260 FIRST JOURNEY IN EUROPE. | [1839, 
disappointed also by these same clouds in getting a 
view of the high Bernese Alps, particularly Finster- 
Aarhorn and the glaciers, from this side, but deter- 
mined not to wait here longer; so set off at half 
past ten in company with a native of Valais, who was 
traveling towards home and served as guide; traveled 
through deep snow, climbed up to the summit of the 
pass, more than a thousand feet higher, where at first 
we were so completely enveloped in the clouds that we 
seemed actually to be traveling through them and on 
them ; dug a specimen or two of Soldanella out of the 
snow to serve as souvenirs. At length the wind arose 
and now and then sent a hole in the clouds, to give 
me some glimpses of the desolate yet grand scenery 
through which we were passing. Soon I got a view of 
the valley of the Rhone almost at its commencement, 
with the river flowing through like a mere rivulet ; 
looked down upon Oberwald, the highest village in 
Valais, a collection of little chalets all huddled to- 
gether as if to keep themselves warm,—as indeed 
they have need; got out of winter and snow and into 
the valley at the little village of Obergesteln, and 
walked, on the same day, through a quick succession 
of most retired little Swiss villages of the humblest 
sort, to Brieg, on the Simplon road, near the mountain 
of that name, which I reached at nine o’clock in the 
evening, making a journey of forty miles, a portion 
through the snow, in ten hours and a half. I would 
like to tell you much about the upper Valais, a region 
seldom visited by travelers, but have not time ; peo- 
ple kind and simple ; got nothing to eat on the way 
except hard and dry brown bread, that may have been 
baked ten days ; passed the villages where avalanches 
had fallen in former years and crushed many people ; 
