SWITZERLAND. 507 



they were returning in great haste (owing to the day being far ad- 

 vanced) one of the party slipped, in attempting to leap over a chasm 

 of ice. He held in his hand a long pole, spiked with iron, which he 

 struck into the ice ; and upon this he hung, dreadfully suspended for 

 a few moments, until he was released by his companions." 



Near Schaffhausen is a tremendous cataract, or rather three une- 

 qual cataracts, down which the Rhine dashes headlong upon the rock 

 below. Near Rosiniere is a famous spring, which l'ises in the midst 

 of a natural basin of twelve square feet. The force that acts upon it 

 must be prodigious ; after a great shower of rain it carries up a co- 

 lumn of water as thick as a man's thigh, nearly a foot above its sur- 

 face. Its temperature never varies : it is clear as crystal, and its 

 depth is unfathomable ; probably the end of some subterraneous lake, 

 that has never found an issue for its waters. 



Among the artificial curiosities may be mentioned an extraordinary 

 hermitage two leagues from Freyburg, formed by the hands of a 

 single hermit, who, about a century ago, laboured on it for twenty- 

 five years. It is the greatest curiosity of the kind perhaps in the 

 world, as it contains a chapel ; a parlour twenty-eight paces in length, 

 twelve in breadth, and twenty feet in height; a cabinet, a kitchen, a 

 cellar, and other apartments ; with the altar, benches, flooring, ceiling, 

 all cut out of the rock. 



At Schaffhausen was a very extraordinary bridge over the Rhine, 

 justly admired for the singularity of its architecture. The river is 

 extremely rapid, and had already destroyed several stone bridges of 

 the strongest construction, when a carpenter of Appenzel offered to 

 throw a wooden bridge of a single arch across the river, which is 

 near 400 feet wide. The magistrates, however, required that it 

 should consist of two arches, and that he should for that purpose, 

 employ the middle pier of the old bridge. Accordingly the archi- 

 tect was obliged to obey ; but he contrived to leave it a matter of 

 doubt, whether the bridge was supported by the middle pier, and 

 whether it would not have been equally as safe if formed solely of 

 one arch. The sides and top were covered, and the road which was 

 almost level, was not carried as usual over the top of the arch, but, 

 if the expression may be allowed, let into the middle of it, and there- 

 fore suspended. A man of the slightest weight felt it tremble under 

 him ; though waggons, heavily laden, might pass over without dan- 

 ger. Considering the boldness of the plan and construction, it must 

 appear extraordinary that the architect was only, as was said before, 

 a carpenter, without the least tincture of literature, totally ignorant 

 of mathematics, and not versed in the theory of mechanics. His 

 name was Ulric Grubenman. The bridge was finished in less than 

 three years, and cost about 8000/. sterling. It was burnt by the 

 French when they evacuated Schaffhausen, after being defeated by 

 the Austrians, April 13th, 1799. 



At the famous pass of Pierre Pertuis, the road is carried through 

 a solid rock near fifty feet thick, the height of the arch twenty-six, 

 and its breadth twenty -five. 



At Lucern (says Mr. Coxe) is to be seen a topographical repre- 

 sentation of the most mountainous parts of Switzerland, by general 

 Pfiffcr, a native of this town, and an officer in the French service. It 

 is a model in relief, and well deserves the attention of the curious 

 traveller. What was finished in 1776, comprised about sixty square 

 leagues, in the cantons of Lucern, Zug, Born Wt ; Schweitz, and 



