244 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 
a blast from a wooden trumpet (a better instrument 
than you would think) announced sunrise, and the sun 
appeared between two strips of cloud, lighting up first 
the distant and high peaks and glaciers of the Bernese 
Alps, the Jungfrau, the Finster-Aarhorn, the Titlis, 
highest of all,—the white glaciers shining like bur- 
wished silver. Soon the serrated ridge of the gloomy 
Pilatus is lighted up; the dark valleys become more 
distinct ; the lakes look brighter, and the broad valley 
toward the north stretches before you like a map, far 
as the eye can reach, covered with hamlets and vil- 
lages, and diversified here and there with beautiful 
2 
Stanz, 25th June. ... I intended to leave the 
Rigi by way of Wiggis on Lake Lucerne; to take 
there the steamboat as it passed at two o’clock, and 
go up the farther part of the lake, the Bay of Uni, 
and finding, if possible, the mail-courier at Fluellen, 
to go with him to the summit of the pass of St. Gott- 
hard, return as far as Hospital, and cross by the pass 
of the Furea and the Grimsel to Grindelwald, ete. If 
you had Keller’s fine map before you, it would be easy 
to trace this route, and to find out also where I now 
am. Without it you will not do it so easily. So 
having plenty of time, I stayed on the Rigi until 
noon, and then descended leisurely, having grown wise 
by experience, and knowing that the descent of a steep 
mountain is much worse for the legs and feet than the 
ascent. Besides, a little storm arose, and I took shel- 
ter under an overhanging rock, and amused myself in 
watching its progress down the lake, and in hearing 
the deep and prolonged echoes of the thunder as it was 
reverberated from peak to peak among the Alps. It 
was a scene to be remembered. And then the numer- 
