t in the face of the rock, into the steep, narrow Tauernthal,
which divides the Glockner group from the Venediger. How entirely
different it was from the region of the Dolomites! There the variety of
colour was endless and the change incessant; here it was all green grass
and trees and black rocks, with glimpses of snow. There the highest
mountains were in sight constantly; here they could only be seen from
certain points in the valley. There the streams played but a small part
in the landscape; here they were prominent, the main river raging and
foaming through the gorge below, while a score of waterfalls leaped from
the cliffs on either side and dashed down to join it.

The peasants, men, women and children, were cutting the grass in the
perpendicular fields; the woodmen were trimming and felling the trees
in the fir-forests; the cattle-tenders were driving their cows along
the stony path, or herding them far up on the hillsides. It was a
lonely scene, and yet a busy one; and all along the road was written
the history of the perils and hardships of the life which now seemed so
peaceful and picturesque under the summer sunlight.

These heavy crosses, each covered with a narrow, pointed roof and
decorated with a rude picture, standing beside the path, or on the
bridge, or near the mill--what do they mean? They mark the place where a
human life has been lost, or where some poor peasant has been delivered
from a great peril, and has set up a memorial of his gratitude.

Stop, traveller, as you pass by, and look at the pictures. They have
little more of art than a child's drawing on a slate; but they will
teach you what it means to earn a living in these mountains. They tell
of the danger that lurks on the steep slopes of grass, where the mowers
have to go down with ropes around their waists, and in the beds of the
streams where the floods sweep through in the spring, and in the forests
where the great trees fall and crush men like flies, and on the icy
bridges where a slip is fatal, and on the high passes where the winter
snowstorm blinds the eyes and benumbs the limbs of the traveller, and
under the cliffs from which avalanches slide and rocks roll. They show
you men and women falling from waggons, and swept away by waters, and
overwhelmed in land-slips. In the corner of the picture you may see
a peasant with the black cross above his head--that means death. Or
perhaps it is deliverance that the tablet commemorates--and