Notes of a Tour in Switzerland. 5217 



Nug<e Helvetica: Scraps relating to Natural History gathered 

 during a Tour in Switzerland in the Summer of 1855. By 

 Rev. W. T. Bree, M.A. 



" Lend me ten thousand eyes." 



Troilus and Cressida. 



A naturalist touring through the mountain-passes of Switzerland, 

 more especially if it be his first visit to that charming country, seems 

 to stand in need of at least three pairs of eyes, — one to look to his own 

 steps or those oft the brute animal on which he may chance to be 

 mounted, a second to view the magnificent and glorious scenery by 

 which he is surrounded, and a third pair to examine the lovely plants 

 and insects which present themselves to his notice at every turn. 

 Now as no man (since the days of Argus) is possessed of more than 

 one pair of eyes, it seems to follow inevitably that one or more of the 

 above objects must be but insufficiently attended to: either the 

 tourist's own steps, the scenery, or the plants and insects, must to a 

 certain extent be neglected. Moreover, there is commonly by far too 

 much of haste and hurry shown in making these mountain excursions; 

 for though they are usually performed at no greater speed scarcely 

 than a foot's pace, yet even that slow progress is far too rapid to 

 allow the tourist time to pause and gaze his full upon the landscape, 

 to catch the insects, and pluck the plants he covets : still less is there 

 time to wander out of the main track, roam about as he would wish 

 to do, and search for them at leisure. The way too, it may be, is long 

 and perhaps hazardous, or the evening may be drawing on, or the 

 weather threatening : any how time presses, and progress must be 

 made onwards ; so that the tourist is compelled most reluctantly to 

 turn his back upon scenes before he has half contented himself with 

 looking at them. There is on these occasions, if 1 may speak from 

 my own experience, a sort of painful feeling excited — a feeling, as it 

 were, of being unsatisfied in the very midst of plenty : one is abso- 

 lutely perplexed and bewildered by the multiplicity of beautiful 

 objects which crowd upon the senses, — rocks and snow-topped moun- 

 tains, glaciers, lakes, torrents, waterfalls, gorges, ravines, precipices, 

 valleys, pine forests, plants, and insects : who can take in the full en- 

 joyment of such manifold beauty at a gulp ? In short the cake, so to 

 speak, is a most rich and excellent cake, but it really is too full of 

 plums and sweetmeats. 



One of the things which most forcibly strikes a naturalist in traversing 

 xrv. 2 p 



