250 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 



which emptied into a dark alpine lake just below. 

 Here I gathered a few alpine plants, as souvenirs of the 

 place. Another weary climb over the snow brought us 

 to the top of the Joch, and here, where shelter was im- 

 possible, we were exposed to a shower, but our umbrel- 

 las protected us in part, and the view repaid for a little 

 wetting. Descending a little, my guide showed me a 

 lake almost surrounded with snow, fed by the glaciers ; 

 the outlet, the source of one branch of the Aar, was the 

 stream which flowed down the valley I was to descend 

 to Meyringen ; the knapsack was again transferred to 

 my shoulders and I was left to myself. As I entered 

 the valley of Engstlen the scenery grew wonderfully 

 fine. Tired as I was I enjoyed the whole journey ex- 

 tremely, though it took me four hours and a half of 

 continual descent ; yet I look back upon it with delight. 

 The main stream formed a succession of beautiful 

 cascades ; the mountains on each side very high, 

 and mostly perpendicular faces of rock, and down 

 these a great multitude of cascades of all sizes fell, 

 some of them springing 500 feet at a leap ; others, 

 falling from much greater height over the rocks, 

 looked like long skeins of yarn, if you will pardon the 

 simile, dangling in the air. It must be much like the 

 valley of the Lauterbrunnen, according to the descrip- 

 tion ; but I think the latter cannot excel it. I hope 

 to know to-morrow. A shower drove me into a miser- 

 able chalet, the highest one inhabited at this season, 

 where I found a young man, who dwelt there for the 

 summer, with his herd of goats, and his brother, a 

 young lad of fifteen, who had come up from Mey- 

 ringen to bring him some food, etc., and was just 

 about to return. I drank about a quart of milk fresh 

 from the goat, and found it excellent. When it 



