292 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



pumped up aud sometimes carried by little troughs to the 

 water-courses, sometimes carried out in carts and spread by 

 hand. They often set a pump down into the centre of the 

 manure or compost heap, and so pump up the drainings every 

 morning over the heap till it is saturated. Potato-tops, weeds 

 and whatever other rubbish is thrown on, thus get a frequent 

 soaking. When shall we learn to preserve and treat our waste 

 substances with such laborious care ? 



In company with the Hon. George G. Fogg, the American 

 minister to Switzerland, we visited Thun, sailed the length of 

 its beautiful lake, and stopped awhile at Interlaken, then began 

 our ascent to the Bernese Alps, to Grindelwald, up among the 

 glaciers. It was a grand and curious sight, the green luxuri- 

 ance, the deep-tinged flowers, Alpine harebells and many others, 

 growing just at the verge of eternal ice moving down constantly 

 but slowly and imperceptibly from the higher Alps, in one vast 

 jagged stream. Now and then we hear the thunder of some 

 falling avalanche echoing from mountain to mountain, and then 

 looking up, innumerable little chalets extend as far, almost, as 

 the eye can reach, now scattered round as if with some regular- 

 ity, now an isolated hut on some projecting platform of green 

 grass. Thousands of cattle are seen in various parts of the moun- 

 tains, and the distant tinkling of bells, sometimes so distant 

 that we can scarcely distinguish the sound, gives an unspeakable 

 charm to the whole Alpine scenery. These cattle are often 

 perched on heights which seem to be quite inaccessible, and 

 though tiicy do not appear to be so very far off, they are really 

 some miles away from the villages which we pass in the valleys, 

 and from which they had ascended. 



The following account of the cattle upon the Alps is translated 

 mostly from the work of Tschudi, Das Tliierleben der Alpen- 

 iDelt. I need not say that I saw many herds of which this is a 

 correct picture, upon the mountains, in my ascent of the great 

 St. Bernard, at the Grindelwald, on the St. Gothard, in the 

 valleys and in the mountains of the Ticino, the Reuss and 

 otlier ranges of the higher and lower Alps. 



The domesticated animals of the Alps form the living ornament 

 of the landscape, otherwise oppressive in its grandeur. The 

 wild animals are by far too scattered to do this. The mountains 

 would lose half their charm if the small huts, the marks of 



