6G A CONTINENTAL TOUR. 



a good deal astonished at this startling phenomenon, and 

 the unceasing voice of the river deadening all other sounds, 

 it was some little time before I discovered that a smith's 

 forge was built near the foot of the fall. It produced a 

 singularly beautiful effect, as this stream of light ' sprung 

 upward like a pyramid of fire/ or gently bending across 

 the water, rose and fell like a magnificent plume of gold ; 

 and sometimes, when it was about to expire, the bright 

 flickering flames gave a meteoric appearance to the columns 

 of spray similar to that so frequently observed in a ship's 

 wake at sea. Salmon, and other migratory fish, advance no 

 higher up the Rhine than the large pool below the fall." 



APPEOACH TO THE ALPS. 



" Sept. 22. — I had by this time left Constance and its 

 mighty waters at some distance behind me, and by the 

 winding of the road among low and richly wooded hills, 

 it was hidden from my view. The scenery continued 

 beautiful during tbis day's walk. The majestic Alps, 

 covered with snow, were visible in the distance, and it 

 gladdened my heart to be approaching them at every step. 

 They seemed to my imagination the guardian angels of a 

 mysterious and unknown land towards which I was jour- 

 neying by slow but certain steps, and on entering which I 

 felt as if certain of being purified from the sins of the world, 

 and relieved of all its sorrows. The unsullied whiteness of 



