Class ^^jJ-Ui -^- Book (^:_ COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT A Swfss Peasant SWITZERLAND PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE BY JOEL COOK AUTHOR OF "AMERICA : PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE •'ENGLAND: PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE" •■ FRANCE : HISTORIC AND ROMANTIC ILLUSTRATED PHILADELPHIA HENRY T. COATES & CO. 1904 .C77 LIBwa«?v «f r^ONGR^SS OCT 12 1904 Oooyrfgrht Entry CLASS a XXo. No / COPY B Copyright, EENEY T. COAXES & CO. 1904c INTRODUCTION. During a very long period, Switzerland and the Alps have heen among the most beautiful regions sought by millions of tourists from all parts of the world. They display the greatest scenic attractions of Europe in their grandest form, and especially for American visitors have a special charm that is most seductive. In going or coming, the noble Ehine" the Great Eiver of the German Fatherland, is usually fol- lowed, up or down, and thus becomes a part of the popular Swiss tour. In the following pages there have been compiled, largely as the result of personal observation, much of the scenic description, history and romance of these charming regions, which have had such an im- portant share in European contentions and develop- ment in the past, as they now contribute so greatly to the pleasure of the army of the world's travellers. CONTENTS. PAGE I. Western Switzerland 3 II. Eastern Switzerland 83 III. The Upper Ehine 161 IV. The Middle Rhine and Main 245 y. The Great Rhine Gorge . . » 315 VI. The Lower Rhine 391 LIST OF ILLURTEATI0I!^"S. PAGE A Swiss Peasant Frontispiece. Castle of Chillon 22 Great St. Bernard Pass, Hospice, and Dogs .... 30 Mont Blanc and Chamounix 34 Tourists Crossing Mer de Glace 38 Bern 52 JUNGFRAU FROM VALLEY OF LAUTERBRUNNEN .... 62 Matterhorn 76 SPREUERBRifcKE AND OLD MiLL 102 Lion of Lucerne 104 Axenstrasse on Lake Lucerne 122 Statue of William Tell 124 Devil's Bridge— St. Gotthard Pass 126 Gorge op the Tamina 170 Rbeinfall at Schaffhausen 182 Basle— The Spalen Thor 188 Cottage in the Black Forest .196 Strassburg— Tomb of Marshal Saxe ....... 206 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGS Baden-Baden— CoNVERSATiONSHAUS 212 BiNGEN— Mouse Tower 306 Rheinstein , , . . 318 . Bonn — Beethoven's House . 394 Utrecht — On the Old Canal 440 In Rotterdam ^ 450 Delft— Near the Arsenal ,,,,,,,,.,. 456 WESTERN SWITZERLAND, SWITZERLAND AND THE RHINE PICTURESQUE AND DESCRIPTIVE. I. WESTERN SWITZERLAND. The Swiss Confederation — The Lake of Geneva — The River Rhone — Lausanne — Ouchy — Morges — Rolle — Nyon — Coppet — Geneva — Thonon — Ripaille — Ve- vey — St. Gengolph — Clarens — Montreux — Castle of Chillon — Bex — St. Maurice — The Pissevache Cascade — Dent de Morcles — Dent du Midi — Gorge of the Trient — Martigny — The Alps and Their Passes — The Great St. Bernard — Bourg St. Pierre — Aosta — La Forclaz — The Tete Noire — Chamounix — The FlegSre — ^Mer de Glace — Mont Blanc — The Observatory — Moun- tain Climbing — The River Aar — Freiburg — Morat — Lake Neuchatel — Marin — Neuchatel — Cheux de Fonds — Le Locle — Motiers — Bienne — Soleure — Aarburg — Aarau — Hapsburg — Brugg — Konigsfel- den — Vindonissa — The Weissenstein — Bern — Lake Thun — Strattligen — Spiez — Interlaken — The Liit- schine — Lauterbrunnen — The Staubbach — Miirren — The Jungfrau — The Monch — The Eiger — The Wetter- horn — The Schreckhorn — The Finsteraarhorn — Grin- delwald — The Faulhorn — The Gemmi Pass — The Dala — Leuk — The Upper Rhone — Sion — The Visp — Zermatt — The Riffelberg — The Pennine Alps — The Corner Grat — Monte Rosa — The Lyskamm — The Breithorn — The Matterhorn — The Dent Blanche — The Weisshorn — The Dona — The Tashhorn — Ascent of the Matterhorn. 3 S\Y1TZERLAND. THE SWISS CONFEDERATION. The scenic beauties of Europe are conceded as cul- minating in Switzerland. The Alps have been praised and admired by all peoples in all ages. Goethe in his Apostrophe to the Swiss Alps says: "Yesterday brown was still thy head, as the locks of my loved one, Whose sweet image so dear silently beckons afar. Silver grey is the early snow to-day on thy summit, Through the tempestuous night streaming fast over thy brow." Longfellow in Hyperion says that "Earth has built the great watchtowers of the mountains, and they lift their heads far up into the sky, and gaze ever upward and around to see if the Judge of the World comes not!" This famous land of the Swiss has always been the home of a race of sturdy and independent mountain- eers. It is an ancient country, whose origin is shrouded in mystery. The belief is that the Rhseti were its original people, driven from the lowlands to the mountains by the Celtic tribes of the Helvetii, and both races being conquered by the Eomans just before the Christian era. The first good military roads in the Alps were of Roman construction, and they also originated many of the noted towns. They were followed by various barbarians, and Huns, Bur- THE SWISS CONFEDERATION. 5 gundians, Allcmanni niul Coilis in turn occupied different portions oi" Helvetia. 'Vhvn the Franks came and the Germans, and the Austrians of the house of Hapsburijf. liesisting the oppressions of tlie hitter, there followed a gradual emancipation, and beginning in the thirteenth century, one canton after another became independent, and thus the Swiss Confederation began, to this period being ascribed the romantic tradition of William Tell. For a long time, the Swiss were engaged in defensive wars to maintain their independence, and in the religious conllicts, a large portion of the population embraced the cause of the Reformation. During the French Revolution, the armies of that nation overran the country. Napoleon controlled it, and finally, after serious troubles, in September, 1818, the present Federal Constitution was put into operation, and the Swiss Confederation has since subsisted in prosperity and tranquility. There are twenty-two cantons hav- ing a population of about 3,320,000, and covering nearly sixteen thousand square miles, about two- thirds of the surface being classed as "productive." The people, however, would fare sparsely if they de- pended on the soil for a livelihood. Their main living comes from the constant stream of visitors, the world paying tribute for the enjoyment of the Swiss scenic attractions. An American consular report from G-eneva not long ago estimated that 2,500,000 tour- ists come to Switzerland in a year, and each one ex- pends in this favore.d country an average of $80. G SWITZERLAND. In its topography Switzerland has been well de- scribed as two deep trenches traversed by two great rivers, enclosed by two huge and almost parallel mountain masses; and having the "Plains of Switzer- land'^ to the northward, comprising chiefl}^, the ex- tensive valley of the river Aar. Over three-fifths of the whole territory is drained by the Ehine and its aflflnents, and another fifth by the Ehone. To the southward of the deep trenches, is the main Alpine range, and to the northward, enclosing them, is the parallel, outlying range of the Bernese Oberland, its highest peak being the Finsteraarhorn, rising over fourteen thousand feet. The Aar valley, spreading farther to the northward, is undulating, and at times rugged, its average elevation above sea-level being about fourteen hundred feet. THE LAKE OE GENEVA. We will enter Switzerland from France by the route over the Jura mountains, which makes prob- ably the most impressive scenic approach. This rail- way crosses from Pontarlier almost southward to Lausanne, on the Lake of Geneva, the descent upon the Swiss side giving, in its many windings, magnifi- cent glimpses of the distant Alps, spread out beyond the lake, and seen in the grandest array, all along the horizon from the Jungfrau to Mont Blanc. The situation of Lausanne, on the terraced slopes of Mont Joret, five hundred feet above the level of the lake, is THE LAKE OF GENEVA. 7 superb. There are many places of outlook over this grand landscape of lake and mountains, but the best is from the Signal, three miles back of Lausanne, at over twenty-one hundred feet elevation, up to which an inclined-plane cable railway leads. Mont Blanc, however, is not here fully visible, being concealed by a jutting shoulder of a nearer mountain. The great lake of Geneva spreads in a grand crescent, far away both east and west, and in the view, chiefly impress- ive, is the sharp contrast between its two shores. On the northern side, the hills and pastures have the richest verdure, and dotted with luxuriant woods, they stretch far back to the dark forest clad ridges of the Jura. From Lausanne to the eastern head of the lake, the lower surfaces present a continuous suc- cession of vineyards and orchards, varied by hamlets and delightful villas. On the opposite southern shore of Savoy, however, the contrast is marked. The land rises rapidly from the foothills into frowning moun- tains, with their bleak northern slopes toward us, acting as a barrier against the sun's rays, which do not nourish them, but pour all their warmth upon the northern shore. This noble lake was the Lacus Lemanus of the Eomans and became the Lac Leman of modern times. It is among the most famous in the world and has been a favorite theme of the poets and authors of all nations. It is forty-five miles long, about eight miles across in the centre, and gradually narrows toward each end. Its color is a deep blue, thus differing 8 SWITZERLAND. from the greenish hue of most other Swiss lakes. The greatest depth, which is in front of Lausanne, is about one thousand feet. One of its peculiarities is the tidal change more or less observed in all the Swiss lakes, and here very marked. These changes in the level are called "seiches/^ and they come from alterations in the atmospheric pressure on different parts of the lake, the highest recorded being over six feet, and the tidal wave sometimes crossing the lake in ten minutes. The river Ehone collects the waters of the higher Alps, the meltings of the glaciers in a course of one hundred and fifty miles and is the fountain head of this noted lake. These glaciers come down the fur- rows and ravines in the mountain sides, and at the tops they are accumulations of snow. At first the snow is soft and ductile, and then as it slides down the fissure and is jostled and restrained by the bor- dering barriers of rocks, the glacier becomes more compact and icy, and with slow progress, cracking and groaning gradually changes to a river of ice. During all the time, it wastes by melting, the water going to the bottom, but the snows at the upper end constantly renew it. All sorts of spoil are carried along, stones, timber, mud and debris, and finally, beyond the point of greatest dimension, the waste predominates over the supply, the glacier shrinks, the spoil sinks to the bottom, and the ice is gradu- ally resolved into water. From the dirty, shrivelled and wrinkled end of the glacier, starts the torrent- THE LAKE OF GENEVA. 9 stream, merrily bounding down the mountain-side over waterfalls, through gorges and sometimes cav- erns, carrying with it mud, stones and all sorts of detritus. Thus begin the Alpine streams which go out from that great mountain range to feed all the seas sur- rounding Europe. Such torrents by the score unite to form the river Ehone, which flows a rapid current down past Martigny and Bex and enters the lake near Bouveret. Above that entrance the Ehone is chiefly conspicuous for its dirty character, and the mud and stones it bears, all of which it pours into the lake to be purified as the water passes through. Thus the Lake of Geneva is practically the filter of the river Rhone, which is gradually filling it up. Already in the course of ages it has filled ten or twelve miles of the head of the lake from Bex to Bou- veret, and the process goes steadily on, the dirt and spoil brought in gradually sinking to the bottom, as the broadening channel checks the river current. In fact during the glacial period, this lake and the whole valley of the Rhone, were filled by a huge con- tinuous glacier mounting several hundred feet above the present level. Masses of granite rocks weighing thousands of tons have been brought down by the ice flow from the distant ranges of the Pennine Alps, and deposited upon the limestone formation of the Jura mountains beyond Geneva. This noble lake begins among towering snow-cov- ered mountains at its eastern head, and the shores 10 SWITZERLAND. gradually subside to tamer scenery at the western end. The surface of the lake is more than twelve hundred feet above the sea level. The snow-capped Alps border the whole southern bank, but as Geneva is approached, the higher range gradually retires southward, leaving only modest hills, three thousand feet high near the shore. Over beyond the head of the lake and to the southward are the Dent de Hor- des and the Dent du Midi with its triple crown, their snow-capped peaks rising on high, and each appear- ing like a large tooth, whence the name. Farther south, like a recumbent long-backed white elephant, rises Mont Blanc fifteen thousand, seven hundred and eighty-two feet, the highest mountain in Europe. From one end of the lake to the other, Mont Blanc is its southern sentinel, for as the water crescent curves, the mountain is almost equi-distant from all parts. Its great long side stands up like a snow- covered wall, the length rather interfering with a proper appreciation of the height. The national boundary is through the centre of the lake. Savoy in France being on the southern shore, while the Swiss Canton of Vaud is on the northern side, extending around the head of the lake, and Canton Valais has a narrow front on the southern side, at the eastern end. LAUSANNE TO GENEVA. Lausanne, the capital of Yaud, was the Eoman Lausonium and its commanding situation terraced lAUSAXXE TO GENEVA. H on the liill-side sloping down toward the lake is em- phasized by a ravine^ having on the heights adjacent the old castle and cathedral. An elevated bridge crosses this ravine to unite the two parts of the town, and a street passing the cathedral goes through a tunnel under the castle, all this adding to the pic- turesque scenery. The Cathedral built in the thir- teenth century was consecrated in the presence of Eudolph of Hapsburg, in 1275, by Pope Gregory X., a massive Gothic edifice standing upon a high terrace up to which a winding street and long stone staircase lead. The church is over three hundred and fifty feet long, and from its center rises a slender tower two hundred and ten feet high. It was in this church the noted religious disputation took place in 1536, in which Calvin participated, resulting in the separa- tion of Yaud from the Eoman Catholic church and the overthrow of the supremacy of Savoy in Switzer- land. Among the fine modern structures in Lau- sanne is the Tribunal-Federal, the Supreme Court of Appeal of the Swiss Confederation, and there are also interesting Museums. At the Hotel Gibbon, are still seen the remains of Gibbon^s house and garden. Here Yoltaire often wTote, and Gibbon composed most of his noted history, Tlie Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon has recorded, "It was on the day, or rather the night of the 27th of June, 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last line of the last page in a sum- mer house in my garden.^' Voltaire long lived in 12 SWITZERLAND. his chateau of Ferney near Geneva, and Byron thus sings of both in Cliilde Harold: "Lausanne! and Ferney! Ye have been the abodes Of names which unto you bequeathed a name; Mortals, who sought and found, by dangerous roads, A path to perpetuity of fame!" From its height on the hill, Lausanne looks down upon its little port of Ouchy on the lake shore, and people descend there by a cable railway. Here in the old house of the Ancre Hotel, Byron was detained by bad weather in June, 1817, for two days, and wrote his noted poem of the Prisoner of Chillon. From Lausanne, westward toward Geneva, the bank of the lake is rather flat, as the mountain scenery becomes tamer. The pleasant watering place of Mor- ges borders a broad bay, and beyond is Eolle, where the Eussian General la Harpe was born in 1754, an obelisk in his memory being erected on an islet in the lake. Behind rises the Signal de Bougy, over twenty- three hundred feet high, a famous point of superb outlook over the water to the mountains. The lake narrows beyond, and here is the ancient castle of Nyon, with high towers and thick walls, now a public museum of antiquities, there being many Eoman relics, as it was their colony of Xoviodunum founded by Julius Caesar. The Chateau of Prangins, once a Bonaparte residence, is in the outskirts. The Dole the highest peak of the Swiss Juras, is a short dis- tance inland, its summit elevated fifty-five hundred GENEVA. 13 feet, from which there is a splendid view, including a majestic display of Mont Blanc. Then we come to Cappet, where lived the noted Genevan IsTecker, who was the Finance Minister of Louis XVI., and when the French Eevolution began, went into exile here. His daughter, the celebrated Madame de Stael, held her intellectual court at Coppet, dying in 1817, and her portrait by David, painted to represent Sappho, hangs on the walls. As the lake narrows toward its outlet, the shores are lined with villages and pleas- ant villas, among them Ferney, where Voltaire lived for two years. Then Lake Leman terminates at the city of Geneva, situated in one of the most superb locations, of which Byron thus writes in Childe Har- old : "Is it not better, then, to be alone. And love Earth only for its earthly sake? By the blue rushing of the arrowy Rhone, Or the pure bosom of its nursing lake." GENEVA. The situation of Geneva is indeed magnificent. It is built on the hillsides bordering the termination of the lake and the Ehone valley, the swift current of that beautiful stream rushing out of the lake and under a series of bridges as it traverses the city. Ow- ing to the copious drainage of the bordering moun- tains, the Ehone takes out of Lake Leman three times the volume of water which it has brought in, the cur- 14 SWITZERLAND. rent being clear as crystal and its color the pro- f oundest blue. The stream only goes along a little way, however, when the rushing Arve comes in from the southward, bringing down the mud and debris of all the torrents and glaciers on the northern side of Mont Blanc. The blue stream and the muddy cur- rent flow separately alongside each other for several hundred yards, but the latter soon gains the vic- tory. Just at the exit of the lake is the pretty He Eousseau in midstream, with flocks of swans and ducks gliding about on the smooth waters. To the westward is the long Quai du Montblanc fronting the city on that side, giving a magnificent outlook upon Mont Blanc and its attendant galaxy of peaks or ^^aiguilles" as they are named. The Pont du Mont- blanc crosses the river at the mouth of the lake and from it the handsome Eue du Montblanc leads up through the city on the western side, where are the newer. portions. The older town is on the eastern side, fronted by a spacious park, known as the Prom- enade du Lac, with handsome Quais beyond. Upon the He Rousseau is a bronze statue of Jean Jacques Rousseau, this having been one of his favorite re- sorts. He was the son of a Genevan watchmaker, born in 1712. Adjoining the Quai du Montblanc, and in full view from all parts of the lake front, is the splendid monument recently erected to Duke Charles of Brunswick, who died in 1873, and be- queathed his estate of $4,000,000 to Geneva. H rises about seventy feet from a spacious platform, and GENEVA. 15 is a marble canopy in three stories, over a sarcopha- gus bearing the recumbent figure of the Duke. Co- lossal lions guard it and there are rich ornaments, including statues of the most noted ancestors of the Brunswick house. The bronze equestrian statue of Charles originally stood on the top, but proving too heavy had to be taken down. The development of utilitarian ideas in this scene of magnificence has placed along the lake front at the water's edge on both sides, the public wash-houses, and here the laun- dry-work of the city is largely conducted, the washer- women doing their duty in the little floating sheds with vigor and completely unmindful of the gorgeous scene around them. This beautiful place was occupied by a settlement long ago, but nobody knows when the colony began. Csesar found here a town of the Allobroges that he called Geneva, and the surrounding region was made a Eoman province, which, upon the downfall of the Empire, became in the fifth century part of the first kingdom of Burgundy, of which Geneva was made the capital. Then the Franks controlled it, and at the close of the ninth century it was included in the new Burgundian kingdom. This fell to Germany and in 1034, the Emperor Conrad II. came to Geneva and was crowned King of Burgundy. The city was under various rulers afterward, and thus acquired many privileges, and in the early sixteenth century was in confederation with Freiburg and Bern, against the encroachments of the Duke, of Savoy, who had pre- 16 SWITZERLAND. viously controlled all the territory around the lake. Thus arose two parties in Geneva, the Mamelukes, who were partisans of Savoy, and the Confederates, representing the Swiss combination. The name of the latter was Eidgenossen, and the French pro- nounced it Higuenos, whence was derived the name of Huguenots, so well known in the subsequent relig- ious wars. The great Eeformation had begun and Geneva espoused it, against the Catholic House of Sa- voy. The bishop finding the place too warm for him transferred his see in 1535 to Gex, north of the lake, and in 1536, the famous theologian, John Calvin, first appeared in Geneva, having been driven out of Paris. He was a native of Noyon, who had espoused the new religious belief, and had gone to the French capital, but found it necessary to seek an asylum abroad. He attached himself to the new party, and soon be- came the head of power in Geneva, ruling with ec- clesiastical rigor, until his death, in 1564. He founded the Geneva Academy which became in those days the leading school of Protestant theology, and his doctrines have been firmly maintained in Geneva to the present time. John Knox visited Geneva when exiled from Britain. Savoy made many abortive at- tempts to recover the town, and it was strongly for- tified for the defence. In the eighteenth century there were dissensions due to the differences between the poorer classes and the aristocracy, and a pronounced revolutionary spirit, and at that time both Voltaire and Eousseau GENEVA. 17 appeared. Eousseau espoused the cause of the work- ing people, and at the instigation of Voltaire and the University of Paris, he was denounced and in 1763 his works were publicly burnt by the hangman upon the order of the civic magistrates who were controlled by the opposite party. After the French Eevolution, Geneva was the capital of a French Department, but in 1814, it became a Canton of the Swiss Confedera- tion, its small territory enclosing the outlet of the lake. It has been since 1847 practically a republic with a written constitution. The population ex- ceeds one hundred thousand, and is steadily growing, and the chief industries are the manufacture of watches and musical boxes, there being most ingen- ious adaptations of mechanisms in all sorts of ways in both of these trades. Out in the lake in front of the city there is a relic of the glacial period, in two huge granite rocks that have been dropped in the water in past ages, one of which, the Pierre a Xiton, tradition describes as having been a Eoman altar to Neptune. A long pier stretching into the lake be- yond, as a sort of breakwater, has on its end a foun- tain, casting a jet over one hundred feet high. The chief elevation in the older town is crowned by the Cathedral, which Emperor Conrad II. com- pleted in the eleventh century, though it has since seen many changes. In it is kept the chair of Cal- vin, and its finest monument is that of Duke Henri de Rohan, the leader of the French Protestants, who was killed in 1638. The Hotel de Ville is near by, 18 SWITZERLAND. being approached by an inclined plane, upon which the councillors in old times were conveyed in their chairs into and out of the building. It is historical as the place of meeting of the famous Alabama Claims Commission in 1872, which ended the dis- putes about the Anglo-Confederate privateers by England assuming the obligation and agreeing to the award of $15,500,000 damages in favor of the United States. In the Grand Eue adjoining is the house where Eousseau was born. The Arsenal near by con- tains a museum, where, among other relics^ are kept the ladders used in the Escalade. This was the last attempt by the Duke of Savoy to regain possession of the city and it was almost successful. Down in the lower town a fountain commemorates the attempt, and the day when the Savoyards were repulsed in 1602, December 12, is still observed as a public holi- day. The Geneva University has fine modern build- ings and a large library, with many portraits of dis- tinguished Genevans, and relics of the Eeformation. Among these is a Bible originally intended to be pre- sented to Henri IV., but as he abjured Protestantism, this was never done. The book was printed in French at Geneva in 1588. There are other Museums and Galleries, one of the best being the Musee Eath, an art collection founded by the Eussian General Eath, who was a Genevan and presented' it to his native city. All around Geneva are pleasant suburbs displaying magnificent scenery, and filled with fine villas and attractive resorts. GENEVA. 19 With a rapid current of the most delicious blue the river Ehone flows swiftly out of the lake. An island, covered with buildings formerly divided it into two channels, but the plan not long ago was executed of availing of the splendid water-power thus running to waste, and the right arm is now used for the flow of the river, and the left arm is an industrial canal. Each of these arms was successively emptied of water, excavated, and made of uniform width and depth, and a complete sewerage system was constructed. In the progress of this work, one side was emptied and arranged while the water was confined to the other, and the novelty was such that when each was nearly dry, the population flocked into the river bed to see the curious sight, and various elaborate civic banquets were spread there. At the same time, jetties were ar- ranged to maintain the waters of the lake at an uni- form level, thus preventing overflows of the banks. The Ehone, just below, receives the Arve, and flows away into France past the great fortress of Ecluze in the deep gorge between the Juras and the outliers of the Alps. These latter mountains press closely upon the southern bank of the lake and a short distance north- east of the outlet is the little brook Hermance, which makes the boundary between the Swiss Canton of Geneva and the French province of Savoy. Beyond, the lake expands to its greatest width, more than eight miles over toward Rolle and Morges, while about twenty-two miles from Geneva in a picturesque situ- 20 SWITZERLAND. ation rising in terraces from the shore, is the ancient capital of the province of Chablais, now the attractive bathing-town of Thonon. Here, on the hill was the palace of the Dukes of Savoy, captured and destroyed by the Bernese in 1536, and on its eastern verge the lovely little river Drance of Chablais whirls down, a mountain-torrent out of the Alps and rushes out to the lake. Upon the promontory to the northward is the ancient Chateau of Eipaille overlooking the lake. Victor Amadeus VIII. of Savoy, succeeded to that title in 1391, as Count of Savoy, it being advanced to a Dukedom by Emperor Sigmund of Germany in 1416. In 1434, tiring of the affairs of government, Amadeus abandoned his Duchy and retired to Ei- paille, where he had constructed a combined castle and monastery, and he lived so luxuriantly that faire Ripaille became a French saying signifying to make good cheer. He built here an establishment housing a thousand monks, and behind the seven towers of the extensive pile, there stretched the ter- raced hills where grew the famous Chablais wines. While this construction was going on and his fame grew, there came a schism in the Catholic Church and one of the factions, at the Council of Basle, although he had never received holy orders, elected Amadeus, the Pope, and he went to Basle and was crowned as Felix V. The schism grew, but he held on for several years, his rights being contested, and he finally re- signed in 1449, under an arrangement by which va- rious dignities were reserved to him, among them be- VEVEY TO MONTREUX. 21 ing that he need not go to Eome to attend any Gen- eral Council of the Church, that the Pope should rise to receive him, and permit Amadeus to kiss his cheek, instead of his foot. It is related of this luxurious aristocrat hy one of his biographers who defends the austerity of his character, that "the most excellent Duke wore no garments save those necessary to pre- serve his body from cold; he ate nothing but that which kept him from starving/^ The monastery con- tinued until the French Revolution, when it was closed and the monks were dispersed. There has recently been a partial restoration of the buildings. VEVEY TO MONTREUX. Returning to Lausanne, and proceeding along the northern lake shore eastward, not far away is the deep ravine through which rushes out the lively Ve- veyse, and here is picturesque Yevey, with a beautiful outlook upon the semicircular head of the lake, the upper Rhone valley and the high Alps beyond. Over these rise the Mont Catogne, the "sugar loaf," the mountains of the Great St. Bernard, and various others; while on a promontory on the opposite shore of the lake is St. Gengolph, a settlement having the peculiarity of being one-half in the Swiss Canton Va- lais, and the other half in French Savoy, the national boundary near this upper end of the lake being the gorge of the little river Morge, coming out through the village. Vevey was the Roman Vibiscus, and it 22 SWITZERLAND. has, in late years, developed into a popular resort for invalids. It was here that Rousseau laid the scene of his noted romance Nouvelle Heloise, written in 1761. In the ancient Church of St. Martin, outside the town on an eminence, are buried two of the English regi- cides, Ludlow and Broughton, the latter having read the death sentence to Charles I. They sought refuge here, and when Charles II. demanded their surren- der, the Swiss government refused. On the lake shore, three miles eastward is Clarens, immortalized by Eousseau, but his Bosquet long ago disappeared, though a grove of chestnuts is maintained there, called the Bosquet de Julie. Clarens with half a score of other villages scattered about on shore and hill are collectively called Montreux^ the name of the parish, and they are all popular resorts. The quaint old Church of Montreux, from its shady terrace high above the village of Les Planches has a magnificent view, and here is remembered by a bust on the ter- race the noted Dean Bridel, for almost a half-cen- tury its pastor. All along the picturesque shores of the lake are ravines, and the background of high hills into which they are deeply carved is full of routes for pleasant excursions. THE CASTLE OF CHILLOX. At the eastern verge of Montreux, in front of Yey- teux, upon an isolated rock out in the lake, and about seventy feet from the shore, rise the massive walls Castle of Chillon. THE CASTLE OF CHILLON. 23 and p3^ramidal and conical-topped towers of the for- bidding Castle of Chillon. Over the entrance are the arms of the Canton of Vand, and the Swiss govern- ment has made it a public museum. A quaint bridge crosses the narrow strait separating it from the shore. When this castle was originally built or by whom, no one seems to know. There is a tradition that in 830, King Louis le Debonnaire, imprisoned the Abbot Wala who had instigated his sons to rebellion "in a castle from which only the sky, the Alps, and Lac Leman, were visible," and this is believed to have been Chillon. It subsequently was part of Savoy, and there is a good deal of dispute about it, but there were constructions here in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and Count Peter of Savoy, who improved and fortified it in the latter century, left it much as it now appears. The Counts of Savoy, when they held Yaud, often resided in the castle, and they con- verted it into a state prison. It was this reputation surrounding the place that inspired Lord Byron's poem, Tlie Prisoner of Chillon, which has given the old castle its modern fame. Byron came along dur- ing his wanderings through Europe in gloomy mood, having just separated from Lady Byron, and as he said, "left England forever." This and the bad w^eather, detaining him at Ouchy, the port of Lau- sanne, in June, 1817, inspired the poem, but when Byron wrote it, he had not heard of Bonnivard, who was the most noted prisoner of Chillon, confined there for six years, from 1530 to 1536. After the poem had 24 SWITZERLAND. acquired fame, he heard of Bonnivard and made amends in a sonnet : "Chillon! thy prison is a holy place, And thy sad floor an altar; for 'twas trod. Until his very steps have left a trace. Worn, as if the cold pavement were a sod. By Bonnivard! — may none those marks efface! For they appeal from tyranny to God!" Francis Bonnivard was the Prior of St. Victor, near Geneva, and the Duke of Savoy having attacked the republic, Bonnivard espoused its cause. The Duke captured him and for ten years he was in prison elsewhere, but was liberated in 1528. Knowing his hostility, the Duke captured him again in 1530 and he was then imprisoned in Chillon. The Genevans stormed the castle in 1536, overthrew the power of Savoy, and liberated Bonnivard, who went to Geneva and lived a quiet life until his death, twenty-four years afterward. It was said that he was twice mar- ried and was a highly respected citizen. No place has more doleful legends than Chillon. The "po- tence,^' bleak with age, is shown, where the prisoners were hung; there is a hole in the wall whence their bodies were cast into the lake ; a torture chamber, with a wooden pillar to which they were fastened, and seared by hot irons; an "oubliette,^^ having a trap door shutting out the light, beneath which were three steps downward, but no fourth step, and the victim fell eighty feet upon sharp knives. Such is ancient and forbidding Chillon. ST. MAURICE AND MARTIGNY. 25 ST. MAURICE AND MARTIGNY. The upper valley of the Ehone above the lake is at first wide and somewhat marshy, being composed of the river deposits, and is bordered by high moun- tains. At Bex are hydropathic establishments, and a short distance beyond is St. Maurice, the chief town of the valley, and a leading community of the Can- ton Valais. It is a picturesque old place with narrow and winding streets, squeezed in between the rushing torrent of the Ehone and the cliffs. This was the Eoman Agaunum, and here came St. Maurice in the early fourth century to preach Christianity and suf- fer martyrdom. St. Maurice led here the "Thebain Legion" recruited in the Thebaid, and because they would not renounce Christianity, they were all mas- sacred. Thus perished over six thousand, including Saints Maurice, Candidus and Victor, the story mak- ing a dismal page in the Martyrology. They were part of Emperor Maximin's army invading Gaul. St. Maurice was born in Austria, and is the patron saint of that country, being also regarded as the special protector of foot soldiers. St. Theodore founded the old Abbey of St. Maurice at the close of the fourth century, and it still exists, the abode of some Augus- tinian monks. Among its treasures are the chalice of Queen Bertha of Swabia, wife of Eudolph II., dat- ing from the tenth century, and a richly illuminated 26 SWITZERLAND. manuscript of the gospels presented by Charlemagne. It is said to be the oldest abbey in Switzerland. Farther on, the Salanfe river comes down out of the Alps through a deep gorge, and falls over a high ledge of rocks in the beautiful Pissevache cascade and then rushes to the Rhone. This waterfall is over two hundred feet high, and in the spring time when the snows are melting the display is most beautiful. All around St. Maurice are high mountains, two of the highest guarding the valley, the Dent de Morcles ris- ing nearly ninety-eight hundred feet on the eastern side, and the massive Dent du Midi to the westward, its summit elevated ten thousand, seven hundred feet. In this Italian end of Switzerland, all these peaks are "dents" or teeth, which they very much resemble, while over in Savoy they are called "aguilles'^ or needles, from their sharp points, and in the German section they are generally known as "horns." Thus the name originally was given from their appearance. Just above is the deeply cut Gorge of the Trient, flow- ing in from the westward, the chasm looking like a huge vaulted cavern, very high and narrow, and ap- pearing much as if it had been cut down by some Titan with a blow from an axe. All about houses cling to the rocks on the mountain sides, the pretty little Swiss chalets, with projecting roofs, held down by stones to keep the winds from blowing them away. Here and there are little patches of soil, with people cultivating them, and goats with tinkling bells wan- der at will in almost inaccessible places. ST. MAURICE AND MARTIGNY. 27 Deep dowu at a sharp angle made by this pictur- esque Ehone valley, is Martign}^, the starting point for various routes over the Alps, doing now very much as in the Eoman days, when it was their sta- tion of Octodurum. Its tree-shaded market place dis- plays a bronze bust of Helvetia; and the vineyards of the neighborhood yield the noted wines of Coquempey and Lamarque which were popular in the Eoman times, as now. High, snow-covered mountains are all around, and ponderous cliffs and terrific gorges bor- der the fiat-floored and highly cultivated, narrow val- ley, through which swiftly flows the muddy torrent of the Ehone. Up on the hillside above the town is the ancient Castle of La Batiaz, built by Peter of Sa- voy in the thirteenth century for the Bishops of Sion, and from its dark gray round tower, there is a fine view along the three deep and narrow gorges which converge at Martigny. The first stretching off to- ward the northeast, is where the Ehone comes down out of the high Alps around its sources in the St. Gotthard, and then turning a sharp angle to the north- west at Martigny, it rushes off past St. Maurice through the second gorge to Lake Leman. The third gorge is La Forclaz, toward the southwest, and out that way is the '^Mauvais Pas^^ over the Tete N"oire, to Chamounix and Mont Blanc, one of the most re- markable mountain passes in this region. From the centre of Martigny two famous roads diverge that scale the Alps to Italy. A little monument marks their starting point, bearing upon one side the name 28 SWITZERLAND. of "Simplon/' pointing up the Ehone valley; and upon the other "St. Bernard/'^ which leads south- ward up the Drance. Both are magnificent roads, ex- hibiting great feats of engineering. THE ALPS AND THEIR PASSES. The famous road over the Great St. Bernard, is constructed up the deeply cut ravine of the Drance of Valais, from the Ehone at Martigny to Orsieres, and thence over the mountains to Aosta, in Italy, a distance of about forty-seven miles, the summit of the Pass being at more than eighty-one hundred feet elevation. It is named for St. Bernard of Menthon, who was born at that town in Savoy, in 923, and be- came the Archdeacon of Aosta, being engaged for forty years in missions among the people of this mountain region. He saw the terrible hardships that Alpine travellers suffered, and founded the Great St. Bernard hospice, where during nine centuries the monks, who afterward became St. Augustinians, have ministered to their wants, and at the same time taken care of the series of huts and shelters built at intervals on the Great and Little St. Bernard Passes. The Great St. Bernard crosses the range to the east- ward of Mont Blanc, and the Little St. Bernard crosses to the southward, both going to Aosta. There are hundreds of mountain passes over the great range of the Alps, which extends nearly eight hundred miles from the Mediterranean, the axis of THE ALPS AND THEIR PASSES. 29 the range being at first north, and then turning nearly east. The majority are only mule tracks or foot-paths, but there are at least sixty carriage roads and most of these are very skillful and costly works. When they were begun, no one knows, for the promi- nent routes have been crossed from remote periods, and at the dawn of history. The earliest knowledge of the Alps was only of the portions adjacent to these Passes. In their desire for conquest, the Eomans were the first to travel these roads extensively, and as a long and toilsome ascent was necessary, they were all called "Mons," which term has survived, so that while the routes are over depressions in the range, they are all now known as Monts or Moun- tains, thus explaining why the ancient name para- doxically belongs to a depression rather than to a peak. Similarly preserved have been the designations originally given by the Romans to the chief Alpine groups. The great range, where Mont Blanc is lo- cated and which includes the highest summits, em- braced between the Little St. Bernard and St. Gott- hard to the eastward is called the Pennine Alps. Before the days of the Caesars the Celtic dia- lect was used in Cisalpine Gaul, with its name of Pen or Ben signifying a mountain, and hence came the title with the subsequent Eoman designation also of Jupiter Penninus. To the southward of the Little St. Bernard are the Graian Alps, extending to Mont Cenis. This is said to have been originallv a Celtic name, thous^h Plinv 30 SWITZERLAND. and some others have derived it from the legendary crossing of these mountains by a detachment of Greeks led by Hercules. Beyond Mont Cenis and ex- tending between Piedmont and France, as far as Monte Viso, are the Cottian Alps, named from the powerful Cottius who ruled this region when the Komans in the days of Augustus occupied Gaul. Southward from Monte Viso, are the Maritime Alps, extending to the Mediterranean. To the eastward of the Pennines are the Lepontine Alps, on both sides of St. Gotthard Pass and stretching to the Pass of San Bernardino. On the Italian side of the St. Gotthard are the sources of the river Ticino, and the name came from the tribe of the Lepontii, inhabiting that river valley. Beyond, to the eastward is the long range of the Ehsetian Alps, named from the tribe of the Ehgeti living along the Adige and the Salm rivers. Farther on are the Noric Alps, extending to Hungary, the Carnic, Dinaric and Julian Alps, where in the dis- tant eastward the range falls away into the plateaus of Bosnia and the lower Danube. There are also other outlying groups making up the grand Alpine system. THE GREAT ST. BERNARD. We mount the ascent from Martigny past Osieres to the summit of the Great St. Bernard Pass, and while the journey is somewhat dreary it displays fine scenery. Upon the northern slope is Bourg St. Pierre, where there are relics of Eoman forts and a milestone Great St. Bernard Pass, Hospice, and Dogs. THE GREAT ST. BERNARD. 31 of the Caesars. The Hospice is at the summit of the PasS;, about thirty miles from Martigny; and just be- yond, the national boundary between Switzerland and Italy is marked by stone monuments. A temple to Jupiter Penninus originally stood upon the adjacent summit which in this way got the name of Monte Jove, a title locally translated now as the Mont Joux. Thence the bridle-path descends on the Italian side to St. Ehem}^, where is the custom-house. The road is then constructed down the ravine of the Buthier to a lower level, and soon enters a pleasant land of vineyards and more attractive scenery, the Buthier joining the Dora Baltea at Aosta. This was an old Eo- man fortress of Augustus, built to control the valley of the Dora and the mountain passes, and it displays interesting Eoman antiquities, among them the Porta Prsetoria under which the chief street enters, it be- ing the triumphal arch of Augustus, and the walls enclosing the rectangular camp, an area of about 1600 by 2400 feet. Aosta is in a splendid situation environed by lofty mountains. The most famous modern event connected with the Great St. Bernard was the march of Napoleon with an army of thirty thousand men over the Pass in May, 1800, when he overcame the greatest difficulties. This was the movement by which he attacked the Austrians and captured Milan. At Bourg St. Pierre, the sign of the village inn recalls it, representing Napoleon rid- ing a prancing charger, and announcing that he stopped there for breakfast. The sober tradition, 32 SWITZERLAND. however, is rather against the artist's fancy, it heing related that the great General really rode over the Pass upon a quiet mule. The impressive tradition of the Great St. Beruard Pass, however, is of the beneficent labors of the monks in assuaging the hardships and sorrows of the travellers. These were much more severe in the ear- lier days than they now are. Beginning with All Saints' Day, the monks daily patrol the Pass through- out the winter. There are large numbers of the poor and working classes crossing the mountain even in the most severe wintry season, and they are frequently found overcome by storms, sleeping the death sleep caused by the intense cold, and are rescued. They are given drink and food from the supplies carried by the famous St. Bernard dogs in rolls around their necks; are guided to the nearest shelters, and when restored are sent forward to their destination. Should the frost bites be so serious as to require amputations they are taken to the monks' hospital at Aosta, while those who die are deposited in the morgue at the Hos- pice and if the bodies are unclaimed, are buried. Ex- cepting the Santa Maria, on the Stelvio Pass^ which is about fifty feet higher, the St. Bernard Hospice is the most elevated habitation occupied in winter on the higher Alps. So severe is the climate that the young monks average barely fifteen years of service, when, with broken health, they have to leave the Hospice, and seek a milder home at a lower elevation, going down usually to Martigny or Aosta. There are about THE GREAT ST. BERNARD. 33 fifteen Augustinian monks usually at the Hospice, with a half-dozen attendants. There are some forty in the brotherhood, others serving at stations on the Little St. Bernard Pass, and on the Simplon further eastward, and performing ecclesiastical and chari- table duties in various places. The Hospice at the summit of the Pass was not long ago enlarged by adding modern buildings. The earlier structures came from the sixteenth century and the church was finished in 1680. One building contains the cells of the monks and the travellers' rooms; another is the storehouse and refuge for poor wayfarers. Upon arrival, the visitor is welcomed by a brother and assigned a room and place at table. Lodging and food are free, but the expectation is that alms will be put in the poor-box in the church, equal to what might have been paid at a hotel. There is always a hearty welcome. The dining room walls are hung with pictures, chiefly gifts, and the library contains coins and relics, among the most curious be- ing fragments of votive brass offerings anciently pre- sented to Jupiter Penninus after escaping danger on the Pass. Upon the western side of the Hospice is a small mountain lake which is often frozen over in summer nights. The assistance to travellers con- tinues for seven to nine months each year, and among the interesting adjuncts is the spacious kennel of the St. Bernard dogs who aid in the ministrations. The stock is said to have originally come from the Pyre- nees, but the old breed is now extinct. This most an- 34 SWITZERLAND. cient of the Alpine passes, has been travelled by in- vading armies since before the Christian era, and bloody contests have been waged for its control. MARTIGNY TO CHAMOUNIX. From Martigny the pass over the Col de la Forclaz for ChamoTinix, follows the route of the Great St. Bernard for over a mile, and then diverging south- westward climbs steeply out of the Ehone valley, to the summit of the Forclaz, nearly five thousand feet. In the ascent a fine view is given up the deeply carved valley of the Ehone for many miles. High above is the extensive glacier of the Trient, the northernmost glacier of the Mont Blanc range. Then through for- ests of firs and amid rocks and rubbish in a desolate region, the route mounts higher, crossing the sum- mit of the Col de Balme at over seventy-two hun- dred feet elevation, the watershed between the Ehone and the Arve, and the national boundary di- viding Switzerland and France. Here is seen the deep trench formed by the Arve, its head streams rising on the flanks of the mountain, and over beyond the chasm is a superb view of the vast Mont Blanc range. This deep trench formed by the Arve is the famous Vale of Chamounix, and down its precipitous sides the road winds to the village, the carriage journey over the pass occupying the greater part of the day. To the northwestward is the other route from the summit down by the Tete l^oire. Mont Blanc and Chamounix. MARTIGNY TO CHAMOUNIX. 35 through the Vale of the Eau Noire, the "Mauvais Pas," which gives a startling exposition of these for- bidding mountain fastnesses and dreary gorges. These roads between Martigny and Chamounix are among the most popular tourist routes in the Alps, as this is the connection from the upper Eh one val- ley over to the Mont Blanc region. A railway of twenty-four miles length is now being constructed across the mountain and is expected to be completed in 1907. Three miles down the Rhone from Mar- tigny, it ascends the steep side of the valley from Vernayaz to Salvan, climbing fifteen hundred feet in a mile and one-half, the railway curving around like the letter S and the mechanism of lifting the train on a grade of one in five being by a cog-wheel arrange- ment. It goes up alongside the Gorge of the Trient, and following the Tete Noire the route crosses the summit through the forests and then descends grad- ually on ledges cut out of the sides of a precipitous ravine, with tunnels bored through the projecting cliffs. Thus it gradually gets down to the floor of the valley and reaches Chamounix. These mountain passes are filled with villages in the most picturesque locations, which are generally aggregations of sum- mer boarding houses. In Chamounix there are more than twenty hotels with accommodations for five thousand people, besides the many less pretentious "pensions" and cottages which also receive visitors. This is one of the most curiously attractive places in Switzerland, its name being derived from its moun- 36 SWITZERLAND. tain defences, the champs munis, meaning the "for- tified grounds/^ The Chamonnix vale which hounds the Mont Blanc range on the northwest, as seen from high ahove on the approach by this pass, is an ex- traordinary region. It is a very deep and narrow elongated, curving fissure enclosed by tremendous precipices. This trench is twelve miles long and a half-mile wide, the Arve rushing through it from northeast toward the southwest, the floor of the val- ley being elevated about thirty-four hundred feet above sea level. The enclosing mountains rise about nine to ten thousand feet high on the northwest side of the trench, being thus three times as high as its width, while on the southeast side where the great range is, they are much higher. All these mountains are snow-covered, and out of their tops are thrust the jagged, pointed rocks, that are the Alpine "aiguilles" or "needles," being usually without snow, as they are too steep for it to remain upon them. In their sides huge fissures are scarred out, down which come gla- ciers, while in the lower parts they are dry-beds of spring-time torrents. Verdure covers these steep precipices below the snow-line, gradually developing from' heather to bushes, grass, and finally trees, as the mountain is descended. At the bottom, this remark- able valley has an almost flat, and fertile surface, every available part being carefully cultivated or used for pasturage. The fields are numerously crossed by stony moraines, these torrent beds running out to the Arve, which receives all the streams in its hois- THE SEA OF ICE. 37 terous course. We are told that a band of Benedic- tine monks first brought this Chamounix vale under cultivation in the twelfth century, but it was almost unknown to the world until tourists to the Alps began visiting it in the eighteenth century. Upon the Mont Blanc range, the line of perpetual snow is about eight thousand feet above the sea- level, and forty-six hundred feet above Chamounix. The greatest view of the range at Chamounix is seen from the Flegere, on the mountain side to the northward of the village, at an elevation of sixty-two hundred feet. In full exhibition across the deep val- ley, the magnificent mountain chain is spread out, with the great glacier of the Mer de Glace opposite, and on all sides a grand galaxy of peaks. The Mont Blanc summit is somewhat distant, but most splen- did, and here can be got probably the best near view of this unrivalled group of snow-covered mountains, of which the broad top of Mont Blanc is the monarch. THE SEA OF ICE. On both sides of the Mont Blanc range there come down numerous glaciers discharging into the streams leading into the Arve on the northern side and the Po on the southern. The most famous of these gla- ciers, as it is the largest, is the Mer de Glace, above referred to, the "Sea of Ice," flowing down the north- ern flanks of the mountain to the Chamounix vale, just above the village. Three spacious glaciers unite 38 SWITZERLAND. in the higher regions to form this sea, coming through as many capacious ravines in the mountain-sides, and combining in one broad stream of ice which curves around and flows ver}^ slowly downward, at first as the Mer de Glace, and then below, as the Glacier des Bois, until reaching the floor of the valley, it dissolves into a torrent of dirty water rushing to the Arve. Up to the Montanvert near its edge, visitors climb to look at this Sea of Ice, and then crossing the stony moraines guarding and enclosing it on either hand and the broad ice-stream between, the}^ go to the Chapeau, a projecting rock on the opposite edge, where there is a splendid view. The enormous peaks and needles of the higher x\lps environ it all about, and everywhere are rocks and precipices, snow and ice. Xo sign of vegetation appears and snow fills ever}^ fissure. Upon every side, the glaciers come down out of the billowy mountains, making the strange rivers of ice, which appear on their surfaces like the sea in a storm, suddenly stilled and frozen, and then having had snow powdered over, as if to smooth the rough edges. The compressed and concentrated ice-stream, impercepti- bly moves, with the slowest, and yet resistless mo- tion, groaning and cracking, with fissures opening and closing, gradually melting, and finally at the lower end, dissolving into the seething torrent which runs away to swell the Avxe. From one to two feet daily, depending upon the season, is the speed with which the glacier moves, the centre rather faster Tourists Crossing mer de Glace. MONT BLANC. 39 than the sides. From tliree hundred to four hun- dred feet is the annual rate of motion, and the height is reduced twenty to thirt}^ feet a year by the waste of melting. It picks up many stones and boulders, bringing them downward; wastes at the lower end, being constantly replenished above, and thus con- tinues as it has been doing from the creation, resist- lessly and eternally. MONT BLANC. We have come to the greatest of the Alps, Mont Blanc, rising as a stupendous pyramid seen from afar. The farthest distance from which it can be seen is westward, in France, about one hundred and thirty miles. Granite composes the mass of the mountain, being covered with strata of schists and limestones, while the entire top and sides are perpetually mantled with snow of dazzling whiteness. From this has come the name, and in fact, for the same reason all the highest mountains in the world when their names are translated, are found to be "White Mountains," or "snow mountains," being thus described by those who first gazed upon them, wherever they might be. Deeply carved valleys are to the north and south of the great mountain, the former Chamounix A^ale, and the latter the Allee Blanche. Mont Blanc has been probably the most numerously visited and closely studied of the world's famous peaks. Among the earliest visitors was the naturalist De Saussure, who 40 SWITZERLAND. came from Geneva in 1760. In Chamounix his monu- ment was erected in 1887, to mark the centenary of his ascent of Mont Blanc, displaying an attractive group in bronze representing De Saussure conducted by the guide Jacques Balmat. The ascent is the cul- minating event of a visit, and in the summer, it is made almost daily. The view from the summit, how- ever, is too indistinct to repay the fatigue of the jour- ney, the extreme height and vast distances spoiling the prospect. Only a faint outline can be got of the great mountain chains bordering the horizon, the Jura, the distant Alps of the Oberland and the Ap- penines. The first successful ascent was made in 1786, by the guide Balmat, it being until then, con- sidered an impossible feat. When De Saussure came in 1760, he offered a prize for the exploration of a practicable route, and in 1787, Balmat guided De Saussure to the summit, being accompanied by seven- teen other guides. The first lady ascending, was Mile. Paradis, in 1809, and the first Americans were Messrs. Howard and Eensselaer, in 1819. There is a regular tariff for ascents by the Cha- mounix guides, according to which one person re- quires two guides at $20 each and one porter at $10, each additional person in the party requiring an- other guide. When other necessary expenses are in- cluded, the cost usually for a party, averages $50 for each person. Three days are occupied by the jour- ney, generally made by way of the Grands Mulcts at an elevation of ten thousand feet on the mountain MONT BLANC. 41 side, where the first night is passed in a small inn. The journey is continued on the second day to the summit. Other routes are also taken. The top of the mountain has thei Observatory built by Dr. Jannsen in 1893, which is constructed upon the frozen snow covering the summit. This is a curious two-storied building, about thirty-eight feet high, but rising above the surface of the snow only two-fifths of that distance. The top of the lower story is level with the snow, and the laboratories and dwelling are beneath, with the visitors' waiting rooms also below. The up- per story is the Observatory, and the roof, forming a terrace surrounded by a balustrade, is strongly sup- ported. A dome of heavy beams protects the mathe- matical instruments and telescopes. Owing to its peculiar location, this structure rests upon heavy jackscrews, so that if the snow beneath and around it settles, by manipulating the screws it can be replaced in proper upright position. The construction is pyra- midal, to best resist the winds, and it is lighted by small dormer-windows having double panes of thick glass. In building it, all the materials were carried up to the summit on men's backs, they being paid $5 for each round trip of two days' ascent and one day's descent. There were forty mountaineers thus en- gaged, each one's burden being limited to thirty pounds, and the aggregate weight of materials thus carried up being fifteen tons. The work cost about $60,000, and the mountain summit whereon it stands is about one hundred and twenty-six feet long and 42 SWITZERLAND. forty-eight feet wide. The original plan was to found the structure upon the rock, but the preliminary tun- nels driven through the snow and ice, although going nearty seventy feet below the summit, failed to find anything but ice and snow, so that it was impossible. The first catastrophe in ascending Mont Blanc was in 1866, when Captain Arkwright was lost near the summit in a storm, and in 1897 his body was found. It had been carried for over thirty years gradually along the Glacier des Bossons, which flows down northward, and was then found near the bottom of the glacier and not far from Chamounix. His grave is near the gate of the English church in the village. Three persons, including two Americans, in Septem- ber, 1870, made the ascent with three guides, and all perished. Ascents are very frequent now, and the occasional catastrophes attract comparatively less at- tention than when the ascents were rare. A com- plete company of Chasseurs visited the summit in 1901, and a salute was fired at Chamounix. There is a large mortality in the Alpine regions from acci- dents to mountain-climbers, the decade of 1890- 1901 having a record of over three hundred lives lost. It is an interesting fact that the records of the Alpine Club at Bern, show that a hundred thousand people annually visit the Alps, of whom fully one-fourth climb the mountains, and about one hundred and twenty go to the summit of Mont Blanc. The aver- age annual loss of life in the mountain-climbing is twenty-seven. THE VALLEY OF THE AAR. 43 THE VALLEY OF THE AAR. We will return to Lausanne again, and from the shore of Lake Geneva, cross over the watershed north- ward to the valley of the chief tributary of the Rhine^ the river Aar. Mont Jorat, overlooking Lausanne, is the western verge and outcropping of the long mountain range of the Bernese Oberland. Xorth- ward of this range is the extensive basin of the river Aar and its branches, this being the greatest feeder of the Ehine, draining the larger portion of the ex- tensive "Plains of Switzerland,^' stretching eastward from the Jura range. This basin embraces nearly seven thousand square miles. These so-called "Plains" are in reality a series of huge and most at- tractive undulating valleys along the branches of the Aar, with intervening ridges enclosing the pleasant intervales. The Aar, which is a most beautiful stream of silvery waters, after a course of about one hun- dred and seventy miles. Joins the Rhine at Waldshut on the northern verge of Switzerland. These nu- merous and deeply excavated Swiss valleys seem to prosper much in accordance with the amount of sun- shine they are able to get in their environment of high mountains. It is noteworthy that the villages are almost always found on the sunny sides, where also are the best pastures and agriculture, and most of the population. 44 SWITZERLAND. FREIBURG TO MORAT. Crossing over the watershed northward from the Lake of Geneva at Lausanne, and descending into the basin of the Aar, upon its tributary, the Sarine, is built the ancient city of Freiburg. The railway courses along this rich and beautiful valley, giving evidence of the great industry and thrift of the Swiss, Freiburg is noted for its two impressive sus- pension bridges, prominent in every view of the lo- cality. The Grand Pont Suspendu crosses the Sarine at an elevation of about one hundred and seventy feet, while over a tributary ravine is thrown the Pont de Gotterou, a similar bridge two hundred and fifty feet high. Freiburg is the capital of its Can- ton, the old-time LTechtland, and was founded in the twelfth century by Berthold of Zahringen. It is built upon an elevation, around which flows the Sa- rine in a splendid curve, and the town's chief heir- loom, a venerable lime tree, stands in front of the Hotel de Ville. This tree commemorates the famous victor}^ of the Swiss over Charles the Bold of Bur- gundy, at Lake Morat in 14 '7 6. An enormous lime tree stood upon that battlefield, and the tradition is that a young man of Freiburg, who saw the battle, ran with a twig of this tree, fourteen miles to Frei- burg, sank exhausted, being able only to gasp the word "Victory," and died. Where he fell, the twig FREIBURG TO MORAT. 45 was planted, and there the tree has grown for over four centuries. The site of the ancient castle of the Dukes of Zahringen is occupied hy the Hotel de Yille, and some parts of the old walls and towers then pro- tecting the town, yet remain. The Cathedral Church of St. Mcholas was founded in the thirteenth century, and is noted for its great organ, among the finest existing, having sixty-seven stops and eighteen hundred pipes, some being thirty-two feet long. A curious feature of Freiburg is the boundary, passing through the place, between the French and German language in Switzerland, French being spoken to the southwest of this line, toward the Jura and Lake Geneva, and German toward the northeast in the lower town. The Lake Morat is northward of Freiburg, and Morat village stands upon its eastern bank, while southward is ancient Avenches, the capital of the Helvetii, and the Eoman Aventicum. Various Eo- man remains are disclosed here; and a mediaeval cas- tle occupies the site of the Eoman capitol. !N'earby rises a relic of the Temple of Apollo, a solitary Corin- thian column, about forty feet high, which for cen- turies has been occupied by a stork's nest; and from this feature it came to be popularly known as the Cigognier. Lord Byron has written of this isolated column in CJiilde Harold: "By a lone wall, a lonelier column rears A gray and grief -worn aspect of old days; 'Tis the last remnant of the wreck of vears, 46 SWITZERLAND. And looks as with the wild-bewildered gaze Of one to stone converted by amaze, Yet still with consciousness; and there it stands Making a marvel that it not decays, When the coeval pride of human hands, Levell'd Aventicum, hath strew'd her subject lands." Lake Morat was the Eoman Lacus Aventicencis and the Vecht-see of the middle ages. It is over five miles long and almost an oval. Morat village care- fully preserves the ancient walls which protected it against the bombardment by Charles the Bold be- fore the great battle. Its arcaded streets are over- looked by the old castle, and its Museum has a col- lection of Burgundian weapons and relics. Charles brought an army of fifty thousand, but Adrian Von Bubenberg successfully resisted his siege with a gar- rison of fifteen hundred Swiss, while the mountain- eers were collecting from all directions for his re- lief. The battle was fought just south of the lake, June 22, 1476, and Charles was badly defeated, with a loss of fifteen thousand men, and his treasures and stores. In the preceding spring he had been beaten by the Swiss at Grandson, w^est of Freiburg, beyond the head of Lake Neuchatel, and the next year, he was finally defeated and slain at Nancy. The old proverb tells us that in these three battles this most powerful, and last Duke "of Burgundy, lost his "Gut, Mut und Blut" — his treasure, his courage, and his life. His constant ambition, thus foiled, had been to restore the ancient kingdom of Burgundy. J^ear the shore of the lake, south of Morat, a marble obelisk FREIBURG TO MORAT. 47 was erected marking the battlefield. Upon an over- looking hill, is the huge lime-tree, under which the Swiss are said to have held their council planning the battle. The tradition is that the bones of the slain Burgundians were gathered into a single vast sepul- chre w^here they rested for centuries, when to efface the memory of the defeat, they were scattered over the field. Then began a rivalry in carrying off these relics. Every Burgundian passing that way, patriot- ically took home a bone to bury in sunny France. Every Swiss W'ho came along, also carried them off, to carve into knife-handles, bears or other emblems, the years of bleaching having given them a dazzling whiteness that was popular. These Morat knife- handles and relics are still made and sold to the tour- ists. It was natural that this famous battlefield should attract Byron's poetic genius. Cliilde Harold paused before nearing the distant Alps : "But ere these matchless heights I dare to scan, There is a spot should not be passed in vain, — Morat! the proud, the patriot field! where man May gaze on ghastly trophies of the slain, Nor blush for those who conquer'd on that plain; Here Burgundy bequeathed his tombless host, A bony heap, through ages to remain, Themselves their monument; — the Stygian coast Unsepulchred they roamed, and shriek'd each wandering ghost, "While Waterloo with Cannse's carnage vies, Morat and Marathon twin names shall stand; They were true Glory's stainless victories, Won by the unambitious heart and hand 48 SWITZERLAND. Of a proud, brotherly, and civic band, All unbought champions in no princely cause Of vice entail'd Corruption; they no land Doom'd to bev^^ail the blasphemy of laws Making kings' rights divine, by some Draconic clause." LAKE NEUCHATEL. High intervening ridges make narrow peninsulas separating Lake Morat from Lake Nenehatel to the westward^ into which the former discharges. At the hase of the long range of the Jura, bounding the northwestern horizon, spreads the wide Lake ISTeu- chatel, stretching twenty-five miles from the south- west toward the northeast, its fertile borders being a prolific vineyard and pasture land. This was the Eoman Lacus Eburodunensis, and adjoining its shores are the noted lake dwellings of La Tene at Marin, near its northeastern outlet, the relics of a civiliza- tion prior to the days of Eome. The Canton of Neuchatel came into the Swiss Con- federation in the first half of the nineteenth century, and its capital, the town of Neuchatel, is in a charm- ing situation on the slopes of the Jura, spreading broadly upon the northwestern shore of the lake. An attractive quay and tree-planted promenade front it for over a mile along the edge of the water, and near the centre is the little harbor, almost enclosed by protecting piers. A monument commemorates the accession of the Canton to Switzerland, and from the promenade there is a superb outlook across the LAKE NEUCHATEL. 49 lake at the distant Alpine ranges. Back on the hill is the "Neu ChateF' — ^the ancient, but recently re- stored chateau, dating from the twelfth century, which is now the Cantonal Capitol. Adjacent is the old Abbey Church, with its fine monument, a four- teenth century erection to the Counts of ^euchatel. A statue in front represents Farel, the reformer of the sixteenth century, and there are pleasant adjoin- ing cloisters, relics of the b3^gone era. The Museum of Art and Antiquities has valuable collections, with much that illustrates w^atchmaking, the leading manufacture of the Canton. An Observatory, on a height above the town, has been erected for the watchmakers' benefit, having telegraphic communi- cation with Chaux de Fonds, the great watchmaking village about eighteen miles northwest, among the spurs of the Jura, at nearly thirty-three hundred feet elevation. Here are handsome streets and buildings, and over thirty thousand people, who say they are proud to know that they live in "the largest village of Europe.^' Another important watchmaking set- tlement, though with smaller population, is Le Locle. This industry, in both places, was founded by M. Richard, who died in 1741, his bronze statue being erected opposite the Watchmakers' School of Le Locle. Southwest from ISTeuchatel, the pretty little river Reuse flows through the Yal de Travers, and here at the village of Motiers on May 28, 1807, Louis Agassiz was born. Lake Neuchatel discharges through the canal of 4 50 SWITZERLAND. Zihl, northeastward into the smaller Lake Bienne, which is substantially a prolongation, stretching for ten miles. The latter in turn discharges through the river Zihl into the Aar, which having come out from the south by a great western curve, now turns northeast seeking the Rhine. At the foot of the lake is the old town of Bienne, also a proliiic maker of watches. The Aar flows through a picturesque valley in the Canton Soleure, which entered the Con- federation in the fifteenth century. It passes the an- cient town of Soleure, the Roman Salodurum, claim- ing to be after Treves, the oldest city north of the Alps. Here are a Cathedral, and an Arsenal, with collections of ancient weapons and armor, including the shield of Philip the Good of Burgundy. Its old- est and most treasured building is the curious Clock l^ower, said to be a Burgundian structure of the fifth century, but by some claimed to have been erected as early as 400 B. C. This tower has a Latin inscrip- tion relating the great antiquity of the town. Thad- deus Kosciuszko died here in 1817. There are mag- nificent views from the Weissenstein and other high hills, enclosing the deep valley of the Aar. Farther down the river is Aarburg, its original castle now being devoted to the practical uses of a factory. Northeastward and still farther down is Aarau, the capital of Canton Argau, the houses spreading along the river bank at the bases of the Jura foothills. Here lived the Swiss historian Zschokke, whose house is pointed out and his bronze LAKE NP:UCHATEL. 51 statue adorns the village. Below, the mountain spurs closely approach the Aar, and there are sulphur and other baths at the base of the high Wiilpelsberg. On top of the eminence are the ruins of the famous castle of Hapsburg, where the Imperial family of Austria had its origin. The castle was built by Count Eadbod in the early eleventh century, and from the summit, the view includes the entire ancient do- main of these Counts, extending over the valleys of the Aar, and of the Eeuss and the Limmat, its tribu- taries, flowing down from the outlying spurs of the higher Alps of the Bernese Oberland at the south- eastern and southern horizon. The ruins chiefly are a tower with thick walls, including the room occu- pied by the noted Count Eudolph of Hapsburg. Far- ther down the Aar at Brugg, died Pestalozzi, the noted Swiss educator of the early nineteenth century who did so much to develop the modern school sys- tem. The town displays near the river, the restored Schwarze Thurm, an ancient Eoman construction; and in the suburbs is the Abbey of Konigsfelden, founded in the fourteenth century on the spot where Albert of Austria was murdered in 1308 by John of Swabia. His widow, Elizabeth, and daughter, Agnes, were the builders, but only part of the original con- struction remains. It has been greatly enlarged, for its modern occupation by a lunatic asylum. The Abbey church once was the place of interment of princes of the House of Austria, but the tombs are empty. Nearby, the Eeuss joins the Aar, and on the 52 SWITZERLAND. peninsula between them, anciently stood the Hel- vetian town of Yindonissa, which was destroyed in the fifth century. Eecent excavations here, have dis- closed various Koman and even more ancient re- mains, including the foundation walls of a large am- phitheatre. The Aar receives the Limmat to the northward, and then soon joins the Ehine. THE CANTON BERN. Upon the northern verge of the Aar valley at So- leure, the high enclosing ridge, as we have seen, cul- minates in the eminence of the Weissenstein, rising over forty-two hundred feet. The people climb up here to enjoy the grand view given of the Plains of Switzerland, the distant Bernese Oberland, and the whole Alpine chain from the far eastern Tyrol to the crowning summit of Mont Blanc to the southward. As one stands on this point of noble outlook, on either hand the long pine-clad ridge stretches to the north- east and southwest. In front is the deeply carved river valley, the Aar winding through the fertile plains from the south, while to the southwest, glint the silver waters of the lakes Bienne, Morat and Neu- chatel. There is a broad stretch of lowlands beyond, with undulating surface of verdure, grain fields and gardens, pasture and woodlands, having a confused mass of hills behind them, rising into flattened tops, and then the loftier mountain waves, with range after range of higher summits and steeper slopes. Bern. THE CANTON BERN. 53 These culminate in a vast enclosing range of bare crags, which has yet behind it at the horizon, and higher still, as their contours stand out against the sky, the final range of snowy peaks of the highest Alps. From this summit of the Weissenstein there can be seen the mountains of sixteen Swiss Cantons. The most conspicuous part of the landscape, how- ever, is nearer — the wide stretch of land spreading . from one's feet toward the far-away snow-clad range. This is the famous Canton Bern, probably the most important in Switzerland, which extends from the Jura ranges south and southeast to the mountains of the Bernese Oberland. Among them the river Aar rises in its southeastern corner, and coming through the lakes of Brienz and Thun, crosses westward in the centre of the canton, past its capital, Bern, and makes a great sweeping bend around by the west, to come to Soleure. The valleys of the Oberland are famous for their beauty — for there in the distance are the mountains enclosing the Grindelwald and the Lauterbrunnen, with the plain of Interlaken, be- tween the lakes. About twenty-iive miles southward over this de- licious landscape, as the crow flies, is the capital of the Canton, and of the Swiss Confederation, Bern. The river Aar flows around a bold sandstone penin- sula rising over a hundred feet above the swift tor- rent, and here, in a magnificent situation, the city is built, with high bridges spanning the deep river ravine on all sides. The redoubtable Berthold von 54 SWITZERLAND. Zaliringen in the twelfth century, wandered along the Aar valley, and upon this flat-topped peninsula he hunted and killed a ferocious bear. The animal had been a terror to the inhabitants, and in com- memoration of the event Berthold founded the town in 1191, naming it after the bear. Thus began the devotion to Ursa Major which has always been the pride of the Bernese, the word Baren being German for bears, and during more than seven centuries these loyal people have kept pet bears in the town, have set up images of bears, and in every way shown their de- votion, the bear appearing in effigy and name in all places, on coats of arms, signs, heraldic emblems, on fountains and flagstafls, in clock-towers striking the hours, as toys and heroes in unlimited variety. There is a herd of pet bears kept in spacious pits at the public expense, wdiile the population pay obeisance. Thus has it been during the centuries. In 1798, when Xapoleon despoiled all this part of Europe of its treasures to carry off to Paris, he took thither the historic bears from Bern. The city was inconsolable, and when the Empire fell, one of the chief stipula- tions of the Swiss was for the return of the bears and they were brought back with great pomp and re- joicing. These bears are closely guarded and only bread and fruit can be given them. Upon the side wall of the ancient West Gate, a most revered relic of the past, the Zeitglockenthurm, now the central point of the greatly extended city, is the old Clock Tower. Here sits the great Berthold in solemn state, THE CANTON BERN. 55 and the approach of each hour is proclaimed to him by the crowing of a cock. When the time comes, a troop of bears marches around him, a dignified bear nods his head at every stroke, and Berthold opens his month and swings his sceptre. Bern is one of the most picturesque towns of Switzerland. It is attractive from its old-fashioned streets with their shady arcades, the weird gateways, the quaint fountains, the constant flowing of the waters through the highways, the houses with huge gabled roofs, turreted angles and oriel windows, the grand Cathedral rising from its rocky base far above the rushing Aar, and its glorious view of the snowy mountains of the distant Oberland range. The run- ning waters make Bern a paradise for the washer- women. The fountains set up so numerously on the streets are provided with spouts from which flow a perennial stream for their special use, and permanent tubs and washstands are established that are almost always in use. This is a special feature of Bern, and is reproduced in most of the Swiss towns, where the mountain streams so readily provide an unfailing water-supply. The finest edifice of modern construc- tion in Bern is the Federal Palace, two great build- ings on a commanding height, where the Swiss gov- ernment is located, with the chambers of the two National Legislative Assemblies. It was here that the International Postal Union was founded in Oc- tober, 1874. These structures are known as the Bundeshauser, being respectively called the East 56 SWITZERLAND. Building and West Building. A fountain figure of Berna in heroic bronze adorns the front, and from the terrace there is a magnificent view of the moun- tains. The Miinster, or Bernese Cathedral built in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries rises high above the Aar, the modern tower elevated over three hun- dred and twenty feet above the base of the building. Within is the monument erected to Berthold von Zahringen, by the city in 1600, while upon the ter- race out over the Aar, is his statue, having Bruin alongside as his helmet-bearer. The city has several museums, with displays of art and antiquities. In the Historical Museum are objects from the lake dwellings, old armor, and ec- clesiastical survivals, including a famous Diptych, pos- sessed by Bern since the Eeformation, a cause which the people espoused with great fervor. This was for a long time supposed to be the field altar of Charles the Bold. It was made in Venice at the end of the thir- teenth century for King Andrew of Hungary, and Queen Agnes presented it to the Abbey of Konigsfel- den in the fourteenth century, whence it came to Bern. The great charm of the city, however, is the splendid view of the Alps, the grand galaxy of snowy peaks ris- ing in magnificent array across the southern landscape, and the rich Alpine glow being seen with rare en- joyment on pleasant evenings. This gorgeous Al- pengliihen appears a few minutes after the setting sun has disappeared from view, the dark intervening valleys then being subdued in the twilight. THE LAKE OF THUN. 57 THE LAKE OF THUN". From Bern we ascend the Aar to the lake of Thnn, through a deep, broad and richly cultivated valley, the stream being embanked to save as much arable land as possible. This lake is a beautiful sheet of water, having at its lower end, built on the flat sur- face of the valley alongside the Aar, the village of Thun about nineteen miles from Bern, It is a quaint old place, the portal of the Oberland, and above it rises at nearly two thousand feet elevation the square towered castle of Zahringen-Kyburg, built in the twelfth century to control the passage of the lake. Its pyramidal roof is guarded by conical-topped cor- ner turrets. The lake of Thun, which is over eigh- teen hundred feet above sea level, is an expansion of the Aar, about two miles wide and eleven miles long. It begins among the high mountains and rugged scenery of the Bernese Alps, but as the enclosing val- ley passes out of the mountain range, it gradually becomes a quieter scene of pleasant cottages and highly cultivated shores, spreading into the broad in- tervale beyond to the village of Thun. We have gotten at Thun into one of the great val- leys of Switzerland. Two ridges of precipitous moun- tains, curving around the arc of a vast circle with its concavity toward the northward, extend almost fifty miles, parallel and rising about six thousand feet 58 SWITZERLAND. above the valley between them, a depression some three miles wide. From the eastward comes out of the Alps the Aar through this depression, then proceed- ing westward it spreads into the elongated waters" of Lake Brienz for nearly nine miles, the width varying from a mile to a mile and one-half. Then it enters the valley between the lakes which are two miles apart, and contains the town of Interlaken, and finally at about twenty feet lower level is the lake of Thun, while far away to the westward the x\ar flows off be- tween lower enclosing ridges toward Bern. The tour- ist usually takes a steamboat ride up the lake of Thun to Interlaken. As he emerges from the land- ing place at Thun, into the foot of the lake, there is seen a gorgeous view. This has been well described as extending "across the blue waters of the lake, across the narrow strip of orchard and vineyard on its shores, up to the oak forests, up to the pine forests, up to the bright green pastures dotted with chalets, up to the bare mountain sides, up to the belt of snow, up to the peaks of the Monch, the Eiger and the Jungfrau in mid-air, up to the deep azure above." The southern wall of this great valle}^ is enclosed by the giant mountain range of the Oberland. Down through it come the deep tributary valleys of the Simme and the Kander, flanked by the cone-like summit of the Stockhorn, rising seventy-two hundred feet, and the higher pyramid of the Xiesen, elevated nearly sevent3^-eight hundred feet. The Simmenthal is regarded as one of the most exquisite pastoral THE LAKE OF THUN. 59 scenes in Switzerland, combining orchards and tree groves, with rich meadows and splendid hill-slopes, environed by the grandest mountains. The vale of the Kander is wilder and leads southw^ard to the fa- mous Gemmi Pass across the mountains to the Ehone. High above the lake shore is seen near the mouth of the Kander, into which the Simme comes, the old tower of the Chateau of Strattligen, which was the cradle of the ducal house of Burgundy. Be- yond, upon a low tongue of land by the waterside, is ancient Spiez, the starting point for excursions through these vales and mountains, and displaying the chateau, most picturesquely restored, of the counts of Erlach, who were a great family of the Canton Bern. Ascending the lake of Thun, the steamboat ride gives admirable views eastward of the I^iesen, of the glittering snow-fields of the Bliimis Alp, of the Altels and other high mountains around the Kander- thal and the Gemmi Pass, and beyond, the grander summits of the "Maiden Peak," the Jungfrau, and her attendants the Monch and Eiger, with glimpses behind them of the more distant triple summit of the "Peak of Tempests," the Wetterhorn, and the grand "Peak of Terror," the Schreckhorn. Soon a broad green plain bars the way at the head of the lake, and entering the Aar channel, the steamboat ascends it a short distance and reaches Interlaken. This plain separating the two lakes, Thun and Bri- enz, is called the Bodeli and is in fact a great delta. 60 SWITZERLAND. During centuries, the lateral stream of the Liitschine, coming out of the mountains from the southward, into the foot of Lake Brienz, has been bringing through the vast gorge in the southern wall of. the Aar valley, the ruins of these Oberland mountains. From the Wetterhorn far over to the Breithorn, it gathers the outflow of all the glaciers and torrents, transporting their spoil to this delta, and their copi- ous waters to the Aar. Throughout this region, in journeying along the roads and among the villages, is got a very good idea of the mode of life of the Swiss. There are myriads of little hamlets of primitive houses. Stones piled on the roofs keep the planks and shingles from blowing off, while the house-fronts are often remark- able for their wood-carvings. This is the land of the wood-sculptor, who plies his art, not only in making little images and keepsakes, but also in skillfully adorning his home, and its adjuncts. Every house has its little pile of hard wood, seasoning under the eaves in readiness for the knife. Saw-mills are fre- quent, with rude and primitive wheels driven by the mountain torrents. Goats wander about, each with an attendant child. The men carry burdens on their backs, or push little hand-carts, where pigs, children, and household goods are packed together. The women come into Interlaken on high days and holi- days, dressed in the peasant's waists, velvet collars and silver ornaments of the Canton Bern costume, and the men usually wear butternut homespun, as INTERLAKEN. 61 their ancestors have done for centuries. The short- tailed coat has the hack buttons well up toward the shoulders, and the tail seems to stop almost too soon to meet the equally short pantaloons. INTERLAKEN. Here upon the delta between the lakes, amid the ancient villages, which are probably the most unique in Switzerland, the rush of the latter-day army of tourists, has reproduced in these gorgeous mountains, the modern Parisian elegance of the hotels of Inter- laken — '^Between the Lakes." The fine avenue of the Hoheweg, shaded by walnut and buttonwood trees, stretches along the plain, and these hotels are mostly built along its northern border. This ave- nue extending from northeast to southwest is the chief street of the town, and in the season develops a grand display of fashionable life. N'ear its eastern end is the old monastery of Interlaken, a twelfth century foundation, suppressed four centuries later and now a hospital and government offices, with its ancient church used in different portions for the ser- vices of various religious denominations. The south- ern side of the Hoheweg is practically unobstructed by buildings. From it the green meadows spread over to the opening of the Lutschine gorge, with the Lauterbrunnen vale beyond. Interlaken is known as the "City of One View," and here it is, through this opening into the very heart of the Oberland range. 62 SWITZERLAND. Elsewhere the views are circumscribed and common- place, but here is a most gorgeous display. On one side of the opening are the pine-fringed cliffs of the Schynige Platte, and on the other hand, the preci- pices rise abruptly to the pastures of Mtirren high above, but farther away. Between them, the beau- tiful vista is closed by the great cliffs and glaciers of the snow-covered Jungfrau. The Virgin mountain, a white-hooded maiden, is gently leaning over and ever confessing to the attendant Monk, standing by her side. This is one of the greatest views in Switzer- land, for in all the Alpine region, none other, so well combines and contrasts the pastoral beauty and wild grandeur here displayed. The glittering pyramid of the Jungfrau rises high in the cool air of the southern landscape and the cloud shadows drift over the snowy slopes. As the visitor gazes at these mountains, with their varying hues, and vegetation, and sees the many clusters of huts and chalets on their sides and in the nooks where they protect pasture land, another trait of the thrifty Swiss is unfolded. In the x\lps, as soon as the win- ter snows have melted from the lower slopes, and the mountain pastures are again green with fresh grass, growing so well in the sun and moisture, the cattle and their attendants, quit the valleys, where the winter has been spent. They wind in long proces- sion up the rough and zigzag paths, the cows sol- emnly following their leader who carries the ever- tinkling bell, and behind them the keepers with the JUNGFRAU FROM VALLEY OF LAUTERBR UNNEN. INTERLAKEN. 63 string of pack-animals. They halt at the lower pas- tures, and then as the summer advances, follow the retreating snows upward to constantly higher mead- ows. The groups of huts at various elevations are the temporary abiding places and storm-refuges of both men and animals. These chalets picturesquely dotted about on the mountain slopes give a pleasant change to the view. Railways are everywhere in this lovely region, thus easing the toils of the tourist — curving through the valleys, crossing high bridges over the torrents and going into dark tunnels, while the steep mountain sides are scaled by fack-and-pinion lines of daring construction. Up to the top of the Schynige Platte the visitor is thus lifted, to an elevation of over sixty-five hundred feet to enjoy an admirable view of the entire Oberland range. Another route penetrates the Lauterbrunnen Yale almost to the base of the towering Jungfrau, coming to the Lauterbrunnen village, about eight miles from Interlaken, deep down in a narrow rocky valley through which the rapid Liitschine rushes, and where the sun's rays do not penetrate until very late in the morning. Here are springs and streams everywhere, and hence its name which means "nothing but springs.'' It is great in wet weather, when all the waters are running, and its best known cataract is the Staubbach, the "spray- brook," this famous stream coming down a vertical wall of limestone almost one thousand feet high, in a single leap from a jutting rock, most of the water 64 SWITZERLAND. being converted into spray during the descent, so that it resembles a silver veil blown by the winds, or as the poet says, it falls "like a downward smoke, slow-dropping veil of thinnest lawn." Far over the village on the one hand rises the snowy summit of the Jungfra-a, behind a base of huge rocky precipices, while on the other side is the ponderous form of the Breithorn. High above the western side of this deep valley at an elevation of about fifty-four hundred feet, is the hamlet of Miirren, built on a terrace, up to which the visitor mounts by a cable and electric railway. From here and the adjacent more elevated summit of the Allmendhubel there is a famous view across the intervening vale of the entire Jungfrau range, and its vast expanse of snow-covered peaks and extensive glaciers. THE JUNGFRAU AN^D HER ATTENDANTS. The Queen of the Bernese mountains, the Jung- frau, rises 13,670 feet. The adjoining Monch is 13,- 465 feet high and the more distant pyramid of the Eiger, projecting like a bastion from the main chain, 13,040 feet. On the other side the Wetterhorn rises 12,150 feet, the Mittlehorn, 12,165 feet, the Eosen- horn 12,110 feet, and the Berglistock, 12,000 feet. Adjacent are the Schreckhorn, rising 13,385 feet, and the highest of all these Bernese Alps, the Finster- aarhorn, its summit elevated 14,025 feet. A galaxy of attendant summits surrounds them, and vast gla- THE JUNGFRAU AND ATTENDANTS. (55 ciers and snow fields dissolve into the myriads of streams feeding the Aar on the one side of the range or the Ehone on the other. The Jungfrau was first ascended in 1811, and its summit is said to give prob- ably the finest view of all the chief Alpine peaks. The daring railway builder is even scaling this mag- nificent mountain. From Lauterbrunnen eastward, a railway zigzags up the slope of the Wengern Alp to the peak known as the Kleinescheid egg. Thence a road of about seven miles' length, with a maximum gradient of one in four, was begun in 1896, and con- structed to a tunnel entrance on the slope of the Ei- ger at nearly seventy-six hundred feet elevation. This portion was completed in 1898, and the progress be- yond is mainly by tunnels as it gets up in the re- gion of perpetual snows. These tunnels constantly rising to higher elevations are bored through the verge of the Eiger and the Monch's southern side, and then the route is projected through the interven- ing mountain, the Jungfrau Joch, which rises over eleven thousand feet, and finally to the Jungfrau. There are stations on each mountain, and within the Jungfrau the elevator station is to be at 13,428 feet height, with a final lift, also within the mountain, of 242 feet further to the summit. The route is thus entirely covered, and the estimated cost of the whole work is about $2,000,000, the power to be electric, derived from various cataracts on the adjacent Liit- schine. The bold projector of this road, Herr Guyer- Zeller of Zurich, died recently and the construction 6Q ^ SWITZERLAND. has since made but slow progress. Mountain climb- ing, however, is being thus steadily superseded by the wonderful railways that are constantly building throughout the Alps, so that the ordinary tourist can now get all he wants of this exhilarating pastime with small expenditure of personal effort. To the eastward of Lauterbrunnen, and up the romantic valley of the Black Lutschine, is the Grin- delwald stretching to the northeastward of the Eiger, and having the Schreckhorn and Wetterhorn rising above it, beyond. This is a beautiful valley, encom- passed by peaks and glaciers, and having various vil- lages and stopping places where visitors go to view the glaciers, climb the mountains, and watch the avalanches, which, on warm sunny days, are con- stantly falling down the vast slopes and precipices, with a sound of distant thunder amid the awful still- ness of these desolate fastnesses. The masses of snow fall from cliff to cliff, and glide down the slopes, a huge cascade of dazzling whiteness. In the heart of the valley is the Grindelwald village, at about thirty-four hundred feet elevation, and having a pop- ulation of three thousand who get their living from the visitors. All around, the towering, snow-covered mountains rise eight to ten thousand feet higher, conspicuous among the galaxy being the wonderful mass of rock and snow of the Eiger, rising sixty-three hundred feet almost sheer above the Pass between it and the Wengern Alp, and ten thousand feet above the village, to its snowy cone. The Schreckhorn ad- THE GEMMI PASS. 67 Joins it, to the eastward, while in front as one views the rising sun, is the beautiful triple peak of the Wetterhorn, a most prominent feature of the land- scape. The great attractions here are the glaciers of the Eiger, the Guggi, and the Upper and Lower Grindelwald glaciers. These are well displayed and have many visitors, their ice grottoes and other points of interest being thoroughly developed. The Faul- horn, a somewhat lower peak, eighty-eight hundred feet high, north of the valley, and readily scaled, is ascended for the superb views it gives of all these great mountains, on the one side, and on the other of Lake Brienz, and northern and northeastern Switzerland, a splendid landscape of mountains, lakes and forests. This peak gets its name from the friable rock composing it, the word faul meaning "rotten." THE GEMMI PASS. From Interlaken as a centre, tourists visit various districts of Switzerland, and to reach them go out of the Aar valley over noted Alpine passes. Eeference has already been made to some of these famous roads in Savoy over Mt. Cenis, the St. Bernard and others. The Alps have many passes. A few of them are grand highways, crossed by fine roads and in some cases by railways. More of them are fit only for the plodding mules who go in long and patient processions carry- ing their burdens up the winding pathways. There are hundreds of routes that are mere tracks, to be fol- 68 SWITZERLAND. lowed afoot, varying from the solitary ways of the smuggler or shepherd and cowherd to the daring and breakneck routes eagerly taken by the reckless mod- ern ilk of Alpine climbers. During long ages these paths have been explored and marked by the many generations who have lived near and crossed the AlpS;, thus carrying out an idea voiced in the ancient German proverb that "Behind the mountains there also are people." Southward from Interlaken, across the Oberland range, is the deepty carved gorge through which the Ehone flows out to Lake Leman. From the lake of Thun, the Gemmi Pass crosses over to Sion on the Ehone. It goes up the beautiful vale of the Kander, ascending through the narrowing glen, where the mountains rise abruptly from the rich green meadows into the towering slopes to the eastward of the Blii- mis Alp. Here is the romantic lateral vale of the Kienthal coming down the side of that great moun- tain amid a galaxy of peaks. At the village of Fruti- gen, amid the range, the Swiss make matches from the timber grown on the lower slopes. Farther on, nestling superbly in a deep glen, though at thirty- eight hundred feet elevation, is Kandersteg, having a magnificent situation. To the eastward is the noble group of peaks of the Bliimis Alp, culminating in three that are twelve thousand feet high, the north- ern side of the spacious group covered with snows, w^hile to the southward their bold cliffs adjoin the Kander glacier. From it the Kander descends the THE GEMMI PASS. 69 wild Gastern vale in picturesque falls and rushes through the village. Here the bridle path begins, going southward and upward among the Altels, with the craggy Einder- horn, the broad Mittaghorn and the lofty Balmhorn in full view. Getting high above the Gastern vale, it reaches the Spitalmatte, a pasture at sixty-three hun- dred feet elevation, which the glaciers have devas- tated by unexpected avalanches. Then the route drearily winds among crags and boulders on the sum- mit plateau past the Daubensee, a narrow lake over a mile long, at a height of seventy-three hundred feet, fed by glaciers, generally frozen over for seven months in the year, and having no visible outlet. The path skirts its eastern bank, and a short distance southward, the summit of the pass is reached at 7,640 feet elevation, the Gemmi, where there is a ho- tel at the northeastern base of the towering Dauben- horn which rises over two thousand feet higher. Here is given a magnificent view over the Alps all around and to the Monte Eosa range southward beyond the Ehone. This is the boundary between the Cantons Bern and Yalais. We have come into a most remarkable place. Off to the eastward among the glaciers of the Balmhorn, rises the river Dala. It cuts down a deep ravine along the eastern slopes of the Einderhorn and the Daubenhorn and goes out southward to the Ehone. The visitor wanders a short distance from the hotel and suddenlv comes to the brink of an enormous 70 SWITZERLAND. precipice, having a wilderness of snowy peaks be- yond, and looks deeply down upon the green fields and woods adjoining the diminutive Dala, so far below that it can scarcely be traced. The brook leads far- ther down towards another deep trench, which is the great ravine of the Rhone, while rising high beyond it are the towering peaks of the main Alpine range, their glaciers and snowy slopes stretching afar — a most wonderful view. To see it, one looks over the edge of a rocky wall, sixteen hundred feet high, right down the face of which goes this remarkable Gemmi Pass. It is one of the strangest routes in existence, hav- ing been constructed during the middle of the eigh- teenth century in the form of a path about five feet wide, its windings hewn in the rock, often resembling a spiral stairway, the steepest parts and sharp cor- ners protected by parapets, and the upper portions in some places actually projecting beyond the lower. Twisting and turning in the wildest and most risky fashion, this breakneck path descends the front of the perpendicular cliff into the deep gorge, zigzag after zigzag, from ledge to ledge and crag to crag, while far below is seen the village of Leuk, which has been well described as viewed from above, "like a collection of toy houses, set out on a green cloth." Venturesome folk used to go down on horseback, but after accidents mournfully recalled by a mortu- ary cross, this method of descent is now forbidden. A slope of debris extends from the base of the cliff, THE GEMMI PA8IS. 71 to the Dala, with a fringe of forest. After many twists and turns, always going downward, the travel- ler at length comes to Leuk, which has been so long in sight and gradually growing larger as it is neared, and he breathes more freely when he arrives at this noted watering place, which he has been over an hour in reaching. Leuk is a popular bathing place, deep down in this trench, which looks out southward toward the Ehone, and yet is forty-six hundred feet above the sea. The whole descent of this wonderful pass down the cliff is about three thousand feet, and its huge height rising abruptly alongside the little town presents a most imposing appearance. The sun does lit- tle shining in this deep glen, yet the grass grows luxuriantly and most of the pastures are fine. There are over twenty thermal springs, impregnated with lime, in these baths of Leuk, and visitors are numer- ous in summer, coming for treatment for cutaneous troubles and rheumatism. There are large public bathing pools in which the "course" requires the pa- tients to spend several hours daily, and as a method of whiling away the time, small trays are floated to them on the water, bearing cups of coffee, books and newspapers, while they do much talking and mostly in French, affording considerable amusement to the onlookers. High cliffs environ the glen on all sides, and the road down it requires skillful engineering, while some of the most unique methods are adopted in getting the "right of way" to neighboring villages. 72 SWITZERLAND. In one case the route leading to the hamlet of Al- binen^, begins by an ascent of several rude ladders up the face of a precipice, along the top of which is the path. Weak-headed people do not travel it, however, although the climber gets an admirable view. The route down the Dala goes to Inden about three miles, having Albinen high above it on the rocks making the eastern wall of the deep gorge. Then the route comes out much above the Ehone valley with the town and railway station of Leuk, close at hand apparently, but the carriage road has to wind for nearly three miles to get down there. GOING TO ZERMATT. The valley of the Ehone above Martigny, stretches far northeastward between the parallel mountain ranges, the main chain of the Alps and the Bernese Oberland. It is a deep and wide intervale, with the river generally embanked, so that much of the sur- face has been reclaimed for cultivation. The lofty mountain walls enclosing it, have much of their lower slopes in favorable situations planted with vineyards producing good wines. There are mineral springs, and villages are frequent. Sixteen miles above Martigny are the "castled crags of Sion,^' this being the capital of the Canton Yalais, the approach, disclosing its ancient castles on the hills, being most picturesque, and the little river Sienne coming down through the town from the mountain ranges to the GOING TO ZER^LITT. 73 northward. High above the valley are the ruins of the old bishop^s castle of Tourbillon dating from the thirteenth centnry and giving a splendid outlook. On a lower eminence is Valeria castle, and nearby Ma- joria castle also in ruins. Part of the latter is used for a military barrack, while Valeria is surrounded by towers and other buildings, among them the an- cient church of Xotre Dame de Valere, which is be- ing restored, parts having been built over a thousand years. Sierre is passed, prettily situated on a sloping hill, and thirty miles above Martigny, the town of Leuk, high above the Ehone. To the southward is the vast semicircular basin of the Illgraben with its bleak and yellowish slopes environed by a galaxy of high mountains. A dozen miles farther up the Ehone, the turbid tor- rent of the Visp comes out of the gorge to the south- ward and adds its ample current and debris to the greater river. Up this ravine goes the railwa}^ to Zermatt, its construction diversified by rack-and- pinion sections ascending the slopes. At the en- trance to the gorge is the Visp village picturesquely situated, and looking out southward at the head of the valley upon the beautiful snow-covered summits and slopes of the Balfrinhorn, rising nearly 12,500 feet, apparently, to close the gorge. Ascending five miles farther, and five hundred feet to the vil- lage of Stalden, it is found that twO' torrents here unite to form the Visp, one coming out from each side of the guardian mountain, and thus the gorge 74 SWITZERLAND. # divides. From the southeast flows the Saasser Visp through the romantic Saasthal, where is the fairy land of Saas Fee, a mountain paradise; and from the southwest the Matter Visp, regarded as the main stream, coming through the Nicolaithal. It takes more rack-and-pinion line, bridges, viaducts and tun- nels to get up this deep valley, and yet five miles far- ther on is St. Nicolas at thirty-seven hundred feet elevation beside the torrent, which goes down pictur- esque cascades below the village. Still following up the gorge, it gets among huge snow-covered moun- tains and glaciers, and the road finally reaches Zer- matt about thirt^^-two miles south of the Ehone, at an elevation of over fifty-three hundred feet, in an extraordinary location, literally in the heart of the Alps of the Pennine Chain, and at the head of the valley of the Visp. Here, despite the elevation, is a beautiful green valley w^here the village nestles, sur- rounded by mountain slopes fringed with pines, while high above its southern verge is the dazzling Theo- dule glacier, having on one side the massive Breit- horn and on the other the huge pyramidal top of the Matterhorn. Three mountain glens unite at Zermatt to form the Matter Vispthal. Glaciers almost wholly occupy two of them, as only a short distance inter- venes between the comparatively level greensward at the village and the great . ice streams which sweep down from the range of the Pennines, dominated by Monte Eosa, surrounding them with a vast amphi- theatre of snowy slopes and rocky summits. The THE PENNINE M0NARCH8. 75 third glen coming in from the westward, is the Zmutthal, stretching about six miles up into the moun- tains, before reaching the foot of its glacier. THE PENNINE MONARCHS. Southward from Zermatt is the high plateau of the Riffelberg, generally at about eighty-four hundred feet elevation, and up to it goes another rack-and- pinion railway with electric power, which has the rep- utation of being the highest in Europe, its average gradient being about one in six. This route, extend- ing about four miles, discloses splendid views along the gorges of the Visp and its tributaries, climbs three thousand feet higher than the village, and then in about two miles farther, goes up fifteen hundred feet more to the eminence of the Gorner Grat, the culminating summit ridge at the edge of the Eiffel- berg. Around the southern base of this broad pla- teau winds from east to west the huge Gorner Gla- cier, joined in its progress by a half-dozen other gla- ciers, their united mass dissolving into the waterri which at the termination of the ice-field in the mo- raine south of Zermatt, make the head stream of the Matter Yisp. The top of the Gorner Grat rises about four hundred feet above the terminus of the railway, and here on the southern verge of the Reffelberg, at 10,290 feel elevation, is given one of the most mag- nificent views in the Alps, the spectator surrounded by snow-peaks and glaciers, with the noble Matter- horn, "the lion of Zermatt," dominating the scene. 76 SWITZERLAND. Beneath one's feet is the broad ice stream of the Gorner Glacier imperceptibly flowing, and across it rise the massive mountains where its frozen tribu- taries are formed. There is on the left, toward the southeast and farthest off, the coronet of peaks of Monte Eosa, the highest rising 15,217 feet, but from their distance, while this is the most elevated of all, the view is less imposing. Then to the southward is the wedge-shaped mass of the Lyskamm, 14,890 feet; then the Zwillinge, the snowy twins of Castor and Pollux, rising almost perfect cones; and the long and craggy mass of the white-topped Breithorn, 13,685 feet. In a depression off to the southwest, are ter- raced the branches of the broad Theodule Glacier, and across it to the westward rises the most splendid sight in all the grand view, the isolated and marvel- lous Matterhorn, elevated 14,780 feet. This peak is most impressively displayed, an obelisk of snow and rock rising four thousand feet above the surrounding terraces and thus magnificently dominating the won- derful scene. Beyond, extends another company of giant peaks, forming the western verge of the deeply carved Vispthal, spreading widely around to the northwest, from the dazzling Dent Blanche to the Weisshorn, the former rising 14,320 feet and the lat- ter 14,800 feet. Next comes a depression, and through it may be seen the distant snowy summits beyond the Rhone, of some of the peaks of the Ber- nese Oberland. Farther around, and to the north- ward, beyond the Eiffelberg plateau, rise conspicu- Mattermorn THE PENNINE MONARCHS. 77 ously the two sharply defined pyramids of the de- tached range enclosed by the two branches of the Visp, the Dom, 14,942 feet and the Tashhorn, 14,478 feet, with numerous snow-covered attendants at lower elevations. And finally the view covers others to the northeast, and the complete circle is finished at the Cima di Jazzi, off to the eastward beyond the Grorner Glacier, whose spurs intermingle with those of Monte Eosa. The Alps provide no elevated spot accessible with equal ease, which commands a grander panoramic view around the whole impressive circle of mountains. From the snowy hump of the Cima di Jazzi, which is also readily reached, there is a view over the great snow-fields feeding the glaciers, and also of the south- ern slopes toward Italy, of these Pennine Alps, with Lake Maggiore and the Plains of Lombardy in the distance, though often obscured by mists. The view of Monte Eosa from the Gorner Grat is somewhat disappointing, being too much enclosed b}^ other peaks. Its best northern view is farther westward from the lower level of the Zermatt vale, where it rises ten thousand feet above the grazing fields along- side the stream. The grandest view of the monarch, however, is from the Italian side, towering sheer above the deep valley of Macugnaga, more than two miles high, in inaccessible precipices of rock and broken slopes of snow and glacier. The first climbing of these mountains around Zer- matt has made some of the greatest achievements of 78 SWITZERLAND. the xllpine explorers during the last half of the nine- teenth century, prominent among the early scalers of the summits being Messrs. Tyndall and Whymper. Long after the top of Mont Blanc had been reached, that of Monte Eosa and its four peaks remained un- visited. It was first ascended in 1855. The crest of the highest summit is narrow and steep, with jagged rocks and intervening ridges of snow, that slope quite steeply. The sight from the summit, all around the horizon is of vast extent and magnificence, combin- ing the Alpine range in both directions, and the broad Plains of Lombardy gradually melting away into the southern horizon, while by the aid of a tele- scope, the lofty Milan Cathedral can be traced, though this is rare, as usually a veil of mist conceals the Plains and the mountain ranges enclosing Lake Mag- giore. The Matterhorn is not as high as Eosa, but it is the grandest peak in all this assemblage. It rises a stupendous pyramid above the surrounding summits and glaciers, and as seen from the Zmutt vale, looks like a ponderous bastion tower at the termination of a long ascending curtain wall of rock. For precipi- tous steepness and solitary grandeur it is unique in the Alpine galaxy. Many vain attempts had been made to scale the summit, until finally it was success- fully reached, July 14, 1865, by a party of seven, Mr. Whymper, three companions and three guides. They went up the eastern wall to the bastion, and found it composed of steep slabs of rock much like the slates THE PENNINE MONARCHS. 79 on a roof, patched with portions of ice and snow, and giving little chance to hold on. They climbed it, however, and then crossed the less inclined snowy slope to the summit. When they descended there was an appalling catas- trophe. They returned to the slabs, in single file, the whole party tied together, with Mr. Whymper at the rear between two guides. Suddenly one of those in front lost his footing and in falling pulled down three others. The guide just before Mr. Whym- per managed to retain his foothold, but the rope in front of him broke, and the four who had fallen slid down the slope and in an instant had disappeared over the brink of a precipice. The cliffs below were almost perpendicular and they fell to the snows bor- dering the glacier about four thousand feet beneath. After much danger, Mr. Whymper and the two guides managed to get down, reaching Zermatt the following day. The bodies were ultimately found and some of them are buried in the little Zermatt churchyard, where are also the tombs of other too venturesome Alpine climbers. There are frequent ascents of the Matterhorn now made and the path to the summit has been protected. The top is an almost level ridge about three hundred feet long, and from it the view is marvellous over mountains and glaciers in every direction and often a mile below, while the green fields and houses of Zermatt nestle in the glen, with fringes of pines, and a wilderness of rocks, ice and snow all around. 80 SWITZERLAND. To the northward of the Matterhorn and north- west from Zermatt rises the Weisshorn, 14,804 feet, regarded now as probably the most difficult and dan- gerous mountain in this region to scale. -The first ascent accomplished, was by Prof. Tyndall, in 1861, who went up from Randa in the Yispthal. Now the favorite method of ascending is from the valley to the w^estward, where the guides have aided the toilsome journey by fixing ropes to the rocks, riveted fast to the faces of the worst precipices, below the summit. They have thus placed over a half-mile of rope, one inch thick. Usually, however, the climbers travelling this perilous route find the rope thickly encrusted with ice, which has to be carefully chipped off with their axes before they can lay hold. The risks of these mountain-climbers, the ava- lanches, and the glimpse of far-away Italy given from the summits, suggest the words of Longfellow in the Golden Legend: "What sound is that? The tumbling avalanches! How awful, yet how beautiful! These are The voices of the mountains! Thus they ope Their snowy lips, and speak unto each other, In the primeval language lost to man. "What land is this that spreads itself beneath us? Italy! Italy! land of the Madonna! How beautiful it is! It seems a garden Of Paradise." EASTERN SWITZERLAND. II. EASTERN SWITZERLAND. Brig — Simplon Pass and Tunnel — The Gondo Ravine — Domo d' Ossola — The Rhone Glacier — Furka Pass — Grimsel Pass — Handegg Falls — Meiringen — Lake Brienz — The Rothhorn — The Giessbach — Briinig Pass — Sarnen — Alpnach — Lake Lucerne — Lucerne — William Tell — The Rutli — Pilatus — Rigi — Lake of Zug — Morgarten — Sempach — Zurich Lake — Rap- perswil — Einsiedeln — Zurich — The Walensee — Vale of Glarus — The Todi — Artli Goldau — Schwyz — Brunnen — Flilelen — The Reuss — St. Gotthard Rail- way and Pass — Altdorf — Amsteg — Goschenen — Wasen — The Ticino — Lake Lucendro — Val Tremola — Val Levantina — Airolo — Biaschina Ravine — Bel- linzona — San Bernardino Pass — Spliigen Pass — Campodolcino — Chiavenna — Julier Pass — Albula Pass — Lunghino Lake — The River Inn — The Enga- dine — Lake of Sils — Silvaplana Lake — St. Moritz — The Bernina — Samaden — Maloja Pass — Stelvio Pass — The Ortler — Three Holy Springs — The Adda — Val Valtellina — Lake of Como — Varenna — Bella- gio — Lecco — Cadenabbia — Tremezzo — Tomo — Cer- nobbio — Como — Lake Varese — Lake Maggiore — Laveno — Locarno — Luino — Pallanza — Arona — Borromean Islands — Lake of Orta — Lake Lugano — Lugano — Monte Salvatore — Porlezza — Monte Generoso. THE SIMPLON. We have advanced in the preceding chapter up the deep and narrow Rhone valley into the heart of the 84 SWITZERLAND. Alps, under the shadows of the towering Pennine range. About five miles above Visp, where the torrent conies out to the Ehone from Zermatt and its mountains, is the little town of Brig. Here flows in the Saltine torrent coming northward from the Pen- nines. It is about seventy-two miles up the Ehone from the Lake of Geneva, and forty-seven miles from Martigny, and the huge mountains closely compress the Ehone on either side, leaving but a profound and contracted gorge, where the river, during the ages, has forced a passage. Brig, while small, is noted, for here begins the most famous, and one of the best known roadways over the Alps, the Simplon, where Napoleon constructed the first macadamized and per- fect highway across the mountains, begun in 1800 and completed for military purposes in 1806, at a cost of $3,500,000. This had been a mountain pass, much travelled, for centuries, and in Brig is the most exten- sive private residence in Switzerland, the Stockalper Chateau, handsomely turreted and built around an interior court. This house was erected by Kaspar Stockalper, who, in the seventeenth century, con- trolled the traffic over the Simplon, which he pro- tected by armed guards. Brig has always been a centre of much travel, the routes up the Ehone from Martigny, and coming down that valley by the Grim- sal and Furka passes over from the Lake Lucerne and the St. Gotthard region, concentrating here, for the easiest route into Italy as things used to be. The Simplon road, which is the route from Geneva to THE S1MFJ.ON. 85 Milan, goes over from Brig to Domo d' Ossola, about forty-six miles, and crosses the summit of the pass at about sixty-six hundred feet elevation. The route is up the Saltine, but the ascent from Brig is rather tame, compared with some other passes on the Swiss side, the grandest scenery being on the Italian side. It is kept open as a winter route, and refuge huts are built at intervals. Twenty miles from Brig is Simplon, whence comes its name, built among the pastures at the base of the towering Eossboden- horn which rises 13,128 feet and about eighty-three hundred feet above the village. From the summit of the pass there is revealed a splendid view to the northward across the Rhone valley to the Bernese Oberland. The crossing in summer time is warm and sunny, developing the pastures around the old hos- pice, now occupied by shepherds, and the adjacent fields usually display flocks of cattle and goats. En- closing this region, the superb peaks of Monte Leone and the Fletschhorn, with the Rossbodenhorn elevate their extensive glaciers far toward the heavens. It is after passing the Simplon village that the magnifi- cence of the Pass begins. There comes a little brook out of a glacier, the Laquinbach. It falls into the Krummbach near Algaby hamlet, and below this becomes known as the Doveria, a famous stream. Then appears the wonder of the Pass, a vast cleft cut down deeply into the mountain, the Gondo ra- vine, one of the grandest gorges of the Alps. For several miles the descent is through this tremendous 86 SWITZERLAND. fissure, always noisy witli the sound of falling waters. The tunnels and galleries of Algaby and Gondo pierce the rocks, many bold viaducts span the lateral ra- vines, a long tunnel goes through a huge cliff block- ing the passage, and then the road crosses a slender bridge over the Alpienbach fall, with cliffs rising two thousand feet on either side, the spray of the cascade wafted on high through the fissure. Thus we come to Gondo, the last Swiss village, where the tall square Stockalper Tower was long a refuge for the traveller in the days of that powerful family. The Italian frontier is just beyond, marked by a granite column, and then the first little Italian vil- lage is reached, Paglino. All seems desolation in the gorge, however, until, emerging from a tunnel, the route opens upon the rich green valley of Iselle. Then the vegetation is more luxuriant, the Doveria flows into the Tosa, and a magnificent view is given of the fertile Valle d' Ossola, watered by the Tosa, its little town of Domo d' Ossola, being charmingly situated at the head of navigation on the river which flows into Lake Maggiore. Thence it is but a short distance to Baveno or Arona on that beautiful lake, and south- ward to Milan. The Simplon route across the Alps has the general direction from northwest to southeast. The extensive travel over it caused the great Simplon tunnel to be planned some time ago, the most ambitious project for piercing the Alps, and the longest tunnel in the world, about twelve and one-quarter miles. It goes THE 81MPL0N. 87 from the Rhone about a mile and one-half above Brig, southeastward to a point just beyond Iselle, and work is progressing from both sides of the moun- tain range. It was begun in 1898, and in 1903, nearly eleven miles had been bored, and the estimated cost of the whole enterprise is about $14,000,000. The project embraces two parallel tunnels, although one only with a single railway track is being now com- pleted. The width is sixteen feet, the height seven- teen and one-half feet, and the two tunnels are to be about fifty-six feet apart and connected by cross tun- nels at distances of one-eighth of a mile. The north- ern entrance on the Ehone is at an elevation of 2,253 feet, and the tunnel ascends by an easy gradient to 2,312 feet at a distance of about five and one-half miles within the mountain. It is level for a short distance and then descends by a somewhat steeper, though still easy gradient, six and one-half miles to the Italian entrance near Iselle, at 2,155 feet eleva- tion. The headings are bored by very powerful ro- tary boring machines continuously driven by hy- draulic power. The centre of the tunnel is about six thousand feet beneath the crest of the mountain,, east of the Wasenhorn summit, which is one of the conspicuous peaks to the eastward of the road across the Pass. The Simplon Tunnel pierces the range at a very much lower elevation than the others, the Mont Cenis tunnel being at an altitude of 4,248 feet, the Arlberg, 4,300 feet, and the St. Gotthard, 3,788 feet, so that the gradient favors the traffic. 88 SWITZERLAND. The second and parallel tunnel is being partially constructed of smaller size, ten feet wide and eight feet high for ventilation, transport of materials and similar uses. The rock pierced is very hard, granite and gneiss, with veins of white quartz. The farther the tunnel borings penetrate, the higher is the tem- perature, and this and the large amount of water coming through the rocky mass above, are the chief obstacles. Artificial methods of successful ventila- tion have, however, been put -into operation, reduc- ing the temperature. The water which comes down from the summit of the mountain, is the chief cause of the heat. It pen