AN EXCURSION ON THE LAKE.
The Lake of Geneva is shaped, as has already been said, like the new
moon. One of the horns is towards the west; the other is towards the
south. Geneva is at the tip of the western horn.
Of course, in sailing from Geneva to the other end of the lake, we go
from the west towards the east; and this renders it rather more
agreeable to make the excursion by an afternoon boat than by a morning
one; for in the afternoon, the sun, being then in the western part of
the sky, will be behind you, and so will not shine in your face; but,
instead of shining in your face and dazzling your eyes, it will be
shining upon and illuminating brilliantly the slopes of the mountains
that you are going to see. In other words, in the morning the mountains
are in shadow and the sun in your eyes; in the evening your eyes are
shaded, and the mountains glow with brilliancy and beauty.
It is often very important to take notice thus of the manner in which
the sun shines in different parts of the day, in planning excursions
among the Alps.
The middle of the day is a very exciting and animating time on the quay
at Geneva. It is then that the boats which left the other end of the
lake in the morning are expected to arrive; and a great concourse of
porters, guides, postilions, and bystanders of all sorts assemble to
receive the travellers. As the boats come in, it is very amusing to sit
on the balconies, or at the windows of the hotels which overlook the
quay, and watch the procession of tourists as they come over the plank
to land. There are family groups consisting of fathers, mothers, and
children, followed by porters bearing immense trunks, while they
themselves are loaded with shawls, cloaks, umbrellas, and carpet bags;
and parties of students, with all their travelling effects in knapsacks
on their backs; and schoolboys who have been making a tour of the Alps
with their teacher; and young brides, almost equally proud of their
husbands, of the new dignity of their own position, and of the grandeur
of an Alpine bridal tour. All these people, and the hundreds of
spectators that assemble to see them, fill the quay, and form a very
animated and exciting spectacle.
When the time approaches for a boat to sail, which is in half an hour
after she arrives, we have a counterpart of this scene, the direction of
the current only being reversed. The tourists now go to the boat, the
porters, with their baggage, preceding them. A soldier stands at the
entrance to the plank, to look at the passports. Lines of officials on
each side guard the way. On the deck of the steamer, as soon as you get
on board, you find a great variety of picturesque looking groups, all,
however, having the air of being travellers for pleasure. Some are
arranging themselves in good seats for seeing the scenery. Others take
out their maps and guide books, and prepare to read the descriptions of
the places that they are going to see. Here and there children are to be
seen--the boys with little knapsacks, and the girls wearing very
broad-brimmed Swiss hats--neither paying any attention to the scenery,
but amusing themselves with whatever they find at hand to play with--one
with a little dog, another with a doll which has been bought for her at
Geneva, and a third, perhaps, with a whip, or a little wagon.
Rollo took his seat by the side of his father and mother, in the midst
of such a scene as this, on the day of their embarkation, and occupied
himself sometimes by looking at the shores of the lake and the mountains
beyond, and sometimes by watching the movements and actions of the
various groups of tourists before him. In the mean time, the boat left
the landing, and began to glide along rapidly on her way over the
surface of the water.
The shores of the lake are very fertile and populous, and at every eight
or ten miles, especially on the northern shore, you come to a large
town. The steamboats stop at these towns to take and leave passengers.
They do not, in such cases, usually land at a pier, but the passengers
come and go in large boats, and meet the steamer at a little way from
the shore. Rollo used to take great pleasure in going forward to the
bows of the steamer, and watch these boats as they came out from the
shore. If there were two of them, they would come out so far that the
track of the steamer should lie between them, and then, when the steamer
stopped her paddles, they would come up, one on one side and the other
on the other, and the passengers would come up on board by means of a
flight of steps let down from the steamer, just abaft the paddle boxes.
When the passengers had thus come up, the baggage would be passed up
too; and then those passengers who wished to go ashore at that place
would go down the steps in the boats, and when all were embarked, the
boats would cast off from the steamer, and the steamer would go on her
way as before. The boats then would row slowly to the land, with the
passengers in them that were to stop at that place.
The way of paying for one's passage on board these boats was very
different from that adopted in America. There was no colored waiter to
go about the decks and saloons ringing a bell, and calling out, in a
loud and authoritative voice, Passengers who haven't settled their fare
will please call at the captain's office and settle. Instead of this,
the clerk of the boat came himself, after each landing, to the new
passengers that had come on board at that landing, and, touching his hat
to them, in the most polite manner, asked them to what place they wished
to go. He had a little slate in his hand, with the names of all the
towns where the steamer was to touch marked upon it. As the several
passengers to whom he applied gave him the name of the place of their
destination, he made a mark opposite to the name of the place on his
slate. When he had in this way applied to all the new comers, he went to
the office and provided himself with the proper number of tickets for
each place, and then went round again to distribute them. In going
around thus a second time, to distribute the tickets, he took a cash box
with him to make change. This cash box was slung before him by means of
a strap about the neck.
"How much more polite and agreeable a mode this is of collecting the
fares," said Mrs. Holiday to her husband, "than ours in America! There a
boy comes around, dinging a bell in every body's ears, and then the
gentlemen have to go in a crowd and elbow their way up to the window of
the captain's office. I wish we could have some of these polite and
agreeable customs introduced into our country."
"They are very agreeable," said Mr. Holiday, "and are very suitable for
pleasure travel like this, where the boats are small, and the number of
passengers few; but I presume it would be very difficult to collect the
fares in this way on a North River steamer, where there are sometimes a
thousand passengers on board. Here there are usually not more than eight
or ten passengers that come on board at a time, and they mix with only
fifty or sixty that were on board before. But in America we often have
fifty or sixty come on board at a time, and they mix with eight hundred
or a thousand. In such a case as that I think that this plan would be
well nigh impracticable."
"I did not think of that," said Mrs. Holiday.
"The difference between the circumstances of the case in Europe and in
America is very often not thought of by travellers who find themselves
wishing that the European customs in respect to travelling and the
hotels could be introduced into our country. In Europe the number of
travellers is comparatively small, and a very large proportion of those
who make journeys go for pleasure. The arrangements can all,
consequently, be made to save them trouble, and to make the journey
agreeable to them; and the price is increased accordingly. In America,
people travel on business, and they go in immense numbers. Their main
object is, to be taken safely and expeditiously to the end of their
journey, and at as little expense as possible. The arrangements of the
conveyances and of the hotels are all made accordingly. The consequence
is, a vast difference in the expense of travelling, and a corresponding
difference, of course, to some extent, in ease and comfort. The price of
passage, for instance, in the Geneva steamboats, from one end of the
lake to the other, a distance of about fifty miles, is two dollars,
without berth or meals; whereas you can go from New York to Albany,
which is more than three times as far, for half a dollar. This
difference is owing to the number of travellers that go in the American
boats, and the wholesale character, so to speak, of the arrangements
made for them.
"In other words, the passengers in a public conveyance in Europe are not
only conveyed from place to place, but they are waited upon by the way,
and they have to pay both for the conveyance and the attendance. In
America they are only conveyed, and are left to wait upon themselves;
and they are charged accordingly. Each plan is good, and each is adapted
to the wants and ideas of the countries that respectively adopt them.
"Shall we go to the end of the lake to-day?" said Mr. Holiday, "or only
part of the way? The clerk will come pretty soon to ask us."
"Are there any pretty places to stop at on the way?" asked Mrs. Holiday.
"Yes," said her husband; "all the places are pretty."
"Tell us about some of them," said Rollo.
"First there is Lausanne," said his father. "Lausanne is a large town up
among the hills, a mile or two from the water. There is a little port,
called Ouchy, on the shore, where the steamer stops. There there is a
landing and a pier, and some pretty boarding houses, with gardens and
grounds around them, and a large, old-fashioned inn, built like a castle
of the middle ages, but kept very nicely. We can stop there, and go up
in an omnibus to Lausanne, which is a large, old town, two miles up the
side of the mountain.
"Then, secondly," continued Mr. Holiday, "there is Vevay, which is
famous for a new and fashionable hotel facing the lake, with a beautiful
terrace between it and the water, where you can sit on nice benches
under the trees, and watch the steamers going by over the blue waters of
the lake, or the row boats and sail boats coming and going about the
terrace landing, or the fleecy clouds floating along the sides of the
dark mountains around the head of the lake."
"I should like to stop at both places," said Mrs. Holiday.
"Then we will stop at Ouchy to-night," said Mr. Holiday, "for that comes
first."
So it was decided that they should take tickets for Ouchy.
The boat at Ouchy did not land passengers by boats, but went up to the
pier. Only a few passengers went ashore. The pier was at some little
distance from the hotel, the way to it being by a quiet and pleasant
walk along the shore.
There was an omnibus marked Lausanne standing at the head of the pier.
"Now, we can get into the omnibus," said Mr. Holiday, "and go directly
up to Lausanne, or we can go to the hotel here, and take lodgings, and
then go up to Lausanne to see the town after dinner."
It was at this time about four o'clock. The usual time of dinner for
travellers in Switzerland is five.
Mrs. Holiday, observing that the hotel at Ouchy was very prettily
situated, close to the water, and recollecting that her husband had said
that it resembled in its character a castle of the middle ages,
concluded that she would like as well to take rooms there.
A woman with a queer-shaped basket on her back, which she carried by
means of straps over her shoulders, here came up to Mr. Holiday, and
asked if she should take _the baggages_ to the inn. Mr. Holiday said
yes. So she put the valise and the carpet bag into her basket, and
walked away with them to the inn.
Women often act as porters in France and Switzerland, and they perform,
also, all sorts of out-door work. They use these baskets, too, very
often, for carrying burdens. Rollo afterwards saw a woman take her child
out to ride in one of them.
Mrs. Holiday was extremely pleased with the inn at Ouchy. She said that
she should like to remain there a week. It seemed precisely, with its
antique-looking rooms, and long stone paved corridors, like the castles
which she had read about when she was a girl in the old romances.
After dinner, Mr. Holiday sent for a carriage, and took Mrs. Holiday and
Rollo to ride. They went up the ascent of land behind the town, the road
winding as it went among green and beautiful glades and dells, but still
always ascending until they came to Lausanne. This was nearly two miles
from the lake, and very much above it. From Lausanne they went back
still farther, ascending all the time, and obtaining more and more
commanding views of the lake at every turn.
When the sun went down, they turned their faces homeward. They came
down, of course, very fast, the road winding continually this way and
that, to make the descent more gradual. At length, about half past
eight, they returned to the inn.
The landlady of the inn, who was very kind and obliging to them, took
them to see a room in her hotel where Lord Byron wrote his celebrated
poem entitled the PRISONER OF CHILLON. Chillon is an ancient castle
which stands on the shore, twenty or thirty miles beyond, and very near,
in fact, to the extremity of the lake. Byron has made this castle
renowned throughout the world by spending a few days, while he was
stopped at this inn at Ouchy by a storm, when travelling on the lake, in
writing a poem in which he describes the emotions and sufferings of
some imaginary prisoners whom he supposed to be confined there.
"Can we go to see the Castle of Chillon?" said Mrs. Holiday.
"Yes," said Mr. Holiday. "We shall sail directly by it in going to the
head of the lake, and if we stop there we can go to it very easily."
The head of the lake--that is, the eastern end of it--is surrounded with
mountains, the slopes of which seem to rise very abruptly from the
water, and ascend to such a height that patches of snow lie on the
summits of them all the summer. These mountains, especially if
overshadowed by clouds, give a very dark and sombre expression to the
whole region when seen from a distance, in coming in from the centre of
the lake. This sombre expression, however, entirely disappears when you
arrive at the head of the lake, and land there.
You would not suppose, when viewing these shores from a distance, that
there was any place to land, so closely do the precipitous slopes of the
mountains seem to shut the water in. But on drawing near the shore, you
see that there is a pretty broad belt of land along the shore, which,
though it ascends rapidly, is not too steep to be cultivated. This belt
of land is covered with villages, hamlets, vineyards, orchards, and
gardens, and it forms a most enchanting series of landscapes, from
whatever point it is seen, while the more precipitous slopes of the
mountains, towering above in grandeur and sublimity, complete the
enchantment of the view.
The Castle of Chillon stands on the very margin of the lake, just in the
edge of the water. Indeed, the foundations on which it stands form a
little island, which is separated by a narrow channel from the shore.
This channel is crossed by a drawbridge. It is possible, however, that
it may be in some measure artificial. The island may have originally
been a small rocky point, and it may have been made an island by the
cutting of a ditch between it and the main land.
The steamer passed along the shore, very near to this castle, in going
to the head of the lake, as you see represented in the engraving.[F]
There is no steamboat landing at the castle itself, but there is one at
the village of Montreux, a little before you come to it, and another at
Villeneuve, a little beyond. Numbers of tourists come in every steamer
to visit the castle, and stop for this purpose at one of these landings
or the other. The distance is only twenty minutes' brisk walking from
either of them.
[Footnote F: See Frontispiece.]
Villeneuve, the last landing mentioned above, is at the very extremity
of the lake. We see it in the distance in the engraving. Here travellers
who are going to continue their journey up the valley of the Rhone,
either for the purpose of penetrating into the heart of Switzerland, or
of going by the pass of the Simplon into Italy, leave the boat and take
the diligence to continue their journey by land, or else engage a
private carriage, and also a guide, if they wish for one. Mr. Holiday
did not intend at this time to go on far up the valley, but he purposed
to stop a day or two at Villeneuve, to visit Chillon, and perhaps make
some other excursions, and also to enjoy the views presented there, on
all sides, of the slopes and summits of the surrounding mountains.