THE WENGERN ALP.
It was about twelve o'clock when Rollo and Mr. George, having finished
their dinner, came out into the yard of the inn for the purpose of
setting out for the ascent of the mountain.
"Well, Rollo," said Mr. George, "now for a a scramble."
Thus far the road which the young gentlemen had travelled since leaving
Interlachen had been quite level and smooth, its course having been
along the bottom of the valley, which was itself quite level, though
shut in on both sides by precipitous mountains. Now they were to leave
the valley and ascend one of these mountain sides by means of certain
zigzag paths which had been made with great labor upon them, to enable
the peasants to ascend and descend in going to and from their hamlets
and pasturages.
The paths, though very steep and very torturous, are smooth enough for
horses to go up, though the peasants themselves very seldom use horses.
A horse would eat as much grass, perhaps, as two cows. They prefer,
therefore, to have the cows, and do without the horse. And so every
thing which they wish to transport up and down the mountain they carry
on their backs.
There were various other guides in the yard of the inn besides Henry:
some were preparing apparently for the ascent of the mountain with other
parties; others were bringing up carriages for people who were going to
return to Interlachen. Henry, when he saw Mr. George and Rollo coming
out, asked them if they were ready.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "Bring the horse. You shall ride first, Rollo."
Mr. George was to have but one horse for himself and Rollo, and they
were to ride it by turns. He thought that both he himself and Rollo
would be able to walk half way up the mountain, and, by having one horse
between them, each could ride half the way.
Besides, it is less fatiguing, when you have a long and steep ascent to
make, to walk some portion of the way rather than to be on horseback all
the time.
There was another consideration which influenced Mr. George. Every
additional horse which should be required for the excursion would cost
about two dollars a day, including the guide to take care of him; and,
as Mr. George expected to spend at least two days on the excursion, it
would cost four dollars more to take two horses than to take only one.
"And I think," said Mr. George to Rollo, after having made this
calculation, "we had better save that money, and have it to buy
beautiful colored engravings of Swiss scenery with when we get to
Geneva."
"I think so too," said Rollo.
So it was concluded to take but one horse with them, on the
understanding that each of the travellers was to walk half the way.
Rollo accordingly, when the horse was brought to the door, climbed up
upon his back with the guide's assistance, and, after adjusting his feet
to the stirrup, prepared to set out on the ascent. His heart was
bounding with excitement and delight.
When all was ready the party moved on, Rollo on the horse and Mr. George
and Henry walking along by his side. They proceeded a short distance
along the road, and then turned into a path which led towards the side
of the valley opposite to the Staubach. They soon reached the foot of
the slope, and then they began to ascend. The path grew more and more
steep as they proceeded, until at length it became very precipitous; and
in some places the horse was obliged to scramble up, as it were, as if
he were going up stairs. Rollo clung to his seat manfully in all these
places; and he would have been sometimes afraid were it not that, in
every case where there could be even any apparent danger, Henry would
come to his side and keep by him, ready to render assistance at a
moment's notice whenever any should be needed. In this way the party
moved slowly on up the face of the mountain, making many short turns and
windings among the rocks and going back and forth in zigzags on the
green declivities. Sometimes for a few minutes they would be lost in a
grove of firs, or pines; then they would come out upon some rounded
promontory of grass land or projecting peak of rocks; and a few minutes
afterwards they would move along smoothly for a time upon a level, with
a steep acclivity, rough with rocks and precipices on one side, and an
abrupt descent on the other down which a stone would have rolled a
thousand feet into the valley below.
Of course the view of the valley became more commanding and more
striking the higher they ascended. Rollo wished at every turn to stop
and look at it. He did stop sometimes, the guide saying that it was
necessary to do so in order to let the horse get his breath a little;
for the toil for such an animal of getting up so steep an ascent was
very severe. Rollo would have stopped oftener; but he did not like to be
left behind by his uncle George, who, being active and agile, mounted
very rapidly. Mr. George would often shorten his road very much by
climbing directly up the rocks from one turn of the road to the other;
while the horse, with Rollo on his back, was compelled to go round by
the zigzag.
At last, after they had been ascending for about half an hour, Mr.
George stopped, at a place where there was a smooth stone for a seat by
the side of the path, to wait for Rollo to come up; and, when Rollo
came, Mr. George took him off the horse to let him rest a little. The
view of the valley from this point was very grand and imposing. Rollo
could look down into it as you could look into the bed of a brook in the
country, standing upon the top of the bank on one side. The village, the
inn, the little cottages along the roadside, the river, the bridges, and
a thousand other objects, all of liliputian size, were to be seen below;
while on the farther side the streaming Staubach was in full view,
pouring over the brink of the precipice and falling in a dense mass of
spray on the rocks at the foot of them.
Rollo could understand now, too, where the fall of the Staubach came
from; for above the brink of the precipice, where the water came over,
there was now to be seen a vast expanse of mountain country, rising
steep, but not precipitously, far above the summit of the precipice, and
of course receding as it ascended, so as not to be seen from the valley
below. From the elevation, however, to which Rollo had now attained, the
whole of this vast region was in view. It was covered with forests,
pasturages, chalets, and scattered hamlets; and in the valleys, long,
silvery lines of water were to be seen glittering in the sun and
twisting and twining down in foaming cascades to the brink of the
precipice, where, plunging over, they formed the cataracts which had
been seen in the valley below. The Staubach was the largest of these
falls; and the stream which produced it could now be traced for many
miles as it came dancing along in its shining path down among the
ravines of the mountains.
"I see now what makes the fall of the Staubach," said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George.
"I should like to be on the brink of the precipice where it falls over,"
said Rollo, "and look down."
"Yes," said Mr. George; "so should I. I don't think that we could get
near enough actually to look down, but we could get near enough to see
the water where it begins to take the plunge."
After resting a suitable time at this place and greatly admiring and
enjoying the view, our party set out again. Rollo proposed that his
uncle should ride now a little way and let him walk; but Mr. George
preferred that Rollo should mount again. There was still nearly another
hour's hard climbing to do and a long and pretty difficult walk of
several miles beyond it, and Mr. George was very desirous of saving
Rollo's strength. It might perhaps be supposed, from the blunt manner in
which Mr. George often threw the responsibility upon Rollo when he was
placed in difficult emergencies and left him to act for himself, that he
did not think or care much for his nephew's comfort or happiness. But
this was by no means the case. Mr. George was very fond of Rollo indeed.
If he had not been fond of him he would not have wished to have him for
his companion on his tour. He was very careful, too, never to expose
Rollo to any real hardship or suffering; and his apparently blunt
manner, in throwing responsibilities upon the boy, only amused him by
making it appear that his uncle George considered him almost a man.
Mr. George, knowing that the first part of the way from Lauterbrunnen to
the Wengern Alp was by far the most steep and difficult, had accordingly
arranged it in his own mind that Rollo should ride until this steep part
had been surmounted.
"You may mount again now, Rollo," said he. "I will walk a little longer
and take my turn in riding a little farther on."
So Rollo mounted; and there was now another hour of steep climbing. The
zigzags were sometimes sharp and short and at others long and winding;
but the way was always picturesque and the views became more and more
grand and imposing the higher the party ascended. At one time, when
Rollo had stopped a moment to let his horse breathe, he saw at a turn of
the path a few zigzags below him a little girl coming up, with a basket
on her back.
Rollo pointed to her and asked the guide, in French, who that girl was.
Henry said he did not know.
Henry, foolishly enough, supposed that Rollo meant to ask what the
girl's name was; and so he said that he did not know. But this was not
what Rollo meant at all. He had no particular desire in asking the
question to learn the child's name. What he wished to know was, what,
according to the customs of the country, would be the probable province
and function of such a sort of girl as that, coming alone up the
mountain in that way with a burden on her back. Henry, if he had
understood the real intent and meaning of the question, could easily
have answered it. The girl lived in a little hamlet of shepherds' huts
farther up the mountain, and had been down into the village to buy
something for her father and mother; and she was now coming home with
her purchases in the basket on her back. All this Henry knew very well;
but, when Rollo asked who the girl was, Henry thought he meant to ask
who she herself was individually; and so, as he did not know her
personally, he could not tell.
Travellers often get disappointed in this way in asking questions of the
natives of the country in which they are travelling. The people do not
understand the nature and bearing of the question, and they themselves
are not familiar enough with the language to explain what they do mean.
The guide stood for a minute or two looking intently at the girl as she
slowly ascended the path, especially when she passed the angles of the
zigzag, for there she turned sometimes in such a manner as to show her
face more plainly.
"No," said he, at length; "I do not know her. I never saw her before.
But I'll ask her who she is when she comes up."
"Uncle George!" said Rollo, calling out very loudly to his uncle, who
was at some distance above.
"Ay, ay," said Mr. George, responding.
Rollo attempted to look up to see where his uncle was standing; but in
doing this he had to throw his head back so far as to bring a fear
suddenly over him of falling from his horse. So he desisted, and
continued his conversation without attempting to look.
"Here is a girl coming up the mountain with a basket on her back. Come
down and see her."
"Come up here," said Mr. George, "and we will wait till she comes."
So Rollo chirruped to his horse and started along again. In a few
minutes he reached the place where his uncle George was standing, and
there they all waited till the little girl came up.
"Good morning," said the girl, as soon as she came near enough to be
heard. She spoke the words in the German language and with a very
pleasant smile upon her face.
The peasants in Switzerland, when they meet strangers in ascending or
descending the mountains, always accost them pleasantly and wish them
good morning or good evening. In most other countries, strangers meeting
each other on the road pass in silence. Perhaps it is the loneliness and
solitude of the country and the sense of danger and awe that the
stupendous mountains inspire that incline people to be more pleased when
they meet each other in Switzerland, even if they are strangers, than in
the more cheerful and smiling regions of France and England.
The guide said something to the girl, but Rollo could not understand
what it was, for he spoke, and the answer was returned, in German.
"She says her name is Ninette," said Henry.
Rollo's attention was immediately attracted to the form of the basket
which Ninette wore and to the manner in which it was fastened to her
back. The basket was comparatively small at the bottom, being about as
wide as the waist of the girl; but it grew larger towards the top, where
it opened as wide as the girl's shoulders--being shaped in this respect
in conformity with the shape of the back on which it was to be borne.
[Illustration: THE MOUNTAIN GIRL.]
The side of the basket, too, which lay against the back was flat, so as
to fit to it exactly. The outer side was rounded. It was open at the
top.
The basket was secured to its place upon the child's back and shoulders
by means of two flat strips of wood, which were fastened at the upper
ends of them to the back of the basket near the top, and which came
round over the shoulders in front, and then, passing under the arms,
were fastened at the lower ends to the basket near the bottom. The
basket was thus supported in its place and carried by means of the
pressure of these straps upon the shoulders.
"Uncle George," said Rollo, "I should like to have such a basket as that
and such a pair of straps to carry it by."
"What would you do with it," asked Mr. George, "if you had it?"
"Why, it would be very convenient," said Rollo, "in America, when I went
a-raspberrying. You see, if I had such a basket as that, I could bring
my berries home on my back, and so have my hands free."
"Yes," said Mr. George, "that would be convenient."
"Besides," said Rollo, "it would be a curiosity."
"That's true," replied Mr. George; "but it would be very difficult to
carry so bulky a thing home."
After some further conversation it was concluded not to buy the basket,
but to ask the girl if she would be willing to sell the straps, or bows,
that it was fastened with. These straps were really quite curious. They
were made of some very hard and smooth-grained wood, and were nicely
carved and bent so as to fit to the girl's shoulders quite precisely.
Accordingly Mr. George, speaking in French, requested Henry to ask the
girl whether she would be willing to sell the straps. Henry immediately
addressed the girl in the German language, and after talking with her a
few minutes he turned again to Mr. George and Rollo and said that the
girl would rather not sell them herself, as they belonged to her father,
who lived about half a mile farther up the mountain. But she was sure
her father would sell them if they would stop at his cottage as they
went by. He would either sell them that pair, she said, or a new pair;
for he made such things himself, and he had two or three new pairs in
his cottage.
"Very well," said Mr. George; "let us go on.
"Which would you rather have," said Mr. George to Rollo, as they resumed
their march, "this pair, or some new ones?"
"I would rather have this pair," said Rollo.
"They are somewhat soiled and worn," said Mr. George.
"Yes," said Rollo; "but they are good and strong; and as soon as I get
home I shall rub them all off clean with sand paper and then have them
varnished, so as to make them look very bright and nice; and then I
shall keep them for a curiosity. I would rather have this pair, for then
I can tell people that I bought them actually off the shoulders of a
little girl who was carrying a burden with them up the Alps."
In due time the party reached the little hamlet where Ninette lived. The
hamlet consisted of a scattered group of cabins and cow houses on a
shelving green more than a thousand feet above the valley. The girl led
the party to the door of her father's hut; and there, through the medium
of Henry as interpreter, they purchased the two bows for a very small
sum of money. They also bought a drink of excellent milk for the whole
party of Ninette's mother and then resumed their journey.
As they went on they obtained from time to time very grand and extended
views of the surrounding mountains. Whether they turned their eyes above
or below them, the prospect was equally wonderful. In the latter case
they looked down on distant villages; some clinging to the hillsides,
others nestling in the valleys, and others still perched, like the one
where Ninette lived, on shelving slopes of green pasture land, which
terminated at a short distance from the dwellings on the brink of the
most frightful precipices. Above were towering forests and verdant
slopes of land, dotted with chalets or broken here and there by the gray
rocks which appeared among them. Higher still were lofty crags, with
little sunny nooks among them--the dizzy pasturages of the chamois; and
above these immense fields of ice and snow, which pierced the sky with
the glittering peaks and summits in which they terminated. Mr. George
and Rollo paused frequently, as they continued their journey, to gaze
around them upon these stupendous scenes.
At length, when the steepest part of the ascent had been accomplished,
Mr. George said that he was tired of climbing, and proposed that Rollo
should dismount and take his turn in walking.
"If you were a lady," said Mr. George, "I would let you ride all the
way. But you are strong and capable, and as well able to walk as I
am--better, I suppose, in fact; so you may as well take your turn."
"Yes," said Rollo; "I should like it. I am tired of riding. I would
rather walk than not."
So Henry assisted Rollo to dismount, and then adjusted the stirrups to
Mr. George's use, and Mr. George mounted into the saddle.
"How glad I am to come to the end of my walking," said Mr. George, "and
to get upon a horse!"
"How glad I am to come to the end of my riding," said Rollo, "and to get
upon my feet!"
Thus both of the travellers seemed pleased with the change. The road now
became far more easy to be travelled than before. The steepest part of
the ascent had been surmounted, and for the remainder of the distance
the path followed a meandering way over undulating land, which, though
not steep, was continually ascending. Here and there herds of cattle
were seen grazing; and there were scattered huts, and sometimes little
hamlets, where the peasants lived in the summer, to tend their cows and
make butter and cheese from their milk. In the fall of the year they
drive the cattle down again to the lower valleys; for these high
pasturages, though green and sunny in the summer and affording an
abundance of sweet and nutritious grass for the sheep and cows that feed
upon them, are buried deep in snows, and are abandoned to the mercy of
the most furious tempests and storms during all the winter portion of
the year. Our travellers passed many scattered forests, some of which
were seen clinging to the mountain sides, at a vast elevation above
them. In others men were at work felling trees or cutting up the wood.
Rollo stopped at one of these places and procured a small billet of the
Alpine wood, as large as he could conveniently carry in his pocket,
intending to have something made from it when he should get home to
America. The woodman, at Henry's request, cut out this billet of wood
for Rollo, making it of the size which Rollo indicated to him by a
gesture with his finger.
At one time the party met a company of peasant girls coming down from
the mountain. They came into the path by which our travellers were
ascending from a side path which seemed to lead up a secluded glen.
These girls came dancing gayly along with bouquets of flowers in their
hands and garlands in their hair. They looked bright and blooming, and
seemed very contented and happy.
They bowed very politely to Mr. George and to Rollo as they passed.
"_Guten abend_," said they.
These are the German words for "Good evening."[9]
"_Guten abend_," said both Mr. George and Rollo in reply.
The girls thus passed by and went on their way down the mountain.
"Where have they been?" asked Mr. George.
"They have been at work gathering up the small stones from the
pasturages, I suppose," said Henry. "Companies of girls go out for that
a great deal."
After getting upon the horse, Mr. George took care to keep _behind_
Rollo and the guide. He knew very well that if he were to go on in
advance Rollo would exert himself more than he otherwise would do, under
the influence of a sort of feeling that he ought to try to keep up.
While Rollo was on the horse himself, having the guide with him too, Mr.
George knew that there was no danger from this source, as any one who is
on horseback or in a carriage never has the feeling of being left behind
when a companion who is on foot by chance gets before him. Consequently,
while they were coming up the steep part of the mountain, Mr. George
went on as fast as he pleased, leaving Rollo and Henry to come on at
their leisure. But now his kind consideration for Rollo induced him to
keep carefully behind.
"Now, Rollo," said he, "you and Henry may go on just as fast or just as
slow as you please, without paying any regard to me. I shall follow
along at my leisure."
Thus Rollo, seeing that Mr. George was behind, went on very leisurely,
and enjoyed his walk and his talk with Henry very much.
"Did you ever study English, Henry?" said Rollo.
"No," said Henry; "but I wish I could speak English, very much."
"Why?" asked Rollo.
"Because there are so many English people coming here that I have to
guide up the mountains."
"Well," said Rollo, "you can begin now. I will teach you."
So he began to teach the guide to say "How do you do?" in English.
This conversation between Rollo and Henry was in French. Rollo had
studied French a great deal by the help of books when he was at home,
and he had taken so much pains to improve by practice since he had been
in France and Switzerland that he could now get along in a short and
simple conversation very well.
While our party had been coming up the mountain, the weather, though
perfectly clear and serene in the morning, had become somewhat overcast.
Misty clouds were to be seen here and there floating along the sides or
resting on the summits of the mountains. At length, while Rollo was in
the midst of the English lesson which he was giving to the guide, his
attention was arrested, just as they were emerging from the border of a
little thicket of stunted evergreens, by what seemed to be a prolonged
clap of thunder. It came apparently out of a mass of clouds and vapor
which Rollo saw moving majestically in the southern sky.
"Thunder!" exclaimed Rollo, looking alarmed. "There's thunder!"
"No," said Henry; "an avalanche."
The sound rolled and reverberated in the sky for a considerable time
like a prolonged peal of thunder. Rollo thought that Henry must be
mistaken in supposing it an avalanche.
At this moment Rollo, looking round, saw Mr. George coming up, on his
horse, at a turn of the path a little way behind them.
"Henry," said Mr. George, "there is a thunder shower coming up; we must
hasten on."
"No," said Henry; "that was an avalanche."
"An avalanche?" exclaimed Mr. George. "Why, the sound came out of the
middle of the sky."
"It was an avalanche," said the guide, "from the Jungfrau. See!" he
added, pointing up into the sky.
Mr. George and Rollo both looked in the direction where Henry pointed,
and there they saw a vast rocky precipice peering out through a break in
the clouds high up in the sky. An immense snow bank was reposing upon
its summit. The glittering whiteness of this snow contrasted strongly
with the sombre gray of the clouds through which, as through an opening
in a curtain, it was seen.
Presently another break in the clouds, and then another, occurred; at
each of which towering rocks or great perpendicular walls of glittering
ice and snow came into view.
"The Jungfrau," said the guide.
Mr. George and Rollo gazed at this spectacle for some minutes in
silence, when at length Rollo said,--
"Why, uncle George! the sky is all full of rocks and ice!"
"It is indeed!" said Mr. George.
It was rather fortunate than otherwise that the landscape was obscured
with clouds when Mr. George and Rollo first came into the vicinity of
the Jungfrau, as the astonishing spectacle of rocks and precipices and
immense accumulations of snow and ice, breaking out as it were through
the clouds all over the sky, was in some respects more impressive than
the full and unobstructed view of the whole mountain would have been.
"I wish the clouds would clear away," said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I should like to see the whole side of the
mountain very much."
Here another long and heavy peal, like thunder, began to be heard. Mr.
George stopped his horse to listen. Rollo and Henry stopped too. The
sound seemed to commence high up among the clouds. The echoes and
reverberations were reflected from the rocks and precipices all around
it; but the peal seemed slowly and gradually to descend towards the
horizon; and finally, after the lapse of two or three minutes, it
entirely ceased.
The travellers paused a moment after the sound ceased and continued to
listen. When they found that all was still they began to move on again.
"I wish I could have seen that avalanche," said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I hope the clouds will clear away by the time
we get to the inn."
It was just about sunset when the party reached the inn. Rollo was
beginning to get a little tired, though the excitement of the excursion
and the effect produced on his mind by the strange aspect of every thing
around him inspired him with so much animation and strength that he held
on in his walk very well indeed. It is true that a great portion of the
mountain scenery around him was concealed from view by the clouds; but
there was something in the appearance of the rocks, in the character of
the vegetation, and especially in the aspect and expression of the
patches of snow which were to be seen here and there in nooks and
corners near the path,--the remains of the vast accumulations of the
preceding winter which the sun had not yet dispelled,--that impressed
Rollo continually with a sentiment of wonder and awe, and led him to
feel that he had attained to a vast elevation, and that he was walking,
as he really was, among the clouds.
The inn, when the party first came in sight of it, appeared more like a
log cabin in America than like a well-known and much-frequented European
hotel. It stood on a very small plot of ground, which formed a sort of
projection on a steep mountain side, facing the Jungfrau. In front of
the hotel the land descended very rapidly for a considerable distance.
The descent terminated at last on the brink of an enormous ravine which
separated the base of the Wengern Alp from that of the Jungfrau. Behind
the house the land rose in a broad, green slope, dotted with Alpine
flowers and terminating in a smooth, rounded summit far above. The house
itself seemed small, and was rudely constructed. There was a sort of
piazza in front of it, with a bench and a table before it.
"That is where the people sit, I suppose," said Mr. George, "in pleasant
weather to see the Jungfrau."
"Yes," said Rollo.
"For the Jungfrau must be over there," said Mr. George, pointing among
the clouds in the southern sky.
All doubt about the position of the mountain was removed at the instant
that Mr. George had spoken these words, by another avalanche, which just
at that moment commenced its fall. They all stopped to listen. The sound
was greatly prolonged, sometimes roaring continuously for a time, like a
cataract, and then rumbling and crashing like a peal of thunder.
"What a pity that the clouds are in the way," said Rollo, "so that we
can't see! Do you think it will clear up before we go away?"
"Yes," said Mr. George. "I am very sure it will; for I am determined not
to go away till it does clear up."
There were one or two buildings attached to the inn which served
apparently as barns and sheds. The door of entrance was round in a
corner formed by the connection of one of these buildings with the
house. Henry led the horse up to this door, and Mr. George dismounted.
The guide led the horse away, and Rollo and Mr. George went into the
house. A young and very blooming Swiss girl received them in the hall
and opened a door for them which led to the public sitting room.
The sitting room was a large apartment, which extended along the whole
front of the house. The windows, of course, looked out towards the
Jungfrau. There was a long table in the middle of the room, and one or
two smaller ones in the back corners. At these tables two or three
parties were seated, eating their dinners. In one of the front corners
was a fireplace, with a small fire, made of pine wood, burning on the
hearth. A young lady was sitting near this fire, reading. Another was at
a small table near it, writing in her journal. Around the walls of the
room were a great many engravings and colored lithographs of Swiss
scenery; among them were several views of the Jungfrau. On the whole,
the room, though perfectly plain and even rude in all its furniture and
appointments, had a very comfortable and attractive appearance.
"What a snug and pleasant-looking place!" said Rollo, whispering to Mr.
George as they went in.
"Yes," said Mr. George. "It is just exactly such a place as I wished to
find."
Mr. George and Rollo were both of them tired and hungry. They first
called for rooms. The maid took them up stairs and gave them two small
rooms next each other. The rooms were, in fact, _very_ small. The
furniture in them, too was of the plainest description; but every thing
was neat and comfortable, and the aspect of the interior of them was, on
the whole, quite attractive.
In about fifteen minutes Rollo knocked at Mr. George's door and asked if
he was ready to go down.
"Not quite," said Mr. George; "but I wish that you would go down and
order dinner."
So Rollo went down again into the public room and asked the maid if she
could get them some dinner.
"Yes," said the maid. "What would you like to have?"
Rollo was considerate enough to know that there could be very little to
eat in the house except what had been brought up in a very toilsome and
difficult manner, from the valleys below, by the zigzag paths which he
and his uncle had been climbing. So he said in reply,--
"Whatever you please. It is not important to us."
The maid then told him what they had in the house; and Rollo, selecting
from these things, ordered what he thought would make an excellent
dinner. The dinner, in fact, when it came to the table, proved to be a
very excellent one indeed. It consisted of broiled chicken, some most
excellent fried potatoes, eggs, fresh and very nice bread, and some
honey. For drink, they had at first water; and at the end of the meal
some French coffee, which, being diluted with boiled milk that was very
rich and sweet, was truly delicious.
"I have not had so good a dinner," said Mr. George, "since I have been
in Europe."
"No," said Rollo; "nor I."
"It is owing in part, I suppose, to the appetite we have got in climbing
up the mountain," said Mr. George.
Just as the young gentlemen had finished their dinner and were about to
rise from the table, their attention was attracted by an exclamation of
delight which came from one of the young ladies who were sitting at the
fireplace when Mr. George and Rollo came in.
"O Emma," said she, "come here!"
Mr. George and Rollo looked up, and they saw that the young lady whose
voice they had heard was standing at the window. Emma rose from her seat
and went to the window in answer to the call. Mr. George and Rollo
looked out, too, at another window. They saw a spectacle which filled
them with astonishment.
"It is clearing away," said Rollo. "Let us go out in front of the house
and look."
"Yes," said Mr. George; "we will."
So they both left their seats, and, putting on their caps, they went
out. As soon as they reached the platform where the bench and the table
were standing they gazed on the scene which was presented to their view
with wonder and delight.
It was, indeed, clearing away. The clouds were "lifting" from the
mountains; and the sun, which had been for some hours obscured, was
breaking forth in the west and illuminating the whole landscape with his
setting beams. Opposite to where Mr. George and Rollo stood, across the
valley, they could see the whole mighty mass of the Jungfrau coming into
view beneath the edge of the cloudy curtain which was slowly rising.
The lower portion of the mountain was an immense precipice, the foot of
which was hidden from view in the great chasm, or ravine, which
separated the Jungfrau from the Wengern Alp. Above this were rocks and
great sloping fields of snow formed from avalanches which had fallen
down from above. Still higher, there were brought to view vast fields of
ice and snow, with masses of rock breaking out here and there among
them, some in the form of precipices and crags, and others shooting up
in jagged pinnacles and peaks, rising to dizzy heights, to the summits
of which nothing but the condor or the eagle could ever attain. Still
higher were precipices of blue and pellucid ice, and boundless fields of
glittering snow, and immense drifts, piled one above the other in vast
volumes, and overhanging the cliffs as if just ready to fall.
In a short time the clouds rose so as to clear the summit of the
mountain; and then the whole mighty mass was seen revealed fully to
view, glittering in the sunbeams and filling half the sky.
The other guests of the inn came out upon the platform while Rollo and
Mr. George were there, having wrapped themselves previously in their
coats and shawls, as the evening air was cool. Some other parties of
travellers came, too, winding their way slowly up the same pathway where
Mr. George and Rollo had come. Mr. George and Rollo paid very little
attention to these new comers, their minds being wholly occupied by the
mountain.
In a very short time after the face of the Jungfrau came fully into
view, the attention of all the company that were looking at the scene
was arrested by the commencement of another peal of the same thundering
sound that Mr. George and Rollo had heard with so much wonder in coming
up the mountain. A great many exclamations immediately broke out from
the party.
"There! hark! look!" said they. "An avalanche! An avalanche!"
The sound was loud and almost precisely like thunder. Every one looked
in the direction from which it proceeded. There they soon saw, half way
up the mountain, a stream of snow, like a cataract, creeping slowly over
the brink of a precipice, and falling in a continued torrent upon the
rocks below. From this place they could see it slowly creeping down the
long slope towards another precipice, and where, when it reached the
brink, it fell over in another cataract, producing another long peal of
thunder, which, being repeated by the echoes of the mountains and rocks
around, filled the whole heavens with its rolling reverberations. In
this manner the mass of ice and snow went down slope after slope and
over precipice after precipice, till at length it made its final plunge
into the great chasm at the foot of the mountain and disappeared from
view.
In the course of an hour several other avalanches were heard and seen;
and when at length it grew too dark to see them any longer, the
thundering roar of them was heard from time to time all the night long.
Rollo, however, was so tired that, though he went to bed quite early, he
did not hear the avalanches or any thing else until Mr. George called
him the next morning.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 9: They are pronounced as if spelled Gooten arbend.]