250 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. [1839, 
which emptied into a dark alpine lake just below. 
Here I gathered a few alpine plants, as souvenirs of the 
place. Another weary climb over the snow brought us 
to the top of the Joch, and here, where shelter was im- 
possible, we were exposed to a shower, but our umbrel- 
las protected us in part, and the view repaid for a little 
wetting. Descending a little, my guide showed me a 
lake almost surrounded with snow, fed by the glaciers ; 
the outlet, the source of one branch of the Aar, was the 
stream which flowed down the valley I was to descend 
to Meyringen ; the knapsack was again transferred to 
my shoulders and I was left to myself. As I entered 
the valley of Engstlen the scenery grew wonderfully 
fine. Tired as I was I enjoyed the whole journey ex- 
tremely, though it took me four hours and a half of 
continual descent ; yet I look back upon it with delight. 
The main stream formed a succession of beautiful 
cascades; the mountains on each side very high, 
and mostly perpendicular faces of rock, and down 
these a great multitude of cascades of all sizes fell, 
some of them springing 500 feet at a leap; others, 
falling from much greater height over the rocks, 
looked like long skeins of yarn, if you will pardon the 
simile, dangling in the air. It must be much like the 
valley of the Lauterbrunnen, according to the deserip- 
tion ; but I think the latter cannot excel it. I hope 
to know to-morrow. A shower drove me into a miser- 
able chalet, the highest one inhabited at this season, 
where I found a young man, who dwelt there for the 
summer, with his herd of goats, and his brother, a 
young lad of fifteen, who had come up from Mey- 
ringen to bring him some food, ete., and was just 
about to return. I drank about a quart of milk fresh 
from the goat, and found it excellent. When it 
