the night air as the dark pine trees
afforded.

It was a strange, wild, scene the spot where I encamped. The
spectre-like pines stretched forth their weird branches, drooping with
bearded moss, like phantom Druids invoking a curse over this scene of
desolation. The moon, peeping fitfully through the black clouds, lit up
the glaciers on the mountain opposite. Here and there was a great pine
torn up by the roots, or over-hanging the abyss below. Immense clumps of
rock, grown over with dank moss, were interspersed through the dark pine
forest. A small stream trickled over the large stones, pursuing its
zig-zag course till it reached the valley below.

The howling of the wind and the occasional thunder of the avalanche from
some neighbouring mountain lent a kind of terror to the scene, which I
should have enjoyed, had I been in a more comfortable frame of mind.
But, with the gnawing pains of hunger and the horrible feeling of doubt
as to whether I should ever meet with any traces of civilisation where I
might recruit my wasted energies, the beauty of the spot was shut from
me, and I found it only a cold, damp, disagreeable retreat.

It was yet early in the night when I took up my quarters here, but it
was dark and cloudy, and I put up at this place, despairing of finding a
more hospitable lodging, on account of the darkness, besides which I was
tired out. I had reposed in my uncomfortable quarters for, it might be,
two or three hours, though without sleeping, when the clouds began to
disperse and the sky was calm and serene, the moon bright and clear, so
I thought I would leave my camping place and venture a little further,
in the vague hope of finding some hospitable chalet where I might obtain
fire and food.

I was now considerably rested from my fatigue, but the pangs of hunger
grew ever more intense. I wandered on and on, till the pines grew less
thick, and a wide extended view opened before me, when I fancied that I
descried afar off in the valley a light. My heart began to revive. As I
strode onward I saw below me a small lake, over which frowned dark
toppling crags. The moon shone brightly over all.

Still keeping the distant chalet in sight, I could think of little else
than the meal which would await me on my arrival; but while glancing
casually over the lake illumined by the moonbeams, and the cliff that
overhung it, my eye was suddenly arrested by an object, apparently a
human being, clambering up a height