air inhaled by so many labourers, which soon became so bad as to extinguish all the lights; while the constant influx of water, pouring in through the crannies of the gallery, threw further impediments in the way of the miner. As it was impossible to renew the air by ventilation, it became necessary to withdraw the men for several hours at a time. In addition to all this, a great part of the operations were necessarily performed in the dark.

The length of the tunnel was 1390 feet. Strong flood-gates had been erected at its lower extremity to modify and restrain the issue of the flood. All things being thus prepared, on the morning of January 9, 1836, a cannon-shot, fired from the Kaiserstuhl, answered by another on the Landenberg, gave notice to the whole valley of what was about to happen, and a bold miner, named Spire, was despatched with two companions to fire the train. The length of the match was so regulated as to give them ample time to escape through the tunnel; and their return to daylight was announced by the firing of a pistol. A multitude of spectators had collected on the surrounding hills to witness the result of the experiment which had cost so much time and money to execute, and in which many were so deeply interested-while considerable anxiety prevailed as to its happy result. Expectation was now at the utmost stretch; ten minutes had elapsed beyond the time allotted to the match, and nothing was heard. Some began to fear;-in a minute two dull explosions were heard; but they neither shook the ground above, nor even broke the ice which at that season covered the lake. No one doubted that the mine had failed, when, on a sudden, a joyful shout from below announced its success, as a black torrent of mud and water intermixed was seen by those stationed near the lower end of the tunnel to issue from its mouth. The winter season had been expressly chosen for the consummation of the undertaking, because

the waters are then lowest, and many of the tributary torrents are frozen or dried up.

The drainage of the lake of Lungern was effected gradually and safely. In six days the water fell 14 feet, and in ten days more the lake had sunk to a level with the mouth of the tunnel. The lake of Gyswyl, indeed, was filled again, and lasted for a few days, during which it laid several houses under water, but it was soon drained off. On the shores of the lake of Lungern, appearances were at first alarming. The steep banks, deprived on a sudden of the support of the water, began to crack; large masses broke off, and a very considerable fissure appeared near the village of Lungern, which threatened injury to it, so that the church and many of the houses were dismantled and abandoned, and the bells removed from the tower. A piece of ground, several acres in extent, did indeed separate, and slide into the water, just after a house and shed which stood on it had been pulled down and removed. Fortunately this was the extent of the mischief, and church and village are still safe. The uncovered land presented, for some months, only a blank surface of mud and sand, to which the crows resorted in great numbers to feed on the worms and shell-fish left dry in the mud by the receding waters. By the latter end of the year a scanty crop of potatoes was raised on part of it; but some time must elapse before it can become valuable for agricultural purposes, or cease to be unsightly to the eye: indeed much of the lake-bed was bare rock. The aqueous deposits brought down into the lake by tributary brooks, and laid bare by this drainage, will be remarked with interest by the geologist, as illustrating the progress of the formation of strata, and the variation of their dip. Much float-wood was found in the bed of the lake; it had assumed the appearance of brown coal.

The cost of this enterprise was 51,826 f. (50007.) and 19,000 days' labour performed by the peasants,

and for its manufactures of linen. Its meadows are of the brightest verdure; the cottages neat and substantial, with pretty gardens before them. The Emme, which traverses it, and its tributaries, at times commit serious devastations, by inundating their banks and overspreading them with gravel and débris. Such an occurrence in August, 1837, occasioned by a thunderstorm, created serious injury, destroying many houses and almost all the bridges: several lives were lost.

It is not necessary to pass through Langnau, and more than a mile is saved by leaving it on the rt. The Ilfis is crossed, and afterwards the Emme, before reaching Signau-(Inn: Ours, tolerable) – -a pretty village, with a ruined castle above it.

About 2 m. farther, the road to Thun (4 leagues from Hochstetten) turns off on the 1., and shortly falls into the high road from Berne to Thun (Rte. 25), by the Château of Niessen, 4 leagues from Berne.

The road to Berne proceeds by

2 Gross Hochstetten, and Worb, an industrious village, with a Gothic castle above it.

3 BERNE (in Rte. 24).

ROUTE 23.

LUCERNE TO BERNE, BY SUMMISWALD.

=

191 leagues 57 Eng. miles. A diligence goes daily in 12 hours. This road is less frequented since that by Entlebuch was macadamised. The first part of this route, as far as 4 Wolhusen, is the same as the preceding. Thence it runs by Menznau, Willisau, and Zell to

5 Huttwyl-(Inns: Krone; Stadthaus): a small walled town in canton Berne.

31 Summiswald - (Inn: Bär); a flourishing village. The poor-house, on a rock above, was the first establishment of the kind in Switzerland. The building it occupies was the castle of the landvoght, or bailiff. On the Arni Alp, about 10 m. to the E., much cheese is made.

The road now passes across "the green Emmenthal, one of the richest

and most fertile of the Swiss valleys; a country that would make a grazier's heart sing with joy-such a prodigality of horned cattle." 31 Valchringen.

Near Engestein are mineral baths, supplied by a chalybeate spring. At Worb this route falls into the preceding.

3 BERNE (in Rte. 24).

ROUTE 24.

SOLEURE TO BERNE.

7 leagues

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22 Eng. m.

A diligence runs daily in 4 hours. The road crosses the Aar on quitting Soleure, passing near Zuchwyl, the retreat of the Protestants driven out of Soleure by their fanatic fellowcitizens in 1533. In a grave in the churchyard are interred "Viscera Thaddei Kosciusko." (See p. 11.)

We enter canton Berne before reaching

2 Bätterkinden, a large village on the Emme, here crossed by a bridge.

Fraubrunnen. Zum Brunnen is a clean village Inn, and reasonable. Not far from this the Bernese defeated the English mercenary Ingelram de Coucy, in 1375. A stone by the roadside commemorates the event. (See p. 14.)

Jegistorf. At Urtinen, 2 m. from this, a cross-road turns off on the rt. to Hofwyl, the agricultural and educational institution of the late M. Fellenberg. It consists of

1. A seminary for young gentlemen, about 80 in number, from all parts of Europe: there are many English. They receive here an education on very moderate terms. Every summer, during the vacation, they make a pedestrian tour through Switzerland, under the guidance of their tutors. There is a separate school of instruction for schoolmasters.

2. A school for the poor, who are taught according to the system of M. Fellenberg, on an extensive scale. It has the double object of instructing farmers and introducing agricultural improvements.

3. An agricultural establishment,

consisting of an academy for practical husbandry; a model farm; an experimental farm; an extensive collection of agricultural implements, and a manufactory for making them.

The surrounding district was little better than a bog when M. Fellenberg settled here in 1799: he has since gradually brought it into cultivation. There is a direct road from Berne to Hofwyl, by the Enghe, Reichenbach, and Buchsee, about 6 m. A lofty bridge of 3 arches, a noble structure, has been thrown over the river. Nearly opposite the N. extremity of the lofty and picturesque promontory, nearly surrounded by Aar, called Enghe, lies the old Castle of Reichenbach, which belonged to Rudolph of Erlach, the hero of the battle of Laupen, who was murdered here, in his old age, by his sonin-law, Jost von Rudenz, with the very sword which he had wielded at that glorious victory. The assassin was pursued, as he fled from the scene of his crime, by the two bloodhounds of the aged warrior, who broke loose at their master's cries. They tracked the murderer's footsteps of their own accord, and after some hours returned with gore-stained lips, and nothing more was heard or known of Jost von Rudenz.

4 BERNE.-Inns: Falke (Faucon). Charges-breakfast, 14 fr.; tea, do.; beds, 2 fr. Couronne-clean and comfortable, obliging landlord; a new house 1852, facing the river. These are both first-rate inns, and equally good-tables-d'hôte at 1, 3 fr.; at 4, 4 fr. The Abbayes, or houses of the guilds, such as the Distelzwang, or Abbaye aux Gentilshommes (the best), and the Abbaye du Singe, afford comfortable, quiet, and moderate accommodation to travellers.

precipitous sides (stalden.) The inconvenient ascent and descent by which the town could alone be reached from the E. formerly, has been remedied by a lofty Bridge, partly of granite, derived from erratic blocks lying on the Kirchet hill, thrown over this gully. It is 900 ft. long, and the central arch over the Aar 150 ft. wide and 93 ft. high. The distant aspect of the town, planted on this elevated platform, 1700 ft. above the sea, is imposing; and there is something striking in its interior, from the houses all being built of massive stone. It has this peculiarity, that almost all the houses rest upon arcades (Lauben), which furnish covered walks on each side of the streets, and are lined with shops and stalls, like "the Rows" in the city of Chester. The lowness of the arches, however, and the solidity of the buttresses supporting them, render these colonnades gloomy and close. Along the brow of the precipice, overhanging the Aar, and removed from the main streets, are the more aristocratic residences of the exclusive patricians.

Rills of water are carried through the streets to purify them, and they are abundantly furnished with Fountains, each surmounted by some quaint effigy. One of these, the Kinderfresser-Brunnen (Ogre's-fountain), on the Corn-house-square, receives its name from a figure (probably Saturn) devouring a child, with others stuck in his girdles and pockets ready for consumption. Some bear the figures of armed warriors, such as David: another is surmounted by a female figure; but the favourite device is the Bear, the armorial bearings of the canton, which is what the French heralds call an "armoirie parlante;" the word "Bern" signifying a bear, in old German, or rather in the Suabian dialect. Indeed, the animal is as great a favourite here as in the

upper fountain in the principal street is surmounted by a bear in armour, with breast-plate, thigh-pieces, and helmet, a sword at his side, and a banner in his paw. The Schützen

Brunnen is the figure of a Swiss crossbowman of former days, attended by a young bear as squire; and two stone bears, larger than life, stand as sentinels on either side of the Morat gate. Along the line of the principal street, which extends from the Bridge to the gate of Morat, are three antique watch-towers. The Clock-tower (Zeitglochenthurm) stands nearly in the centre of the town, though, when originally built, in 1191, by Berchtold V., of Zähringen, it guarded the outer wall. Its droll clockwork puppets are objects of wonder to an admiring crowd of gaping idlers. A minute before the hour strikes, first a wooden cock appears, crows twice, and flaps his wings; and while a puppet strikes the hour on a bell, a procession of bears issues out, and passes in front of a figure on a throne, who marks the hour by gaping and by lowering his sceptre. Further on in the street stands the Käficht Thurm (cage tower), now used as a prison; and beyond it Christopher's tower, also called Goliath', from the figure of a giant upon it.

The great charm of Berne is the view of the Bernese Alps, which the town and every eminence in its neighbourhood command in clear weather. From the Platform, a lofty terrace, planted with shady rows of trees, overlooking the Aar, behind the Minster, six snowy peaks of the great chain are visible, and from the Enghe terrace, outside of the town, at least a dozen rise into view; they appear in the following order, beginning from the E.-1. Wetterhorn; 2. Schreckhorn; 3. Finster-Aarhorn; 4. Eigher; 5. Mönch; 6. Jungfrau; 8. Gletscherhorn; 9. Mittaghorn; 10. Blumlis Alp; 11. In the middle distance, Niessen; 12. Stockhorn. (See Cut.)

There cannot be a more sublime sight than this view at sunset; especially at times when, from a peculiar state of the atmosphere, the slanting rays are reflected from the Alpine snows in hues of glowing pink. It is hardly possible to gaze on these Alps and glaciers without desiring to explore their recesses, which enclose some of the most magnificent scenery in Swit

zerland. The Platform itself, supported by a massive wall of masonry, rises 108 ft. above the Aar; yet an inscription on the parapet records that a young student, mounted on a spirited horse, which had been frightened by some children, and leaped the precipice, reached the bottom with no other hurt than a few broken ribs. The horse was killed on the spot. The rider became minister of Kerzerz, and lived to a good old age!

The Minster, a very beautiful Gothic building, was begun in 1421, and finished 1457, possibly from the designs of Erwin of Steinbach, who built Strasburg Minster, or one of his family; and many of the ornaments, such as the open parapet running round the roof, and varying in pattern between each buttress, are not inferior in design or execution to those of Strasburg. The chief ornament is the great W. portal, bearing sculptured reliefs of the Last Judgment, flanked by figures of the wise and foolish Virgins, &c. (date, 1475-85). The interior is not remarkable. In the windows, and on the roof, are the coats of arms of the aristocratic burghers of Berne, in all the pomp of heraldry. There are 4 tall windows of painted glass in the choir which deserve notice; in some of them are curious caricatures of the Romish priesthood (date, end of 15th century), e. g. the Pope grinding the 4 Evangelists in a mill, whence issue a number of wafers which a bishop collects in a chalice. The stalls in the choir are well carved with figures of the Apostles on one side, and prophets on the other. Along the walls are tablets, bearing the names of 18 officers and 683 soldiers, citizens of Berne, who fell fighting against the French, 1798. There is also a monument erected by the town, in 1600, to Berchtold of Zähringen, founder of Berne. In the vestry are rich tapestry and vestments, part of the spoil taken from Charles the Bold at Morat.

On the Münster Platz, opposite the W. door of the cathedral, has been erected a bronze Monumental Statue of Rudolph v. Erlach, the conqueror at Laupen, with 4 bears at the corners.