these valleys, one could easily explain the origin of their expression " kilt entirely ! " It is no exaggeration to state that in many places along this valley these wooden crosses, marking the scene of deaths from hke causes, occurred so thickly as to remind one of a cemetery. I should not have minded seeing one or two instances, but to meet them within view of each other was highly suggestive. A railway collision would seem to offer, capital chances of escape compared to what one would have in case of being in the way of any crumbling matter in these parts. We have all heard of the merry Swiss boy, but few of us have an idea of the hard and fearful nature of the lives of the peasantry of the elevated parts of this country. In th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1870
