260 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 



disappointed also by these same clouds in getting a 

 view of the high Bernese Alps, particularly Finster- 

 Aarhorn and the glaciers, from this side, but deter- 

 mined not to wait here longer ; so set off at half 

 past ten in company with a native of Valais, who was 

 traveling towards home and served as guide ; traveled 

 through deep snow, climbed up to the summit of the 

 pass, more than a thousand feet higher, where at first 

 we were so completely enveloped in the clouds that we 

 seemed actually to be traveling through them and on 

 them ; dug a specimen or two of Soldanella out of the 

 snow to serve as souvenirs. At length the wind arose 

 and now and then sent a hole in the clouds, to give 

 me some glimpses of the desolate yet grand scenery 

 through which we were passing. Soon I got a view of 

 the valley of the Rhone almost at its commencement, 

 with the river flowing through like a mere rivulet ; 

 looked down upon Oberwald, the highest village in 

 Valais, a collection of little chalets all huddled to- 

 gether as if to keep themselves warm, as indeed 

 they have need ; got out of winter and snow and into 

 the valley at the little village of Obergesteln, and 

 walked, on the same day, through a quick succession 

 of most retired little Swiss villages of the humblest 

 sort, to Brieg, on the Simplon road, near the mountain 

 of that name, which I reached at nine o'clock in the 

 evening, making a journey of forty miles, a portion 

 through the snow, in ten hours and a half. I would 

 like to tell you much about the upper Valais, a region 

 seldom visited by travelers, but have not time ; peo- 

 ple kind and simple ; got nothing to eat on the way 

 except hard and dry brown bread, that may have been 

 baked ten days ; passed the villages where avalanches 

 had fallen in former years and crushed many people ; 



