Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/376

Alps besides the snow and ice and the exhilarating peril of climbing. As a matter of sport which calls out all the most active energies of foot and hand and eye, there is much to be said for it. But for those who care for something more than physical fitness there is much to be seen and learnt, especially on the western slopes of the Mountains. Instead of bare rock and snow and ice, it is a land of forest and fern, waterfalls and streams, luxuriant undergrowth of evergreen shrubs, and, unlike, I believe, any other Alpine country, glaciers bordered by trees and bush, which might suggest a semi-tropical climate. A botanist will find there much to interest him. I believe that out of more than a thousand plants, many flowering, found there, three quarters are found nowhere else. It is a matter at present of walking, and readiness to rough it, but it may safely be asserted that there are no finer walks in the world, and, save for a good amount of rain, no better climate for hard exercise.

I am,

Yours ever,

H. W. H.