ell-to-do villages, where even the poorest
appeared to enjoy in their houses unlimited space. The landlords
politely demanded our journey-certificate, solemnly inserted the hour of
our arrival and departure, and confirmed the important fact of our
remaining exactly the same number of travelers as at the beginning of
our journey. We exchange Hans for a youthful Jacobi, and Jacobi for an
aged Seppl, who all agreed in their livery if not in their ages; each
stage also being at a slightly higher elevation, so that by degrees we
had changed the Italian vegetation, which had lingered as far as the
neighborhood of Brixen, for the more northern crops of young oats and
flax. Yet one prominent reminder of comparatively adjacent Italy
accompanied us the greater portion of the three hours' drive. Hundreds
of agile, swarthy figures were busily boring, blasting, shoveling and
digging for the new railway, which is to convey next season shoals of
passengers and civilization, rightly or wrongly so called, into this
great yet primitive artery of Southern Tyrol, the Pusterthal already
forming, by means of the Ampezzo, a highway between Venice and the
Brenner Pass. As the morning advanced the busy sounds of labor ceased,
and we saw groups of dark-eyed men reclining in the shade of the rocks,
partaking of their frugal dinners of orange-colored polenta--_plenten_,
as our Seppl called it.

So onward by soft slopes bordered by mountain-ridges, all scarped and
twisted, having dark green draperies of pine trees cast round their
strong limbs, with bees humming in the aromatic yet invigorating breeze
fresh from the snow-fields, and swallows wheeling in the clear blue air,
until we reached a fertile amphitheatre. A confusion of flourishing
villages was scattered over its verdant meadows, and here and there on a
jutting rock or mountain-spur a solitary mediaeval tower or imposing
castle stood forth, the most conspicuous of all being a fortress
situated on a natural bulwark of rock. Half around its base a little
town, which appeared stunted in its growth by the course of the river,
confidingly rested. A hill covered with wood screened the other side of
the castle, whilst exactly opposite a broad valley ran northward, hemmed
in by lofty snow-fields and glaciers that sparkled in the noonday sun.
Natural hummocks or knolls covered with wood broke the uniformity of
this upland plain, which still ascended eastward to the higher, bleaker
Upper Pusterthal.