VOL. IV. 
Amidst Alpine (irlacicrs. 
It is not my purpose at present to en- 
ter into a scientitic discussion of the 
Alpine Glacier, the period of its exist- 
ence, its instrumentality in the forma- 
tion of the earth's surface as we find it, 
to-day in Switzerland and elsewhere, and 
other kindred questions. These are. 
rather, rambling )iotes on that land ot 
William Tell; of condensed i)icturesque- 
ness, of many hotels, of hard working 
natives and grasping landlords, of radiant 
sunsets and gorgeous sunrises, and also, 
as it were. •' baled " fog (for it seemed 
sometimes as if it must have been pressed 
together by a uiodeni hay pi-ess. so thick 
was it) . I mean, of course, Switzerland. 
In a stay of ovei' a year in that uiiich 
painted and much '• gushed over " coun- 
trj',one. of course, runs across some of 
its peculiarities. Don't imagine for a 
moment, however, that I propose to le- 
late some regulation and thrilling adven- 
ture in quest of a beautiful Chamois 
(whose horns are now mounted and hang 
over my libi-ary table), on top of the 
Matterhorn or some other equally iiiac- 
cessablc peak. I have no tale of some 
perilous journey through snow, ice, over 
vast abysses, at great danger to life and 
limb, wearing out five guides and three 
porters to gather ''Edelweiss" or other 
Alpine flowers on top of Mont Rosa. I 
will not relate a marvelous ascent of the 
Jungfrau. in the wonderful time of two 
days, three hours, twenty nine minutes 
and tinee and a half seconds, under the 
admiring gaze of numerous excited ob- 
servers. iKu tioularlj' of the fair sex, loca- 
ted at Interlaken and other more or less 
adjacent villages and hotels, from which 
telescopes and other scientific appai-atus 
could be directed on the daring climber. 
These notes, therefore, may be considered 
unfashionable and this simple narrative 
maj' seem to lack that s[)irit of ti-nthful- 
ness so sought after by newspaper and 
other religious wi'iters. But talents are 
sometimes limited. 
At the foot of Mont Rosa there is one 
or more of those wonderful collections 
of ice and snow called Glaciers ; from 
this there spring two of the mighty riv- 
ers of the European continent, the Rhine 
and Rhone. The Rhine has found it.'^ 
way to the northward and after awhile 
leaves Switzerland to persne its windings 
through Germany and the lowlands of 
Holland to the sea. The Rhone, however, 
takes a more southerly course and after 
passing by some little villages nestled 
in the valley to the westward, widens 
out into I^ake Geneva, more anciently 
called IjAC Leman, a basin undoubtedly 
formed by the same glacier, from which 
the river springs, in the early days of its 
existauce when it covered the entire val- 
le}^ Not far from, where the river broad- 
ens into the lake, on the north bank, is 
the castle of Cliillon, made famous by 
Byron's poem. In the castle, on the edge 
of the lake, one is shown many of the little 
di'vii'f.s Ijy which the possessor of the 
casilc extended the "hostilities" of the 
occasion to its guests. There are thiinib 
screws, iron collars,racks and instruments 
for "breaking a fellow all up," and other 
fiunitiire found in fashionable hardware 
shops of the medifeval day. There is a 
nice little room over in a corner whei-e 
yon might walk in and soon find your- 
>clt' precipitated into a dark deep hole 
anil water to stay for eternity. You also 
see the stone pillar where the noted pris- 
oner was chained and you can almost 
imagine the weary and shortened steps 
of the poor old man. About five miles 
to the west on the edge of the lake, we 
come to the beautiful town of Vevay. It 
is in this sheltered spot, with its back- 
ground of viueiaru.-, .,s they cover the 
tci-raced and carefully cultivated slopes 
of the hills as tbej' rise around, that we 
spent many days of pleasant life. Pro- 
tected from the north winds by the hills, 
for the Alps proper are in the distance, 
with the lake at its feet and moderate 
weathei- at all times, it is a favorite re- 
sort foi- strt-ngei s from all climes. Many 
a swim have we taken in the cool watt rs 
of the lake, many a row and sail on its 
fair surface, clear as crj'Stal beneath, with 
still a reminiscence in temperature of its 
souice, the icy glaciers. We have also 
wandered through the neighboring vine- 
yards picking grapes where we vAished; 
we have seen the grapes gathered and 
taken to the wine press and we have, 
afterwards, tasted of what we had good 
i-eason to believe was till' puve juice of 
the grape. But that was in Sw ilzei-lmid 
.and not in Kansas Cit.v. But w (> must 
pass on hurriedly some forty miles, to 
the end of the lake, sloping for .a short 
w hile oidy at Lausanne, where Gibbon 
lived and wrote his famous history, till 
we come to the charming city of Geneva. 
We now leave the Rhone, as it soon passes 
out of Switzerland, joins the Saone at 
Lyons, France and proceeds on its way 
southward to empty into the Meditera- 
nean near Marseilles. Geneva, that centre 
of culture, the home of celebrated men 
of many ages, notably Calvin, would be 
worthy of extended notice, but we must 
hurry through it and take the diligence 
(or stage we would call it), for another 
glacier and tlie greatest nioiuit.iin of Eu- 
4 
rope, Mont Blanc; up w^e mount andtake 
an outside seat : Crack! goes the whip and 
off" the four horses start on the way to 
Chamoniux. This place in the midst of 
the mountains, devotes itself exclusively 
and extensively to "taking in" tourists 
literallj', figuratively, poetically and 
every other way. It is like all places 
similarly situated in Switzerland. Swit- 
zerland does not feed on the fat of the 
land but on the fat of the tourists. Swit- 
zerland, at least among the Alps, is a land 
flowing with milk and honey; that is, 
goats' milk at about a dollar a quart to 
tourists and honey barrelled and shipped 
in from Italy or some other foreign coun- 
tvy and served on the hotel breakfast ta- 
bles, terms invariabl.v to tourists (no dis- 
count to the trade): about fifty cents a 
lick, napkins and service extr:i. There is 
about a proportionate rate of charge for 
wood carvings, photographs. Alpine 
sticks and other mementoes and devices 
peculiar to the wants of the tourists; for 
the natives are too wise to attempt to 
wrest their living from the rocks, hills 
and mountains entirely. Let us cool ofl:' 
our Indignation on that celebrated glacier 
usually known as'"]Mer de Glace,'' or "sea 
of ice." We can cross it not too far up 
among the mountains or we can go in its 
caves as it terminates in the valley. All 
around »re mountains. In the distance, 
if cleai-, we see the mighty Mont Blanc 
rearing iis perpetually snow clad heiglits 
on which the sun glistens. None but the 
hardiest and most skillful climliers as- 
cend its majestic sides to the top. The 
feat, if accomiilislied, is celebrated for 
days afterwards and the performers 
might become membeis of the English 
" Alpine Club."' Space will not permit 
me to specify the details of the 
trip over the pass called "Tete 
Noii-e" back into the Rhone valley, dur- 
ing which we wrestled in body and niinil 
with that animal or beast of liurden 
known to the world as the domestic ass 
;uid eni]iloyed so often in Switzerland 
for purposes of mountain transportation, 
weariment of temper and destruction of 
a useful portion of male attii e. A tramp 
to Zermatt, at the head of .-i valley run- 
ning south from the Rhone valle w Iji iiigs 
one in the midst of snow cajjoed |)eaks 
and the magnificense of Ali)ine scener\ , 
Here we are at the foot of the Matter- 
horn, a shaft of stone most dittlrnlt of 
ascent, shooting high in the air, a mass 
of rock without vegetation, with almost 
perpendicular sides. The attempt to 
scale its ice covered heights is .'-ometimes 
made. But as you look at the grav(-s of 
some of the daring climljcrs, asiliey ]!.■ 
at rest in the little elini-cli yard in llie 
