which holds, that Pilate drowned himself in a dark lake (Mare Infernale) on its top.

It is quite a point with travellers to see the sun set and rise on Righi. We did not reach the summit in time to see him set, nor indeed would it have availed much; for he went down in clouds. We passed the night at an inn on the mountain, and in the morning, at five o'clock, were on the top, with many others, to see his rising. Here again our success was not complete; nor is the full measure of gratification obtained, we were told, one time in forty. However, we were compensated at every step: the morning view was enough of itself, although not perfect, to repay all the toil of the assent. Looking south, the whole inner circle of the Alps was spread before us, with its hundred dark pinnacles-their bases and fissures covered and filled with snow that never melts away. Never certainly; for now was the end of summer. Back of us, in contrast to this, was spread out, as far as the eye could see, a tract of cultivated country. On the right was Pontius Pilatus. On the left, and almost beneath our feet, were the ruins of Goldau; appearing scarcely more than a dark scathe on the brow of Rossberg. How like the path of calamity, seen from the distance of years, or from the cold heights of worldly prosperity! The dread

avalanche of earth that whelmed one hundred families in ruin, appeared but as a furrow on the mountain's side! Simond says that the view from Righi embraces three fourths of Switzerland, three hundred miles. in circumference, and fourteen lakes.

These awful heights, and the secluded recesses among them, consecrated, as they might seem to be, from human violence, have often been the seat of war. Not only were they so in the days of the Reformation-for Zuinglius fell on a field of battle in sight from Righi Culm— but in the later days of the French revolutionizing conflicts. From the two summits of Righi, separated by a defile, the French and Russians fired for some time at one another from batteries, which, however, did no harm. To the southwest lay buried amid mountains the small canton of Underwalden, where the French, in '98, committed such dreadful atrocities. To the southeast, and far distant, ran the Muotte Thal, the defile through which Suwarrow, with twenty thousand Russians, was making his way from Italy, when he was met and overthrown by the French general Massena.

Righi, with the country and lakes around it, is the land of William Tell. It was on the Vier Waldstatter See, or Lake of the Four Cantons, that Tell, in a tempest, escaped from the boat in which Bailiff Gessler was bearing him as a prisoner. Gessler rode out the tempest, and landed at Brunnen; and thence proceeded towards his chateau on the north side of Righi, the ruins of which are still shown. But Tell waylaid and shot him. A chapel, called William Tell's Chapel, is built on the spot which tradition has assigned to this act of vengeance. We passed by and entered it on our way to Kusnacht, which is at the foot of Righi.

On the morning of the eleventh of September we came down the Righi, and took boat for Lucerne. The sail is absolutely glorious. On the left, and in front, the stupendous Alps, rising mountain above

* Lucerne, Underwalden, Schweitz, and Uri,

mountain, their snowy heights retiring one behind another, and rising height above height, till it seemed as if they stretched away beyond the earth's horizon, to the verge of some other creation. On the right lay a bank of verdure, orchards, groves, and cottages, beautiful as the other part was sublime. The lake, too, was a perfect mirror, and presented in its pure and transparent depths, all this glorious array of objects, every pinnacle, cottage, field, and tree, distinct as in the scene that surrounded us. But when we rounded the headland and opened the bay (so to call the upper part of the lake) on which Lucerne is situated, the scenery of the lake reached its highest interest. We were sailing almost under a high and rocky barrier; Lucerne was before us, with its white walls and houses, seated like a swan upon the bosom of the waters; around it and along down on either shore, the fields, orchards, and groves rose in every variety of graceful outline; behind us were "the everlasting hills.' One pinnacle, in particular, far off, towered among the clouds, and appeared like a pyramid upon the heights of some more gigantic creation.

ESCHLISMATT, September 12.-We have come from Lucerne to this place, not for the sake of scenery, but to take the shortest route to Thun, and thus to reach the southern Alps. We have passed through a country, however, of considerable Swiss scenery, and we have been particularly struck by the appearance of the people and of their habitations. The people still wear the same appearance of cheerfulness that I have already noticed. We stopped at a tavern where a shower had driven many of the labourers. They were eating and drinking, but quite as much engaged in sprightly conversation; for the people in this quarter of the world seem to sit down to their meals quite as much to

talk as to eat.

As to the houses-this is the canton of Lucerne a larger proportion of them on the route to-day have been substantial, in good repair, and in outward appearance comfortable, than in any equal extent of country over which I have ever travelled. Scarcely one dwelling has appeared in about thirty miles, that would be marked by the traveller as the habitation of indigence. The villages, as well as the houses scattered in the country, have appeared extremely neat.

Is it not the reason why the Swiss are not cooped up in villages like the rest of the nations on the Continent, that they have always stood as neutrals in the wars of Europe, and therefore have not undertaken to put themselves in a state of defence? Is not their national freedom, too, which they have always more or less enjoyed, the cause of the superior intelligence and cheerfulness which appear among the body of them?

As to the measure of intelligence, I am aware that I am not entitled to make up any very confident opinion; but for the evidences of cheerfulness, I have seen more smiling faces in three days in this country, I have witnessed more animated conversation, I have heard more hearty laughter, and more songs among these mountains, than I have met with in passing through a portion of France, Belgium, Prussia, and Germany; nay, the Swiss seem to me a more joyous people than the English. Songs from the hills around, and from the lake below, followed me all the way as I walked up Righi.

THUN, September 13.-This morning, as we left Eschlismatt, the

appearance of the Alps on the south was very striking; immense, irregular masses of mountain, sharply defined on the clear morning sky, and looking like the stupendous fragments of a broken up world.

The aspect of the country, till we came upon Thun, has been rather less pleasing than it was yesterday; but the signs of competence among the people are still the same. Surely people must be well off who build such houses; the roof projecting over, so as to cover almost twice as much space as the house itself; and having enough timber in it, I might almost say, to build a comfortable house; and then the shingles on the roof, and sides also, of the house, are so small, and so carefully rounded and shaped at the ends, as to require, in building, a vast deal of work. The houses, too, are immensely large.

Both the dwellings and the appearance of the people would seem to indicate that there is great equality among them. If there be gentlemen or ladies in this country, one is ready to ask, where are they? They certainly do not appear. Neither do I see any persons that I should take to be physicians, lawyers, or clergymen.

As to ladies, if none of the women are dressed as such, yet they certainly do not fail to be very much dressed. The costume of the canton of Lucerne especially is very showy. A black cap, with beads wrought into it, and a border of lace; the hair in braids falling below the waist; the stomacher of black velvet, embroidered with beads of various colours; the sleeves full, and always white, and a sort of armlet of black, reaching from the elbow to the wrist, and tight; the petticoat dark coloured, blue or brown, of taffeta stuff, often embroidered around the border, and terminating a little below the knee; and the feet always dressed with comfortable stockings and shoes. And this, too, is the common dress of the Lucernese women, young and old, in the field and in the market, in the house and by the way. It seems favourable to agility; and yet the movements and forms of these women are very clumsy, and comeliness is very rare among them. Their taste in dress, we could not help remarking, is singularly like that of our North American Indians.

Of the scenery of Switzerland, thus far, the characteristic is not, as I expected it would be, wildness; but striking contrasts-the loveliest valleys, between bold hills; cultivation, surpassing, if possible, that of England, carried up among the rocks, and spreading among steep precipices and dark groves of fir, the richest verdure in the world. Ĉertainly there is no verdure like that of Switzerland. Like all high countries, it is full of springs, and visited with constant showers. The grass, too, is frequently mowed-three, four, and five times in the summer-which gives to the fields, oftentimes, the appearance of a smoothshaven English park.

The elevation of the country, also, gives a singular character to the rivers and brooks. They rush forth from their fountains and lakes, with a swiftness, with an aspect of life, as if, unchained and set free from the ice-bound prisons of the Alps, they were hurrying to the broad and fair fields of Germany, and France, and Italy, rejoicing to spread verdure and beauty through the world.

I wonder that travellers have not said more of some of these Swiss towns. I have spoken of Lucerne. Thun, too, is another glorious spot. It is situated on the Aar, about a mile from its rushing forth from the

Lake of Thun, or Thuner See. A beautiful valley, of five or six miles circuit, spreads to the west of the town, terminated by the magnificent mountain barrier of the Stockenberg-dark, severe, with a broken and irregular outline-and relieved, to-day, against a sky of the purest autumnal serenity. Southward lies the lake; and beyond, forty miles distant probably, but seeming much nearer, rise the snowy summits of the Jungfrau, Silverhorn, and the Eigers-mountains between eleven and twelve thousand feet in height, their loftiest and sharpest pinnacles perfectly white, and looking precisely like the forms of our snowbanks after a driving storm. Their immense elevation, with this dazzling whiteness, makes them appear more like things of heaven than of earth. We went during the afternoon to view the church, the Pavillon de Jacques, and the grove southward, on the lake. The last rays of the setting sun upon the snow-capped Alps, the bright waters of the lake, the soft and solemn shadows of the descending evening, upon the western mountains, the serene depths of a September sky above them—these are the features of the scene. But words are not paintings; and no paintings can do justice to such scenes as these. And yet, the scenes themselves, what are they in all their majesty of form and beauty of colouring, compared with what they are as emblems of our thoughttemples and ministrations of religion. "So," I said as I walked homeward, "let the last shadow steal over me, soft and solemn; the bright waters of life at my feet-for not a cynic would I die; and the serene and illimitable depths of heaven above me-for I would die a Christian."

CHAPTER X.

EXCURSION TO THE OBERLAND-SAIL DOWN THE LAKE OF THUN-UNTERSEEN AND INTERLAKEN-VALLEY OF LAUTERBRUNNEN-WENGERNALP―JUNGFRAU

-AVALANCHES-THE EIGERS-GRINDELWALD—THE GLACIER-CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE-SWISS SONGS-RETURN TO THUN-ROAD TO BERNE —LAKE OF NEUFCHATEL-CASTLE GRANDSON-BATTLE-FIELD OF CHARLES THE BOLD AND THE SWISS-YVERDUN-LAUSANNE-GENEVA.

On a most beautiful September morning (the fourteenth instant), we set out on an excursion to the high Alps, and the glaciers of Grindelwald. We left our carriage, and took a boat at Thun, to go down to Neuhaus, at the bottom of the lake, on our way to the mountains. These boats on the Swiss lakes are almost uniformly rowed in part by women. We had two on the Zug, and one to-day.

Scarcely a finer day in the year could have been chosen to witness those effects of light, those contrasts of light and shade, which are certainly among the most striking things in mountain scenery. All the morning there was not a cloud in the sky, save one, that rested like a halo on the distant peak of Jungfrau. And whatever may be said about the effect of clouds and mists upon the mountain tops, and whatever it may be in fact, nothing seems to me to give such sublimity to them as a clear and cloudless sky. Then they appear to be invested with that

awful serenity, which is to me their sublimest attribute; and then, too. they seem to pierce, not the clouds only, but the very heavens.

There was a very striking effect of light and shade as we came down the lake, which I suppose one might be here forty days, and not see: for everything depends on the light, and the state of the atmosphere. There was a slight veil, like that of our Indian summer, upon the surrounding hills; and aided by this, the mountain of Arbendberg, though it was ten o'clock in the morning, cast so deep a shadow upon the lake, that a boat, sailing in that direction, seemed to be advancing into a region of awful and perilous obscurity, and, indeed, it was soon lost to the sight entirely. At the same time, the rays of the sun, streaming over the mountain upon the village of Derlingen, situated on the shore beneath, presented it in the boldest relief and the most splendid colouring; and yet, one single foot (so it seemed) beyond the line of light, it was so dark, that, although only a mile distant, we mistook rocks for houses, and were speculating, before our guide undeceived us, upon the condition of the adjacent dwellings as being like that of the antipodes. There was a deep dun colour upon the shore, and a rich dark hue of green upon the adjacent water, which, if brought with the other striking features of the landscape altogether into a painting, would be thought, like many actual scenes of life, if brought into fiction, to be very unnatural and extravagant.

We reached Neuhaus a little after ten o'clock, and took a char-a-banc to Interlaken. Surely one may wander over the world and find few places so beautiful as this. The inns and boarding-houses here, show that it is the resort of many strangers. It is a small valley upon the Aar, full of trees, of which a great number of old walnut trees are the most remarkable-with a steep and stupendous mountain barrier on the east, the Lake of Brientz not far to the northeast, and westward a vista, opening through majestic mountains, up the valley of Lauterbrunnen, to the shining heights of the Jungfrau.

Up this valley, after dinner, we rode, struck with new admiration at every step. It is a pass through mountains, rising, often perpendicularly, to the height of two and three thousand feet; standing out boldly into the clear sky, and measuring, as the eye was raised to them, sometimes a whole third part of the arch of heaven; and presenting almost every variety of aspect, broad barriers, sharp pinnacles, deep shadow, bright sunlights, rocky precipices on the one side, and on the other, peasants' cottages rising, with redeemed soil about them, on terrace above terrace, to the very top. The Wengernalp is on the left hand, and presents, at its western termination on this road, an immense circular precipice, so much resembling a tower, that, as the eye catches it from time to time, one feels inadvertently as if it were the citadel of some mighty though unfinished palace of the Alps.

The Falls of Staubbach, at the end of our ride in the valley, is the descent (nine hundred feet) of a very small stream of water, which is almost dissipated into spray before it reaches the bottom of the precipice. One is disappointed, perhaps, after hearing so much about it, and yet it is something very bizarre and beautiful. If it is a trifle, it is yet a trifle on the mighty scale of Alpine scenery.

Hunnenflue.

Since I