A SECOND MONTH
IN
SWITZERLAND
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
_THE DUTY AND DISCIPLINE OF EXTEMPORARY PREACHING._
Second Edition.
NEW YORK: C. SCRIBNER & CO.
_A WINTER IN THE UNITED STATES._
Being Table-Talk collected during a Tour through the Southern
Confederation, the Far West, the Rocky Mountains, &c.
LONDON: JOHN MURRAY.
_EGYPT OF THE PHARAOHS AND OF THE KHEDIVÉ._
Second Edition.
_A MONTH IN SWITZERLAND._
LONDON: SMITH, ELDER, & CO.
[Illustration:
SWITZERLAND
AND THE ALPS OF
SAVOY & PIEDMONT.
BY KEITH JOHNSTON, F.R.S.E.
]
SWISS ALLMENDS
_AND A WALK TO SEE THEM_
BEING
A SECOND MONTH IN SWITZERLAND
BY
F. BARHAM ZINCKE
VICAR OF WHERSTEAD
CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE QUEEN
_Naturam, optimam ducem, tanquam Deum, sequimur_
LONDON
SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE
1874
_All rights reserved_
PREFACE.
While I was engaged in writing my ‘Month in Switzerland’ of last year,
there was in my mind a half-formed thought, that it might be the first
of two or three sketches of the country and of the people. This,
notwithstanding that I forbad its growing into anything so visionary
as a common expectation, did yet, though somewhat illogically,
dispose me to acquiesce in publishing what might have been regarded
as the commencement only of a series, which would require time and
opportunities for advancing towards anything at all approaching to
completeness.
One of the omissions of that first ‘Month,’ the Swiss Allmends, or
commonable land, I studied this year with some attention, and, too,
with some assistance, for which I was indebted both to the Government,
and to several Swiss investigators of the history and present action of
the system. The results of this study will be found in the following
pages.
As to the excursion itself: the ground it covered was greater in
extent, and of more varied interest, than that of the excursion of the
previous year. The narrative of its work, objects, and occurrences I
give unbroken by digressions. To this the chapter on Einsiedln is not
an exception, for it is a contribution to the study of that form of
religion which still occupies what was the area of the excursion; and
the right understanding of a people includes the right understanding of
their religion.
Instead of a sketch-map of the ground passed over this year, which,
indeed, would be of little or no value, I prefix to this volume a
really good map of the whole country. For this I am indebted to Messrs.
Keith Johnston of Edinburgh, and of 18 Paternoster Row, London. It will
be found useful not only for the ‘Month’ of this year, but equally for
that of last year, and even for ordinary travelling purposes, for it
gives the roads, railways, mountains, and glaciers both of Switzerland,
and of the contiguous region of France and Italy.
F. B. Z.
WHERSTEAD VICARAGE: _Nov. 24, 1873_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Bretzwyl--Berne--Zurich--Interlaken--The Allmends of the Delta
of the Lütschine 1
CHAPTER II.
A cultivated Italian 16
CHAPTER III.
The Brünig--Lungern--Sacheln--Sarnen--Alpnach--Stanz--Ennetburgen 22
CHAPTER IV.
Buochs--Gersau--The Bay of Uri--Altorf--Am Stag--Wasen
--Göschenen-Schöllinen--The Devil’s Bridge--The Urseren Thal
--St. Gothard 39
CHAPTER V.
Val Tremola--Airolo--Dazio Grande--Faido--Bodio--Bellinzona
--Locarno--Lugano--Bellaggio--Como 62
CHAPTER VI.
Bellinzona--Airolo--St. Gothard--Andermatt--The Oberalp
Alpe 85
CHAPTER VII.
Am Stag--Klus--The Surenen--Engelberg 101
CHAPTER VIII.
Stanz--Beckenried--Schwyz--The Hacken Pass--Einsiedln 120
CHAPTER IX.
Einsiedln 136
CHAPTER X.
The Lake of Zurich--Rapperswyl--Glarus--The Linththal--The
Pantenbrücke 161
CHAPTER XI.
The Klönthal--Vorauen--Richisau--The Pragel--Muotta--Brunnen--The
Rigi Kulm 183
CHAPTER XII.
Lucerne--Alpnach--Through Unterwalden--Meiringen--The
Kirchet 202
CHAPTER XIII.
The Grimsel--Obergesteln--Munster--Viesch--The Eggischhorn 225
CHAPTER XIV.
The Rieder Alp--The Bell Alp 247
CHAPTER XV.
Brieg--The Valais--Lausanne and Gibbon--Details and Plan of
the Excursion--Conclusion 272
CHAPTER XVI.
The Swiss Allmends 297
INDEX 363
A SECOND MONTH IN SWITZERLAND.
CHAPTER I.
BRETZWYL--BERNE--ZURICH--INTERLAKEN--THE ALMENDS OF THE DELTA OF THE
LÜTSCHINE.
Stand, and unfold yourself.--SHAKESPEARE.
On the afternoon of July 30 I found myself at Bretzwyl, a village
some twenty miles to the south of Bâle, far from any tourist-beaten
track. I had gone there to see M. Heusler, _Professeur de Droit_
in the University of Bâle, and author of a valuable work on the
commonable lands of the Canton of Unterwalden. He was then taking
his _villegiatura_ at this pleasant and primitive retreat in, as it
would appear to English eyes, a farm-house of the ruder sort, though
it was in reality the mansion of one of the chief proprietors of the
neighbourhood. It was distant about a mile from the village, and
known by the name of Sonnen Halle. It was a large, long, rectangular
structure. At the end of the ground-plan, furthest from the approach,
was the stabling for the cattle; at the other end, that nearest the
approach, were the kitchen and store-rooms. Above these departments
was the dwelling-house: the best apartments being over the kitchen and
store-rooms. It stood on ground that rose all the way from the village,
with ground that was much higher behind it. All the land in front of
it was in grass, studded thickly with fruit trees; on that behind it,
which was higher, and not so well adapted for making hay, were, here
and there, small patches of grain, and of potatoes and other culinary
vegetables. These patches were unfenced, and seemed taken only for a
time out of the grassland.
The Professor and Mme. Heusler were so complaisant as to insist on
my spending the evening with them. I showed the Professor a paper of
questions on the subject of the _Almends_, or Swiss commonable land, I
had had drawn up in German, and had got put into print, before leaving
England. This speedily and completely explained the object I had in
view in wishing to see him. He readily gave me all the information,
advice, and assistance in his power; including in the latter letters
of introduction to several of the leading people in the Cantons of
Unterwalden, Uri, Schwyz, and Glarus, who from their position, and
knowledge of the subject, might be of use to me in my inquiries. I
cannot recall the pleasant evening I spent at Sonnen Halle with the
genial Professor and his accomplished wife, without, at the same time,
acknowledging the very grateful sense I have of their kindness.
As we returned to the village--for the Professor insisted on
accompanying me back to the little Inn at which I had ordered a
bed--there was wafted up to us, on the night air, across the meadows,
the sound of music. On entering the village I found that the villagers
were concluding the day with a dance and concert; songs, in which
many voices joined, alternating with dances. This entertainment was
being held in a large upper room, which externally bore the appearance
of doing duty as the _Hotel de Ville_ of the humble Commune. Those
who had not the right of _entrée_, or who preferred the cooler air
outside, were standing in groups in the street. While driving through
the village, early in the afternoon, I had found the roadway blocked
by a crowd that was collected round the stage of a cheap jack, who was
putting up to auction lots of gaudily printed cotton handkerchiefs. I
afterwards found that these were not the whole of his stock in trade.
The stir was great. I had heard the sound of loud merriment before I
reached the crowd; and, when I was passing through it, had observed
in the faces of most of those who composed it, much eagerness and
animation. Such an advent from the outer world was an event of some
magnitude in such a village, which its miniature proprietors can seldom
leave. With many it was their only chance, for the twelve months, of
investing a little of their precious hoard in a little long-wished-for
finery. It was an event that moved every mind--minds masculine as well
as feminine; that brought everybody into the street; and that was
worthy of being commemorated in the evening with a dance and concert;
which, too, would act, in so Arcadian a community, as a safety-valve
for carrying off the highly wrought excitement of the day.
On being shown to my bed-room, I found that it was a long corridor
with beds set head to foot, reaching from the door to the further end.
On each was a loftily puffed out eider-down quilt. The day had been
unusually hot, and the night was correspondingly warm. I, therefore,
lifted the downy mountain from the bed nearest the door, which I had
selected for myself, and deposited it on the next, the second bed. As I
did this I looked beyond the mountain of eider-down on the third bed.
This led to the discovery, on the pillow beyond the eider-down, of a
shock of black hair. I was to be, then, not the sole occupant of the
many-bedded corridor. By this time I had made also another discovery:
there was in the room an overpowering odour of cows and horses. The
corridor, therefore, was only the upper storey, with us it would
have been the hay-loft, of a long line of stalls for cattle below.
As every bed had a window opposite to it, not a yard distant--the
shock of black hair had intended to spend the sultry night, under his
eider-down, with every window closed--I set the one over against my
bed wide open. This, by allowing the exit of the warm air from the
room, and the entrance of fresh air from outside, speedily removed the
accumulation of stored up effluvium. The room itself, and everything in
it, walls, ceiling, furniture, bedding, &c., were of snowy whiteness,
and faultlessly clean.
I was up early next morning: but not so early as the good women of the
village, for as I was dressing I heard from many houses the clatter
of the shuttle. Bretzwyl, then, is still so primitive as not yet to
have abandoned hand-weaving; though even there it must be confined to
fabrics of silk, or of wool. Money must be very hard to come at, and a
little of it must go a long way, in a place where the human hand can
compete with the power-loom. Being a guest of a rather unusual calibre
for Bretzwyl--I had even engaged a private carriage to take me some
dozen miles to the railway station at Liesthal--my breakfast was served
not in the bar room of the little Inn, but in the parlour. The chair
was so placed for me at the table as that I should look on the back
of the door of the room. On that door was suspended, as a trophy, a
work of art, a precious possession, the object which, in the general
excitement of yesterday, the mistress of the house had conceived the
desire of acquiring, and had bid for in the presence of the village,
and paid her money for, and carried home with no ill-founded pride. And
now it was displayed on that door for all to contemplate. All would be
glad at least to look at it. Perhaps some favoured few might be allowed
to take it in their hands, and examine its materials, and structure.
It would have shown an unnatural state of mind, and an inability to
enter into other people’s feelings, if such an object had forthwith
been put away in a box, or drawer. It was done more considerately, and
with a truer sense of the conditions of the matter, to place it where
all might come, and take their fill of looking at it, and might admire
it, and might understand how happy its possessor must be; for was it
not--to the possession of which the aspirations of no Bretzwyl dame, or
maiden, had previously risen--an embroidered, fringed, riband-trimmed
_panier_?
_July 31._--Went to Zurich to see another learned Professor, to whom
I had a letter of introduction. I found that he had gone, for his
vacation, to the Simmenthal. But I had also a secondary object in going
to Zurich, for I wished to take another look at the collection of
objects from the sites of the old lake-villages, of which I gave some
account in the ‘Month in Switzerland’ I published last year. Again I
regarded them with undiminished interest, as everyone would, who has
any tincture of history in his composition: for they are an historical
record, in which there can be no misrepresentations, or deceptions, of
the resources, manners, customs, and life of a branch of our remote
progenitors, unconsciously bequeathed to us by themselves, and upon the
possession of which we have only lately entered. I missed, however,
the custodian of last year, who had spoken of the interest of the
objects in the collection, to which he was in succession directing the
attention of his visitors, with the bated breath of heartfelt reverence.
_August 1._--To Berne, by the first morning train, for a letter from
M. Cérésole, the President of the Swiss Confederation--I knew it was
awaiting my arrival--in which he would request all Landammans, and
other official people, wherever in the country I might go, to give me
what aid might be in their power, in furtherance of the inquiries I was
desirous of making.
Having reached Berne, and received the President’s letter, which, as
I had expected, was ready for me, I ordered an early dinner at the
Schweizer Hof, a large new Hotel, the back balcony of which commands
an admirable view of the mountains of the Bernese Oberland. I occupied
the interval with a walk down the main street to the bridge over the
Aare, returning by the parallel street that takes you by the Cathedral.
During dinner I looked at the distant snow-capped peaks with some
thought of the thousands from many lands, who were at that moment
around, and among, and upon them. I reached Interlaken as the evening
was closing in, having witnessed some of the effects of a fine sunset
from the lake of Thun.
At Interlaken took up my quarters at the Jungfrau, in the _dépendance_
behind the Hotel. My room commanded, even as I lay in bed, a view of
the Jungfrau itself. This being the height of the season the place
was full with the part then _in transitu_ of the 150,000 travellers
who are said to visit it, now, yearly. Sixty years since a carriage
could not be found in the place, nor a building that was not of wood.
A comparison of these two statements, I do not call them facts, for
I have no means of verifying either, will help us in an attempt to
measure the progress both the Swiss world, and that beyond, have, in
the interval, made in wealth, and in the means of locomotion.
During the night two violent thunderstorms burst on this neighbourhood,
separated by a lull of about an hour. They were accompanied by an
amount of rain greater, I was told, than any that had fallen, at one
time, in living memory. I afterwards saw much of the devastating
effects of these storms. I had passed through a very similar one, on
the night of the previous Tuesday, between Paris and Bâle. The rain
had then come down not so much in drops as in descending jets, and
the lightning had appeared to accompany, and invest the train, being
before and behind it, to the right and the left of it--everywhere,
equally--at the same time. At the end of the following week, I fell in
with a third storm of the same kind, to the south of the Alps, again at
night. As far, therefore, as travellers, and particularly pedestrians,
were concerned, their effects were only advantageous, for they lowered
the temperature for a time, and washed away the dust. All this time the
weather was unusually warm.
_August 2._--Asked the master of the Hotel to see whether he could
procure for me a guide, who understood the _patois_ of the Forest
Cantons, and could also speak English and French; and then, as the
storm of last night had brought a pleasant morning, went out to take a
look at what we here at home would call the allotments of the peasants,
but which, in those Swiss Cantons, where they are found, are their own
immemorial common property. Though, indeed, in the word allotment is
embedded the historical fact that such land was, in this country, once
common; and that it was from time to time reportioned, and reassigned
to the common holders by lot. For the purpose I now had in view I had
to walk over the eastern part of the level tract of ground on which
Interlaken stands.
But first a few words about this level tract itself. The whole of it
was evidently formed by the Lombach and the Lütschine. Originally the
two lakes of Brienz and Thun were one continuous sheet of water. At
this middle point of the old continuous lake, it happened that, by a
convex bend to the south in the mountains that formed its northern
boundary, and by a projecting spur, to the north, of the mountains
that formed its southern boundary, the width of the old lake had been
narrowed from its average of two miles to about three-fourths of a
mile. It also happened, by a fortunate coincidence, that, just at this
narrowed part, the torrent of the Lombach entered the lake from the
north, and that of the Lütschine from the south. Each was impetuous,
and often swollen, and so brought down a very large amount of detrital
matter. The result was inevitable: the three quarters of a mile of lake
must be displaced by transported fragments of rock, sand, and soil.
As the two streams worked against one another just where Interlaken
and Unterseen stand, this became dry land first; and for the same
reason the deposit was here heaped up somewhat higher than it is now,
when each is working out only into the still lake. Having jointly in
this way put a bar across the lake, they turned their backs upon each
other, and the Lombach began to deposit to the west of the bar, and
the Lütschine to the east of it; and then they continued their work in
these opposite directions, till the Lombach had filled up all the space
to the foot of the mountain to the west, and the Lütschine all the
space to the foot of the mountain to the east. The alluvial tract thus
formed may be spoken of, roughly, as about four miles long, and two
miles wide; with the spur, on which stands the Jungfrau Blick Hotel,
protruding into it from the south. Of course the Aare kept open for
itself a channel through the alluvium. It is obvious that the Lombach,
coming from the north, would force down the channel of the Aare as
far as possible to the south, and that the Lütschine, coming from the
south, would force up the channel of the Aare as far as possible to the
north: and this is precisely what each has done. The Lütschine, being
by far the larger stream of the two, has done far the greater part of
the work. Every particular, as it presents itself to us, is perfectly
intelligible. We see what had to be done; and under what conditions,
with what means, and in what manner it was done.
What, then, I had gone out to look at was the allotments of the
peasants in the eastern side of the Delta of the Lütschine. This
eastern side, from Interlaken to Böningen, is about two miles at the
base, and about the same length from the base to the apex. Of course
the land is highest, driest, and best at the apex, and gradually
deteriorates as you approach the base. As you go along the road,
which is a straight line not far from the base, on your right hand
spade-husbandry preponderates; on your left is grass, worsening into
marsh, and ending in swamp. The cultivated part belongs to the villages
that surround it. The lower part belongs chiefly to Interlaken. I
walked to about the middle of the road; and then turning to the right
among the allotments, walked to the apex, that I might see in what way,
to what purpose, and with what ideas and feelings, it was cultivated.
The wheat, which was not in a large proportion, was of a coarse and
unproductive kind, though doubtless it was suited to the rather wet
soil. It was nowhere a heavy crop. The ears were small, being only
two-set, and with only six lifts. Compared with our English wheats,
it would give the miller much offal, and not much flour. The barley
varied much in yield. It was a good ear that had twenty-six grains.
Maize was a favourite crop. This also varied much: some was very good,
and some very indifferent. Potatoes were still more largely cultivated
than maize, and formed the chief crop of all. In Switzerland they are
generally of a small sort, small both in the haulm and in the tuber.
The latter is unusually hard; and, therefore, probably hardy also,
which may be its merit, in the eyes of the utilitarian Switzer. There
were several patches of haricots, some of cabbages, and a few of hemp.
The land was, for the most part, insufficiently manured. In some places
it was clean enough, but in quite as many very foul with weeds.
There were here no indications of that love for the land, which, in
Switzerland, is so pleasing a sight, wherever it is the absolute
property of the man who cultivates it. Nowhere did I see anyone on
these allotments, either pulling up weeds, or come to note what damage
the heavy storm of last night had done. It was evident that the
heart of the cultivator was not in his land. It was regarded not at
all as the beloved associate of a life, as a sympathizing helper, as
a kindly nursing mother, but was treated, as a slave, with grudging
niggardliness, only with the thought of extorting all that it could be
compelled to yield to such treatment. It was manifest, at a glance,
that the property in this land was common, and that it was reportioned,
and reallotted from time to time.
I walked upon, and by the side of the embankment of the Lütschine from
the head of the Delta down to the lake. The rapid, turbid stream,
five-and-twenty yards wide, was flowing at a height of two, or three
feet above the level of the Delta, heavily charged with ash-coloured
mud. As much of this as might be required might easily be warped on
to the land in the fashion so successfully practised in some parts
of England. It might be brought on to the low, marshy, swampy land
to the left of the road, so that, when the mud had been deposited,
the clear water might then pass off into the lake. This would rapidly
raise the low swamps, now producing only reeds and aquatic plants, to
such a level as would enable them to produce excellent grass. This
is undeniable, for the deposit would be of precisely the same soil,
chemically and mechanically, as that of the most productive part of
the apex. As the low swamps along the base belong to the municipality
of Interlaken, this will probably some day be done. I suggested the
scheme to one of the chief people in the town, and found that, as far
as he knew, the possibility of turning to such account the mud of the
Lütschine had not yet been debated.
Having finished my inspection of this part of the Delta, all, that is
to say, that lies on the left-hand bank of the Lütschine, I crossed
the bridge to look at the commonable land on the right-hand bank. This
belongs to the Commune of Böningen. The only difference I saw here was
that the land was somewhat drier and better; and that it had upon it
a few fruit trees. This was a pleasing feature, and results from the
enforcement of a regulation in this Commune that a certain number of
such trees shall be maintained upon the allotments by their shifting
and temporary occupants.
* * * * *
On returning to the Jungfrau, was told by the proprietor that the kind
of guide I wanted was nowhere to be found in Interlaken. I, therefore,
applied to the proprietor of the neighbouring Victoria, the largest
Hotel in the place. He advised me to take Heinrich Ammer. As Ammer
had been recommended to me at Berne also, and as I could hear of no
one else, after some little conversation with him, I engaged him for
three weeks, at eight francs a day, _tout compris_. I had more than
misgivings as to Heinrich’s sufficiency for my purpose; but, as will
sometimes happen under such circumstances, I was impatient; and so I
persuaded myself that I had no time for making further inquiries; and
then I went a step further, and said to myself that if he were to prove
insufficient, it would be a matter of no great consequence.
* * * * *
Reader, in the foregoing pages we have been whisked along the rail to,
and through, some places we visited together last year. What has been
said by the way will have given you to understand, that I had in view a
special object. You will now also know what that object was, and will
see that it was one, which might be sufficiently attended to without
much interference with the ordinary objects of a Swiss excursion; if
they are, as I take them to be, for the mind the enjoyment of mountain
scenery, and for the body more or less vigorous exertion. For an
excursion of this mixed kind, carried out in a leisurely fashion, and
with some contentment, in the narrative of which the special object
will take the position, as it did in fact, of so much collateral
by-work, I would now bespeak your friendly company.