370 Reviews — BaWs Alpine Guides. 



" The grandeur and beauty of the scenery of this district, which is 

 best known as the Bernese Oberland, have long obtained for it a 

 just celebrity ; and since strangers first began to visit the Alps, the 

 names of Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, and Interlaken have been 

 famous. It was long, however, before the interior portion of the 

 range and the great glaciers that flow down towards the Khone on 

 its southern flanks were known and appreciated by strangers." (p. 54.) 



The exploration of the Oberland District was commenced early in 

 this century by the brothers Meyer of Aarau. The were followed 

 by Hugi, a mountaineer of great enterprise and perseverance. 



Still later, in 1841, M. Agassiz established a temporary dwelling 

 on the Aar Glacier, and commenced, together with Desor, Studer, 

 Forbes, and others, a series of scientific observations and explor- 

 ations, which have been carried on in later years by successive 

 members of our English Alpine Club, until we have arrived not 

 only at our present very comprehensive orographical acquaintance 

 with the Alps, but have acquired a better knowledge of the physics 

 of ice and its power as a geological agent to erode rock-surfaces, and 

 to produce those vast accumulations of Boulder-clay which in past 

 a^es were extensively formed in this country by the grinding action 

 of glaciers, which then covered all the high lands of Britain and 

 Ireland, as they now do the plateau of Greenland and the higher 

 valleys of the Bernese Alps. 



" There is no part of the Alps (writes Mr. Ball) where arrange- 

 ments for the accommodation of foreign visitors, and for extracting 

 at the same time the utmost possible amount of coin from their 

 pockets, are so completely organized as in this district, and especially 

 in the valleys belonging to the Canton Berne. On the one hand, it 

 is of no little convenience to a stranger to find inns, more or less 

 comfortable, at almost every spot where he can reasonably desire 

 to pass the night, along with guides and abundant means of 

 conveyance; but, on the other, it is not pleasant to find the entire 

 population banded together with no other seeming object than 

 to make a profit out of his passage. Along the frequented 

 tracks of the Great Scheidegg and the Wengern Alp, the wayfarer 

 is at every half-mile assailed by some new appeal to his pocket. 

 Sometimes it is by a live chamois or marmot, sometimes by an echo 

 to be awaked by a horn or a chorus of discordant children's voices, anon 

 it is by bits of pyrites or quartz" (or even green bottle-glass melted into 

 lumps, and then fractured so as to resemble a native mass of rock- 

 crystal!), "or by specimens of wood-carving, that toll is levied on 

 the stranger ; but the most efi"ectual and simplest device is to put a 

 wooden gate across his track, and keep a ragged child in readiness 

 to open the gate on his approach, and tender its palm for the reward. 

 The best way to save wear and tear of temper and good humour is 

 to be provided with a moderate supply of small coin, and suppress 

 all outbursts of virtuous indignation." — Ball's Bernese Oberland, p. 55. 

 Fortunately a tariff is established by the Cantonal authorities for 

 carriages, horses, guides, porters, etc., so that foreigners have the 

 advantage of knowing how far they are liable to be mulcted by the 



