When one stands about in the centre of the valley it would seem as if
there were no way out or into the basin; but people who have often been
in the mountains are familiar with this illusion: the fact is, diverse
roads lead through the folds of the mountains to the plains to the
north, some of them with hardly a rise; and to the south where the
valley seems shut in by precipitous mountain-walls, a road leads over
the "neck" mentioned above.
The village is called Gschaid and the snow-mountain looking down upon
it, Gars.
On the other side of the "neck" there lies a valley by far more
beautiful and fertile than that of Gschaid. At its entrance there lies a
country-town of considerable size named Millsdorf which has several
industrial enterprizes and carries on almost urban trade and business.
Its inhabitants are much more well-to-do than those of Gschaid and,
although only three hours away, which for these labor-loving
mountaineers used to great distances is only a bagatelle, yet manners
and customs are so different in the two valleys and even their external
appearance is so unlike that one might suppose a great number of miles
lay between. This is of common occurrence in the mountains and due not
only to the more or less favored position of the valleys but also to the
spirit of the natives who by reason of their differing occupations are
inclined this way or that.
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