470 OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 



gen, a distance of some miles from Basel, I set out to 

 walk there, but on crossing the frontier was intercepted 

 by two soldiers. I had a passport, but it had not been 

 vised, and back to Berne it was stated I must go. The 

 fight at Eastatt had occurred a short time previously, 

 and the Prussians, then the general insurgent-crushers 

 of Germany, held possession of the Grand Duchy of 

 Baden. I was detained for some hours, being taken 

 from one official to another, neither logic nor entreaty 

 appearing to be of any avail. The Inspector at Leo- 

 poldshohe was at first polite but inexorable, then irate ; 

 happily, to justify his strictness, he desired me to listen 

 while he read his instructions. They were certainly 

 very emphatic, but they were directed against ' Deutsche 

 Fluchtlinge.' I immediately drew his attention to the 

 words, and flatly denied his right to detain me. I ap- 

 pealed to my books, my accent, and my shirt collars, 

 none of which at the time had become German. A new 

 light seemed to dawn upon the inspector ; he admitted 

 my plea, and let me go. Thus ended my first Swiss 

 expedition, and until 1856 I did not make a second. 

 The reminiscences of humanity which these old records 

 revive interest me more than those of physical grandeur. 

 The little boys and girls and the bright-eyed maidens 

 whom I chanced to meet, and who at times ministered 

 to my wants, have stamped themselves more vividly and 

 pleasantly on my memory than the Alps themselves. 



Grindelwald was my first halting-place in the sum- 

 mer of 1867 ; I reached it, in company with a friend, on 

 Sunday evening, July 7. The air of the glaciers and 

 the fare of the Adler Hotel rendered me rapidly fit for 

 mountain work. The first day we made an excursion 

 along the lower glacier to the Kastenstein, crossing, in 

 returning, the Strahleck branch of the glacier above the 



