Then we crossed the plain towards the north, and proceeded to grapple with a stiff path through the woods which climb the first hills.

It turned out that there was no one available for our purpose in the chalet to which the landlord led us; but a small child was despatched in search of the master or the domestic, and returned before long with the latter individual, who received the mistress's instruction respecting the route, and received also an axe which I had begged in case of need.

The accounts we had heard of the glaciere or glacieres--every one declined to call them caves--were so various, and the total denials of their existence so many, that we quietly made up our minds to disappointment, and agreed that what we had seen at the source of the Loue was quite sufficient to repay us for the trouble we had taken; while the idea of a rapid raid into France had something attractive in it, which more than counterbalanced the old charms of Soleure.

Besides, we found that we were now in a good district for flowers, and the abundant _Gnaphalium sylvaticum_ brought back to our minds many a delightful scramble in glacier regions, where its lovely velvet kinsman the _pied-de-lion_ grows.

On the broad top of the range of hills, covered with rich grass, we came upon large patches of a plant, with scented leaves and pungent seeds, which we had not known before, _Meum athamanticum_, and, to please our guide, we went through the form of pretending that we rather liked its taste.