Rich meadow-slopes were broken by solitary trees arranged in Nature's happiest style, and grey precipices of Jurane grimness and perpendicularity encroached upon the woods and grass.

We were coming near the source of the Loue, M.Paget said, which it would be necessary for us to visit.

He told us that we must leave the carriage at an _auberge_ on the roadside, and walk to the neighbouring village of Ouhans, which was inaccessible for voitures, and thence we should easily find our way to the source.

The distance, he declared, was twenty minutes.

The woman at the _auberge_ strongly recommended the source, but did her best to dissuade us from the glacieres, of which she said there were two.