32 
THE ALPS IN WINTER. 
(Illustrated by the Lantern). 
By Mr. HERMANN WOOLLEY , Member of the Alpine Club. 
February 19 th, 1907. 
The personally conducted tour to-night was over the 
playground of Europe in winter, under the genial guidance of 
Mr. Hermann Woolley, whose touring lectures are always highly 
appreciated in Burnley. Some of the views he showed were 
taken 18 or 20 years ago, he said, before it was fashionable 
to go to Switzerland in winter. English people had discovered 
that there were advantages in going to Switzerland in January. 
Above 2,000 feet high they had a good chance of sport and 
there was a freedom from dust, beggars and other nuisances 
so common in summer. The drawbacks were sometimes deep 
snow and severe cold, but he had never known the cold so 
severe as to interfere with long walks when snow shoes were 
used. There were toboggan runs in several places in Western 
Switzerland, some of them three-quarters of a mile long, 
where a man on the regulation tobaggan could put on a 
speed of about 40 miles an hour. It looked dangerous. Two 
gentlemen had lost their lives this winter on one of these 
runs ; and the accidents were not always reported. The 
lecturer started with his party at Schwytz, near Lucerne, 
the lake of the four cantons, took them up the St. Gothard 
to Andermatt, the Furka Pass along the Rhone Valley, visiting 
the Zermatt Valley scenery, Grindlewald and Chamounix, and 
making a series of delightful excursions from each centre. 
In order to get the proper climate in winter, he said, they 
should get above 2,000 or 3,000 feet, as the mist hung over 
the lakes at 2,000 feet. All the country around Lucerne 
was the scene of the exploits of William Tell, who according 
to a German writer, never existed. The people, however, 
were so offended at this author’s suggestion, that they had 
burnt the pamphlet in which he had tried to prove it. The 
Furka Pass was the highest pass for a carriage road in Switzer- 
land — about 8,000 feet, but was not the highest pass in the 
Alps. In 1901, when one of his views was taken, there were 
