MOUNTAINS, STREAMS AND FALLS.
Pedestrianism--Mountain Torrents--Fall of the Handek--The Guide and his
Little Ones--Falls of the Reichenbach--Perilous Point of View.
Not in the best of spirits, nor in as good condition as a pedestrian
could wish, I set off the next morning, with my young friends. We would
have felt better but for a foolish resolution to carry our own knapsacks
and overcoats and to make one day's journey without guide or mule.
Success is apt to make one proud; and we had improved so much in our
walking with each day's experience, that we actually began to think we
could do anything in that line. The storm of the night before had gone
by, and a clear cool day encouraged us. Alas, we knew not how soon, in
the midst of glaciers, and in sight of dazzling snow-drifts, the hot sun
would thaw our resolution, and compel us to call lustily for help, when
no Hercules would be at hand to lend us aid.
Not a wilder or more romantic path had we found than the one which led
us out of the vale of the Grimsel. The river Aar is by our side, leaping
from ledge to ledge in its rapid descent; dashing now against rocks and
foaming around them and onward, as if maddened by every obstacle and
brooking no delay. Water in motion is always beautiful. Here on our
right hand a streamlet is falling from the giddy height of a thousand
feet above us. At first it slips along on the edge of the rocks, as if
afraid to fall, and then with a graceful bound it clears the side of the
mountain, and comes down to a lower level, where it reposes for a moment
in a basin made without hands, and again it flows along down like a long
white robe suspended on the hill side, tastefully winding itself, as in
folds.
In full view, but far above us the snow lies fresh and white, for much
of it fell there yesterday: and among the clouds as they roll open and
let us see their beds, the blue glacier lies. Some of the views along
here are exceedingly grand, and in the midst of barrenness that can
hardly be excelled, the soul feels that enough is here to make a world,
though there is little vegetation, and not a human habitation. We
frequently cross the torrent by narrow bridges, and pause on each of
them to watch the angry waters whirling underneath. I was arrested on
one of them by the sight of a reservoir hollowed out of the solid rock
by the water; it would hold twenty barrels, and was full. The torrent
was now raving a few inches below, while the water within was as placid
in the sunshine as if it had never moved. The contrast was beautiful.
Let the mad world rush by, noisy, turbulent and thoughtless: it is
better to be calm and trusting: certainly it is better if our rest is on
a rock which cannot be moved.
The mountains rise suddenly from the edge of the torrent, and there is
barely room in some places for the path and the stream. There is great
danger too in travelling here in the winter when the avalanches come
rushing down the precipitous sides of these mountains. Their work of
destruction is lying all around us. They sweep across the path and for a
long distance have laid the rock perfectly bare, and polished it so
smoothly, that there is constant danger of sliding off into the gulf by
the side of the way. Grooves have been cut in the rock, that the feet of
the mules may have some support, but a prudent traveller will trust to
his own feet and his staff, and tread cautiously. We become so
accustomed to these dangerous places, that we pass them without emotion;
but there is never a season without its fatal accidents to travellers,
and none but fool-hardy persons will needlessly expose their lives. An
American family returned home a few days ago, having left the mangled
corpse of their son, a lad of twelve years, in some frightful gorge into
which he had fallen while riding on a mule in the midst of the Alps. We
frequently hear of painful facts like these, yet there is not a pass in
Switzerland which may not be safely made with prudence and coolness.
One of the finest cascades we had yet seen was on our right, after we
had made about five miles from the hospice. Its width of stream, volume
of water, and great height, entitle it to a name and a record which it
has not; and this has frequently appeared to me strange in this journey;
that _falls_ in Switzerland, of comparatively little beauty, have been
painted and praised the world over, while others of more romantic and
impressive features have no place in the hand-books, but are strictly
anonymous. The one we are now speaking of, attracted our attention as
decidedly more interesting than any we had seen among the mountains, and
in this opinion I presume others will agree. Its misfortune is that it
is within a mile of the Handek, which we are now approaching. A huge
log-hut received us, and we found refreshments such as might be expected
in a wilderness like this. Sour bread and sour wine, with strong cheese,
and a strange-looking pie, composed of materials into which it was not
prudent to inquire, gave us a lunch that might have been worse. We were
glad to get it, but even more pleased to find a place where we could lay
down our burdens, under which we had been groaning for an hour. This
pedestrianism in the Alps is very well to talk about, but it is not the
most agreeable mode of travelling to one who is accustomed only to a
sedentary life. We could find no mules here, however, but meeting a
sturdy fellow who was going up the pass, and who was a guide but not
just now engaged, we made a bargain with him to turn about and carry our
traps to Meyringen. He was on his way over the Grimsel into Canton
Vallais to buy eggs and butter, which he and his son, who was with him,
would bring back to sell in the lower valleys. This is the way in which
the traffic among the cantons is chiefly carried on. We are constantly
meeting the traders, men and women, with long baskets or wooden cans on
their backs, trudging over these mountains, exchanging the produce of
one part of the country for that of another. And this business is driven
in winter as well as summer, and many lose their lives in the snow, or
are overwhelmed by the avalanches. Our man now sent his boy on alone;
gave him a few directions as to what articles he should buy, and where
to wait his return, and then set off with us. I was astonished that a
father would trust a lad of such tender years (he was not more than
twelve), to go off on such an expedition alone, in such a region as
this; and after they had parted, I slipped some money into the little
fellow's hand, and said a cheering word or two, for I felt as if it were
cruel thus to leave him.
The river Aar has been rushing along by us, and now it has reached the
verge of a precipice more than a hundred feet high. At this point
another stream of only less volume forces its way across the path, and
dashes boldly into the Aar on the brink of the fall. Like two frantic
lovers they take the mad leap together into the fearful gulf. Standing
above the brow of the fall, and looking into the dark abyss, where the
vast column of water stands, silvered at the summit, spread and broken
into foam as it reaches the base, with clouds of spray rising from the
boiling depths below, we see a cataract that combines more of the
sublime with the very beautiful than any other in Switzerland. After we
had gazed upon it from the bridge at the brow, we went around and down
through the forest, and reached the ledge from which we could look up
and out upon the column of waters now pouring before us in exceeding
strength. A faint rainbow trembled midway, but the pine trees were too
thick to admit the sun's rays in full blaze upon the face of the fall.
But the surrounding scenery adds so much to the gloomy grandeur of the
scene, that I am quite willing to write this down as a _real_ cataract,
a wonderful leap and rush of waters, in the midst of a ravine of
terrific construction; filling the mind with the strongest sense of
wildness, horror, desolation and destruction, while the image of beauty
in the water and the bow, plays constantly over the face of all. We left
it with strong emotions of pleasurable excitement, and shall retain the
recollections of the falls of the Aar for many days.
The path by and by led under an extraordinary projection of rock,
shelving over, and making a pavilion. The descent became more rapid,
until we took to a long flight of stone steps in the path: and then on a
lower grade, we came upon meadow land, through which the grass had been
cut away for foot passengers to make a shorter course than that by which
the horses must find their way down. We entered a little cottage and
refreshed ourselves _again_, with coffee and milk, and had some pleasant
talk with the old lady and one or two of the neighbors who had dropped
down from some mountain home; for it is even pleasant, if no useful
knowledge is gathered, to learn the thoughts and feelings of these
secluded people, and to find that enjoyment, and contentment can exist
as truly and beautifully in the dreary heights of these Alpine
pasturages, as in the courts of kings: and a little more so.
For we were not very far above a lovely valley, one of the sweetest
spots that I carry in my memory. It is surprising how suddenly the line
of barrenness is passed, and the region of fruits and abundant
vegetation bursts upon you in this country. We had not been two hours
from dreary and inhospitable Guttanen, when we emerged from the narrow
defile into a vale, a plain, a basin of rare loveliness for situation
and embellishment. Level as a threshing floor, with a hundred Swiss
cottages scattered over it, and each of them surrounded with a garden
stored with fruits, apples, pears, and the like, while a stream flowing
through the midst of it divided the vale into two settlements, in one of
which a neat church sent up its graceful spire. We had been loitering
along down, and it was now drawing toward evening: the bell of the old
church was ringing for evening prayers, and the people, a few of them,
were gathering in their sanctuary as we passed. Four mountains, each of
them a distinct pyramid, rise on as many sides of this valley, and seem
at once to shut it from the world, and to stand around it as towers of
defence, as the mountains are round about Jerusalem. This is the Vale of
Upper Hasli; the river Aar flows through it; on the right as we are
going, is the village of Im-Hof, and on the left the settlement is
called Im-Grund. We passed a low house, like all the rest, and three
little children in a row, broke out with a song, a sweet Psalm tune,
such as our Sabbath school children would sing. We stopped to listen,
and the guide stood with us in front of the group, while they sang one
after another of their native melodies as birds of the forest would
warble an evening song. The youngest was not more than two years old;
and when we had given them some money for their music, I took the little
thing by the hand, and said, "Come away with me." The guide took it by
the other, and it trotted along between us with so much readiness, that
it occurred to me instantly that these might be the children of the man
who was with me. I said to him, "Are these yours?" "Yes Sir," said he,
and catching up the little thing in his arms, he kissed it fondly, and
carried it on with all the burdens already on his back. When he had put
it down and the children had returned, I asked him why it was that no
sign of recognition passed between him and his children when we first
came up to them as they stood by the side of the house. He told me that
he had taught them to receive him in this way when he came by with
strangers, whom he was guiding, and as they sang to receive what money
might be given them it was better that it should not be known there was
any relation between him and them. I had detected the connection by the
willingness of the babe to follow us, and the father was delighted to be
able to discover himself to his child, and to take it for a moment in
his arms. This incident reminded me of a striking scene in the well
known history of William Tell, where the tyrant Gessler confronts the
son with the father, and they both, without preconcert, but by a common
instinct of caution, deny one another, and persist in the denial till
the father is about to die.
Leaving the valley, we have a sharp hill to climb. A zig-zag path for
carriages has been made over it at great expense of money and labor; so
that this vale may be reached from the other side. The hill must at some
distant period in the past have resisted the progress of the Aar, and
this romantic valley was probably a beautiful lake in the midst of these
noble mountains. But the hill by some convulsion has been rent from the
top to the bottom, and the river finds its way through a fearful cavern;
one of the most awful gorges that can be found in Switzerland. After
crossing the hill we left the road, and following our guide for twenty
minutes came to the mouth of the cave, that leads down to the bed of the
river, where it is rushing through with frightful force in darkness but
not silence; for the roar of the waters is repeated among the rocks,
adding greatly to the terror of the scene. It is only half an hour's
walk from the Cave to Meyringen; but we made it more than an hour,
enjoying the fine views that opened upon us as we stood above the
village. It is but three miles across the plain, and as I look upon the
splendid cataract of the Reichenbach falling into it on one side, and
the Alpbach coming down on the other, and streaming cascades in great
numbers pouring into it down the precipitous sides of the mountains, the
first thought that strikes the mind is of the danger that the valley
would be filled with water one of these days and the people driven out.
Such a calamity has indeed occurred, and to guard against its return, a
stone dyke one thousand feet long and eight feet wide has been built,
that the swollen river may be conducted with safety out of the vale.
Long years ago the mountain torrent brought down a mass of earth with
it, so suddenly and so fearfully that in one brief hour, a large part of
the village was buried twenty feet deep, and the desolation thus wrought
still appears over the whole face of the plain. The Church has a black
line painted on it to mark the height to which it was filled with the
mud and water in this deluge of 1762. There is something very fearful in
the idea of dwelling in a region subject to such visitations. But there
is a fine race of men and women here. The men are spoken of as models
for strength and agility, and the matches and games in which they
annually contend with the champions of other cantons decide their claims
to the distinction. The women are good looking, and that is more than I
can say for most of the women I have met among the Alps; where the
hardy, exposed, and toilsome life they lead, in poverty and disease,
gives them such a look as I cannot bear to see in a female face. In fact
I could not tell a man from a woman but by their dress in many parts of
the mountains. Now we are down in the region of improved civilization,
and some taste in dress begins to appear among the women, who rig
themselves out in a holiday or Sunday suit of black velvet bodice, white
muslin sleeves, a yellow petticoat, and a black hat set jauntingly on
one side of the head, with their braided hair hanging down their backs.
An old woman on the hill at whose house I stopped for a drink, told me I
ought to stay there till next Sunday and see them all come out of
church; "a prettier sight I would never see in all my life."
Coming down from the Hospice of the Grimsel, I was filled with
admiration when I entered the valley in which the villages of Im-Hof and
Im-Grund lie, with their single church and hundred cottages. Naigle, my
guide, was one of the dwellers in this vale, and the meeting with his
children as he passed through had deeply interested me in the place and
the people. I wished to know more of their habits and especially I would
know the spirit and the power of the religion which these people
professed. They are so secluded from all the world, so girt with great
mountains and compelled to look upwards whenever they would see far,
that it seemed to me they must be a thoughtful religious people, even if
their way of religion was not the same as mine. It was a Protestant
Canton, and so far their faith was mine, but there is a wide difference
between the faith and practice of many churches that profess
Protestantism, as there is also in the churches under the dominion of
the Pope of Rome.
Naigle was a character. I was sure of it in five minutes after he was in
my service. Six feet high on a perpendicular, he was at least six feet
four, on a curve, for long service in carrying heavy burdens over the
mountains had made a bend in his back like a bow that is never unstrung.
I had asked him how many of those children he had, and he had told me
eight: and he did not improve in my good opinion when he offered as the
only objection to selling me the youngest, that he would be sent to
prison if he did. Yet Naigle loved his children I am sure, and would not
part with one of them unless for the sake of improving its prospects for
the future. His own were dark enough. One franc a day, less than twenty
cents of our money, is the price of a day's labor in the hardest work of
the year, though the very men who are glad to get this of their
neighbors, will not guide a stranger through their country, or carry his
bag, for less than five francs for eight or ten hours. The women will
work out doors all day for less than a man's wages, and perform the same
kind of labor. This Naigle was a hard-working man, it was very plain,
and there was a decided streak of good sense in him that assured me, he
could give me much valuable information, in spite of that miserable
mixture of German and French which was the only language he could speak.
Fortunately I had my young German friend with me, and we managed among
us to extract from Naigle all we desired. We had good rooms at
Meyringen, and Naigle was to stay over night there and return to his
family in the morning. I asked him where he would sleep; and he said "in
the stable," a lodgment I afterwards found to be common in this and
other European countries: not in rooms fitted up over the stalls, as in
America, but in bunks by the side of the horses: in the midst of foul
atmosphere which would be enough, I should suppose, to stifle any man in
the course of the night. Yet I have heard a German gentleman say that
there is no smell so pleasant to him as that of a stable, and I record
it as another evidence of the truth of the adage "there is no disputing
about _tastes_." Naigle came up to my room in the evening, sat down on a
trunk, and answered questions for an hour or two, but I can put all I
learned of him into a moderate compass, though it will want the
freshness and often the peculiar turn of thought with which he imparted
it.
Naigle told me first of his family which he had great difficulty in
supporting on the low wages he received, and the small profits he could
make on his trade with the neighboring valleys. At least half of the
year, he said, they do not have a particle of meat in the house: they
live chiefly on potatoes and beans, with bread and milk: few vegetables,
and these not the most nutritious. The snow comes on so early in autumn
and lies so late in the spring that the season for cultivation is very
short, though they try to make the most of it while it lasts, as they do
of the little land in their valley, and on the mountain sides. Yet
poverty often stares them in the face with a melancholy threat of
famine. No people on earth dwell in such glorious scenery and in such
destitution of the real comforts of life.
But what are the morals of such a people? Are the virtues of social life
held in honor among them, and are the children of these mountain homes
trained up in the way they should go? One of the severest replies I have
had was given to me by a Swiss guide, who had followed his business of
showing strangers through the country for thirty years: and when he told
me he had three sons grown up to manhood I asked him if they were guides
also? He said, "No, he never allowed them to travel about with
foreigners: the boys learned too many bad words and ways in that
business." Very likely intercourse with travellers is not happy on the
morals of any people, but it is little that the dwellers in these
valleys see of foreigners, who push through them without pausing even to
spend a night. Naigle gave me however to understand that the standard of
social morals was very low among them, and this was confirmed by all
that I learned from the various classes of men with whom I came in
contact during my journey in this country. It is true everywhere, that
virtue does not flourish in the extremes of poverty or wealth.
He was greatly interested in the little church, and was pleased to
answer all my inquiries. The pastor, he said, was a good man who was
kind to them in sickness, visiting them to give the consolations of the
gospel, and especially at such times did they prize his instructions and
prayers. This service was rendered freely to the poorest among them, on
whom the pastor calls as soon as he hears that they are in distress, and
he is always engaged in looking among his flock to find those who have
need of his peculiar care. The same good shepherd has charge of the
parish school, to which all the children are sent; and if the parents
are able to pay anything toward their children's education, they are
expected to do so, but if not they are not deprived of the privileges of
the school. Here they are taught to read, to write, and to keep
accounts; but more than all this, they are instructed in the catechism
of the church, and are examined often on it, and encouraged to become
acquainted with the doctrines and duties of religion. It was hard for me
to convey my idea to Naigle when I sought to learn of him, if the good
pastor required of the young people any proof of _regeneration_, or a
change of heart, before giving them the second sacrament. He said their
children are all baptized in infancy, and admitted to the Lord's Supper
when they are old enough, and good enough, and understand the doctrines
taught in the school.
"But what if one of those who has come to the holy sacrament falls into
some sin, as stealing, or profane swearing?"
"O, in that case he is not allowed to come to the sacrament, till he has
repented and reformed. The minister is very strict about that, and the
people who belong to the church, that is, those who wish to be
considered as good Christian people, never indulge in any of those
things which are forbidden by the Bible. There are many loose people in
the valley who have no care for God or man, but have no connection with
the church."
On the whole, I was led to infer from what Naigle said that the church
of the Upper Hasli valley is about in the same condition with hundreds
of others in this and other lands. There is in the midst of this
mountain scenery far removed from the intercourse of the world, where a
newspaper is rarely seen, and few books are ever read, a little people
among whom God has some friends, who in their way are striving to serve
him, and whose service it will be pleasure to accept. Many of them have
only a form of religion. The Romish religion that surrounds these lands,
and which is so admirably framed for an ignorant and sensual people,
pervades the minds of many who are Protestants in name, and who cannot
be taught, or rather will not learn, that salvation is only by faith in
the Saviour. That other gospel which gives heaven to him who does
penance for his great sins, and bows often to the picture of a handsome
woman, is _the_ religion for a people who cannot read, or who have no
books if they can. Ignorance and Romanism go hand in hand.
My estimate of the Swiss character has wofully depreciated since I have
travelled among these mountains. With a history such as Greece might be
proud of, and a race of heroes that Rome never excelled in the days when
women would be mothers only to have sons for warriors; the Swiss people
now are at a point of national and social depression painful to
contemplate. They are indebted largely to the defences of nature for the
comparative liberty they enjoy, and perhaps to the same seclusion is to
be referred their want of a thousand comforts of life, which an improved
state of society brings. All the romance of a Swiss cottage is taken out
of a traveller's mind, the moment he enters one of these cabins and
seeks refreshment or rest. The saddest marks of poverty meet him in the
door. The same roof is the shelter of the man, woman and beast. The same
room is often the bed chamber of all. Scanty food, and that miserably
prepared, is consumed without regard to those domestic arrangements
which make life at home a luxury. There is no _future_ to the mind of a
Swiss youth. He lives to live as his father lived--and that is the end
of life with him. Perhaps he may have a gun, and in that case, to be the
best shot in the valley may fill his ambition: or if he is strong in the
arms and legs he may aim at distinction in the games which once a year
are held at some hamlet in the Canton, where the wrestlers and runners
contend for victory, and others throw weights and leap bars as of old in
Greece, when kings were not ashamed to enter the lists. Many of the
youth of Switzerland are willing to sell themselves into the service of
foreign powers, as soldiers--Swiss soldiers--hired to be shot at, and
shoot any body a foreign despot may send them to slay: a service so
degrading, and at the same time so decidedly hazardous to life and limb,
with so poor a chance for pay, that none but a people far gone in social
degradation would be willing thus to make merchandise of their blood.
Yet they have fought battles bravely with none of the stimulus of
patriotism, and their blood has been as freely poured out for tyrants
who hired them, as if they were bleeding for their own and the land of
William Tell.
_Falls of the Reichenbach._
I had enjoyed all the pleasures of pedestrianism that I wished, and told
Naigle to get me a horse for to-morrow. He was willing to go on with us
for a day or two more, but I gave him a trifle for his wife, and to pay
him for his evening while I kept him talking when he would have been
sleeping; and after he had brought me a man who would go with his horse,
and carry me on over the Wengern Alp, I dismissed him. There is nothing
in Swiss travelling more annoying than the impositions practised upon
you by those who have horses or mules for hire. The price for a horse is
at the rate usually of about ten francs or two dollars a day; but if you
are not to return the next day to the place from which you started, (and
you rarely or never do,) you must pay the same price for the horse to
come back. The driver manages to find a traveller to come back with, and
so gets double pay both ways in nine trips out of ten. If the business
were left open to competition without the help of government, the price
would be reduced. Naigle brought me a man who would go with his horse as
far as I liked for ten francs a day, and nothing for return money, but
he desired me to set off in the morning on foot, and he would be a few
minutes off, out of the village, for if the landlords who keep horses to
let, knew that he was at the business on his own hook, they would molest
him. He served me well, and I paid him to his entire satisfaction.
Leaving Meyringen on a lovely morning, the last of August, crossing the
Aar by a bridge, I came at once to the Baths of Reichenbach, where there
is a good hotel, said to be better than those at Meyringen. The grounds
about are tastefully arranged, and an establishment fitted up for
invalids, with every convenience for warm and cold baths on a moderate
scale. If plenty of mountain water and mountain air will make sick
people well, here is a fine place for them to come and be cured. I
climbed the mountain in haste, to get the finer view of the Reichenbach
Fall, whose roar I had heard, and the spray of which was rising
continually before me. I could see the torrent as it took its first leap
out of the forest, but it plunged instantly out of sight into a deep
abyss, and I must ascend to its brow, and see the rush of waters as they
descend into the gorge. The path to those coming down is very difficult,
so steep, indeed, that it is safer and pleasanter to leave the horse and
come on foot. But we went up slowly till we reached a meadow of table
land, which we were permitted to cross on paying a small toll, to a
house which has been built at the point where the best view of the fall
from below can be had. It is almost a shame to board up such scenes as
these, and compel a man to look through a window at a scene where he
would have nothing around him but the mountain, flood and sky. The young
woman was very civil, and offered us woodwork for sale, and a view
through colored glass, and a subscription-book to record our donations
for the construction of the foot-path, and we finally had the privilege
of taking a look in silence. A narrow, but no mean stream, plunging TWO
THOUSAND feet makes a cataract before which the spectator stands with
awe. The leap is not made at once, yet the river rests but twice in all
that distance, and only for a moment then. The point of view where we
are now beholding it, is midway of the upper and grandest of these
successive falls. The fury of the descending torrent is terrible. The
spray rises in perpetual clouds from the dread abyss into which the
river leaps. It might be a bottomless abyss, so far as human penetration
can discover, for no arm can fathom it, no eye can pierce the dark
cavern where the waters boil and roar, and whence they issue only to
make another leap into the vale below. The bow of God is on the brow of
the cataract. I do so love to find it there, not more for its exceeding
beauty than the feeling of hope and safety it always inspires. We
counted all the colors as it waved and smiled so fondly in the spray, as
if it loved its birth-place.--Having had the finest opportunity of
seeing the fall from this point, we did not return across the field to
the horses, but took the foot-path straight up the mountain, over a
rough and toilsome way, led on by a little lad who seemed anxious to do
us the favor. He guided us by a walk of twenty minutes to the brink of
the precipice. The path was just wide enough for one person to pass
around the headland, holding by the bushes as we walked, and thus by
taking turns in the perilous excursion, we went to the brow of the
cataract, and looked down the front of the terrific fall. A single
misstep or the slipping of a foot, might plunge the curious gazer into
the gulph; yet so seductive and so flattering is such danger, we rarely
have the least sense of it till it is over. Not the water only, but the
whole prospect from this overhanging cliff, is in a high degree sublime.
The plains of Meyringen, the mountains beyond, from which cascades are
hanging like white lace veils on the green hill-sides, villages and
scattered cottages, the river Aar shooting swiftly across the valley,
are now in full view, and we turn away reluctantly from the sight to
resume the ascent.