146 Rambles with a Fishing- Rod. 



the traveller. From any high ground, lofty hills 

 can be seen extending towards the horizon, more 

 or less clothed with black pine-forests, broken 

 here and there by the lighter foliage in the 

 valleys, or by open patches of cultivated land. 

 There are cottage farms, with huge black and 

 spreading roofs, better built, and showing signs of 

 greater prosperity and comfort than in mostmoun- 

 tainous districts. The village houses are less 

 thickly grouped, and everything indicates an active 

 and industrious people. In the valleys are many 

 charming landscapes : the scale is small, but the 

 perfect union of water and rock, of wood and 

 meadow, produces harmonious and delightful pic- 

 tures. Among the thick and fragrant woods the 

 scenes are different more weird and wild, but 

 none the less attractive. Among these woods 

 and hills dwell a people who unite the simplicity 

 and kindness of the mountaineer and agriculturist 

 with the shrewdness and energy of the artisan of 

 the town. They cultivate their land with sur- 

 prising care, and work at the manufacture of 

 clocks and watches, glass and straw articles, with 

 a diligence which has been rewarded by great 

 success. They are so energetic and desirous of 

 doing well in life, that like the men of the Canton 

 Graubiinden and the Oetzthal Alps, they willingly 

 leave their own country and go away to England, 

 America, or France, where they work hard, chiefly 

 at clocks and watches. But to this desire for 

 bettering their condition is united a strong love 

 of home, so that in three or four years they come 

 back with sufficient money to buy themselves a 

 piece of land, on which for the rest of their days 



