who are very daring and skilful, do
not fear to stalk the chamois.

But if the place is thus stern and even appalling in summer, what must
it be in winter? There is scarcely a habitation in the village that is
not exposed to the danger of being carried away by avalanches or
falling rocks. The approach to the mountain is closed by ice and
snow, while the rocks are all tapestried with icicles. The
_tourmente_, or snow whirlwind, occasionally swoops up the valley,
tears the roofs from the huts, and scatters them in destruction.

Here is a passage from Neff's journal, vividly descriptive of winter
life at Dormilhouse:--

"The weather has been rigorous in the extreme; the falls of snow
are very frequent, and when it becomes a little milder, a general
thaw takes place, and our hymns are often sung amid the roar of
the avalanches, which, gliding along the smooth face of the
glacier, hurl themselves from precipice to precipice, like vast
cataracts of silver."

Writing in January, he says:--

"We have been buried in four feet of snow since of 1st of
November. At this very moment a terrible blast is whirling the
snow in thick blinding clouds. Travelling is exceedingly
difficult and even dangerous among these valleys, particularly in
the neighbourhood of Dormilhouse, by reason of the numerous
avalanches falling everywhere.... One Sunday evening our scholars
and many of the Dormilhouse people, when returning home after the
sermon at Violens, narrowly escaped an avalanche. It rolled
through a narrow defile between two groups of persons: a few
seconds sooner or later, and it would have plunged the flower of
our youth into the depths of an unfathomable gorge.... In fact,
there are very few habitations in these parts which are not
liable to be swept away, for there is not a spot in the narrow
corner of the valley which can be considered absolutely safe. But
terrible as their situation is, they owe to it their religion,
and perhaps their physical existence. If their country had been
more secure and more accessible, they would have been
exterminated like the inhabitants of Val Louise."

Such is the interesting though desolate mountain hamlet to the service
of whose hardy inhabitants the brave Felix Neff devoted himself during
the greater part of his brief missionary career. It was characteristic
of him to prefer