JOURNEY OVER MOUNT GOTTHARD, 329 



by a wooden railing, which any one can open at plea,- 

 fure. On the walls within are painted Tell's achieve- 

 ments, and fome other exploits to which they after- 

 wards gave occafion. At prefent, however, there are 

 only a couple of very old paintings remaining, one of 

 which is a reprefentation of the battle of Sempach ; the 

 others arc more modern ; as probably the plaifter on 

 which the antient ones were painted had fallen down. 

 The view of pictures of renowned deeds of old, on 

 the very fpot where they were performed, and thus to 

 be able to compare the piclured reprefentation with the 

 fcenes of nature round me, made a lingular impreffion 

 on my mind. 



To an inquifitive refearcher into the antient revolu- 

 tions of nature, by which the furface of the earth has 

 got its prefent form, the voyage over this lake is highly 

 interefting. The coaft on the right hand exhibits very 

 high, moftly bare, every where fieep, and in many 

 places perpendicularly riling mountains, on which, 

 awful obfervations may be made on the hiftory of 

 mountains. 



I come now to a glorious fcene of a quite different 

 kind. At about five o'clock my failors landed me on 

 the left fhore, near to a lonely inn 3 in the canton of 

 Unterwalden. I afcended the mountain to a pretty 

 confiderable height, in order to take a view of the lake 

 and the country beyond it. Here I beheld on the op- 

 posite fide of the lake, the molt charming profpecf, that 

 had ever offered itfelf to my eyes. I faid before, that 

 the place where I was, was furrounded with lofty moun- 

 tains. Exactly oppofite where I now ftood was a wide 

 aperture betwixt thefe mountains, through which I had 



a free 



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