496 LETTERS FROM A CONTINENTAL TOURIST. 



to the best of ray ability, though once or twice I narrowly escaped a 

 sousing from the slippery state of a stepping- stone. But as we 

 mounted higher we were fully repaid for the pains and penalties we 

 had undergone in the ascent by the magnificence of the view that 

 expanded before our eyes. Beneath was the valley of Ober Hasli 

 divided by the meandering stream of the muddy Aar, muddy I say, 

 for it requires the straining through two lakes to wash the water 

 green. Afar off to the left is the village of Meyringen and the last 

 shoot of the Reichenbach, pouring in both valleys, whose surface is 

 from the height on which we stood, seemed to have been levelled by 

 art not nature, rolled flat like a bowling-green by some mighty 

 engine. Opposite were snow-topped mountains, the sun-beams 

 kindling their crystalled summits and heavy clouds hanging low down 

 on their craggy sides. All this seen through a comparatively small 

 opening in the pine forest which covers the Brunig, and which open- 

 ing- had been made by an avalanche, that had swept a clean path for 

 itself down into the very bed of the yellow Aar. The whole toge- 

 ther formed one of the most enchanting prospects that can be ima- 

 gined. By the way these avalanches are awful things. Think of 

 the force which must be acquired in descending a steep precipice for 

 a mile, by a mass of snow and rock, which even in the early part of 

 its course tears up strong trees by the roots and shreds others asunder 

 with such unsparing violence that scarcely a vestige of vegetation is 

 left in the track it has passed over. However time pressed and 

 before I was half satisfied with gazing, I was forced to turn away 

 and follow the mule track which served for a road. Many pretty 

 water-falls issue from the mountains on either side, but I scarcely like 

 to write down their names as I obtained them from our guide, lest 

 they should be unrecognizably incorrect. None of them were very 

 important. By dint of ascending and descending for four hours we 

 reached Lemgern, and after a slight refection which exercise and the 

 keen air of the lofty Alps had rendered necessary we hurried on to 

 Alpnacht and thence crossed the Waldstetter See to Luzern. To 

 describe this latter part of the day's journey would involve endless 

 repetition, for after all there is a marvellous sameness in mountains 

 and lakes, albeit they are the finest the world has to boast of. 



Not the least amusing part of our adventures was the circumstance 

 of our guides and boatmen and ourselves not having any common 

 language. The efforts to explain or understand on both sides were 

 always ridiculous and for the most part unavailing. But where one 

 party has to pay and the other to receive such difficulties are not 

 altogether insurmountable. 



In travelling from Lemgern to Alpnacht we crossed the canton 

 of Unterwalden. Nothing could be more striking than the almost 

 universal beauty of the children. The peasantry of maturer age were 

 generally fair-haired, ruddy, well-looking people enough. But the 

 children were with few exceptions truly beautiful, and we had good 

 means of forming a judgment for we must have seen some hundreds 

 of them. As yet 'we have seen no such good-looking race as this. 

 The Bernese at the inn at Brienz, if they were Bernese were a fine- 

 looking family, but they seemed an exception to the rule. In Berne, 



