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 

 Alj)s, the Jungfrau, the Finster-Aarhorn, the Titlis, 

 highest of all, — the white glaciers shining like bur- 

 nished 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 vaUey 

 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 

 lakes. . . . 



Stanz, 25th June. ... I intended to leave the 

 Rigi by way of Waggis 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 Uri, 

 and finding, if possible, the mail-cotirier 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 Furca and the Grimsel to Grindelwald, etc. 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- 



