248 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 



perpendicular wall of rock, nearly 6,000 feet high, and 

 a little cataract formed by the melting snow above 

 falls from the top to the bottom. Soon I entered the 

 little valley of Engelberg, the most beautiful and pic- 

 turesque I have seen, probably the finest in Switzer- 

 land ; at least that of Meyringen and this of Grindel- 

 wald, where I am now writing, are not to be compared 

 with it. I only wonder it is so little known. I think 

 it not improbable that I am the first American that 

 has visited it. It is far out of the ordinary routes, 

 and though easily accessible with chars from Stanz, 

 yet the three passes that lead out of it are excessively 

 difficult footpaths. It is a green, sunshiny valley, 

 having perhaps eighty acres of plain, but very rich 

 pastures rise up the mountain-sides to some distance ; 

 it is entirely shut in by the high mountains that rise 

 on every side ; the Titlis rising abruptly on the south 

 within a few yards of the village, and sending down 

 its avalanches in the spring close to the houses. But 

 the glaciers are so situated as to send their summer 

 avalanches in the other direction, so that the hamlet 

 is not in danger ; the other mountains toward the 

 south have the glaciers on their summits, but the 

 peaks on the other sides present naked precipices. 

 The Engelberg, from which the hamlet is named 

 (angel-mountain) is a lofty mountain shaped like a 

 slender cone, with the apex cut off obliquely. It rises 

 almost within the valley, and presents a very curious 

 appearance. The large convent stands just between 

 the base of this mountain and the Titlis. Attached 

 to it is a very large and fine church for such an out- 

 of-the-world place. I stopped at the simple auberge 

 of the Engel (angel) ; mine host could only speak 

 or understand German and Italian, so that our com- 



