f grass. They suffer
more than the chamois after a heavy snowfall because they are not so
strong and cannot scamper through it. At the beginning of this season,
Klosters had a snowfall of some two metres and the roe deer were
driven down to the villages where the peasants fed them in stables
till the weather improved. Four were caught on the railway, having got
on to the line at a crossing and being unable to spring out over the
high banks of snow.

Ibex are being let loose in order to re-establish them where they were
exterminated a few years ago. They can usually be seen through the
telescope at Bernina Hauser above Pontresina, and also opposite
Muerren. The ibex, or steinbock, is used as the Coat of Arms of the
Canton of Graubuenden, and is familiar to Ski runners as the badge of
the local Ski Club of Zuoz in the Engadine.

After some controversy eagles are being encouraged to increase, having
been almost exterminated. We saw a beauty sailing over the Muottas
Muraigl Valley one day. There is even talk of trying to get bear back,
but the peasants obstruct this as they were so destructive to sheep.
As a child at Davos I saw three bears brought in dead by hunters,
and remember with pride, mixed with disgust, tasting a bear's paw. A
peasant told me of how as a boy he looked after the village sheep near
the Silvretta Glacier, and of a bear who used to come and kill a sheep
and then bury it in the ice for future eating.

Ski runners shudder at the idea of meeting a bear while on a run, but
they need not worry as the bears roll up and sleep through the winter
so that unless the Ski-er took an unusually heavy fall into the bear's
hole, he would be safe enough on the surface. Besides which it is said
that a bear cannot traverse down a slope, so that the Ski-er could
easily get away unless the bear rolled to the bottom, and then ran
along and waited for him. As there are no bears in Switzerland now,
perhaps it is waste of time to start a controversy about the best turn
with which to circumvent a bear. Cows are much more dangerous. I was
pursued down the village street at Pontresina by a playful cow, who
had been taken to the pump to drink. She put down her head and stuck
up her tail and I wasted no time in pushing away from her.

Another animal which hibernates through the winter is the marmot, and
I often think of them sound asleep under the snow as I pass along the
slopes of some high valley. They are said to have breath