The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-16 00:00:00

ALPINE TOURISTS.

(From the Times' Correspondent)
LUCERNE, Sept. 12.
I had made a vow in my heart, upon coming to
Switzerland, that my journey on the track of those
holiday-makers whom I have distinguished by the
more ambitious appellation of " Alpine tourists"
should be effected with the greatest ease and leisure ;
that I should take my cue from that respected
divine whose pilgrimages were limited to the
" shadow" of Mont Blanc and the Jungfrau ; and
that no consideration on earth should induce me to

toil up to the top of any hill, high or low. Well, I
have broken through my engagement at the very
outstart. I had posted my letters before 12 o'clock
at noon yesterday ; there was nothing more to do
at Lucerne. The heat was intense, so I took boat
to Weggis, and went up the Righi.
I have climbed up the dear " Cockney mountain"
thrice before in my life, and always obeyed the in-
junctions of guide-books by going up by Airth,
Kussnacht, or Goldau, and.coming down by Weggis,
because on any of those three sides you are in the
shadow of the mountain in the afternoon, and the
view is concealed from you till you come to the Righi
Staff el, when it breaks upon you all at once in all its
unequalled vastness and beauty. But it was already
late yesterday ; no other boat served so well, so I
crossed over to Weggis. We were a large crew on
board ; all nations and ages, both sexes. Half a
squadron of mountain nags were in waiting at the
landing ; but I threw my bag and wrappers to one
of the lads, and took the road on foot to the best of
my speed ; not, you may well believe, from any
vain desire to make a display of my old legs, but
simply with a view to outstrip all the following four-
footed caravans, so as to secure good quarters for
the night at the Righi Kulm.
The road winds up through the fields and orchards
of the good Weggis villagers, fully as smooth as, and
hardly more steep than, the footpath that leads to
the Alte Schloss at Baden-Baden. Free competi-
tion and love of gain have done as much for the
Righi as the almighty will of the Third Napoleon
has achieved for Paris. At every step on the com-
fortable ascent you have sign-posts to guide your
steps, railings to save you or your steed from a fall
down a precipice, sheds and chalets for refuge or re-
freshment, benches for rest, fruit girls with baskets
holding out the temptation of big juiceless pears,
stringy plums, and sour grapes; beggars, too, at
every turning of the path, infirm old men, blind and
crippled, whom the community turn out at this sea-
son and keep at the tourists' expense—worthy re-
presentatives of a people who mainly live by the
road. Easy and smooth and open, the road winds
up from one to the other of those traversal layers of
rock, which look like so many rows of grey bricks
on this side of the mountain as seen from the lake,
but which are, in reality, bold perpendicular cliffs,
the ribs of the giant mass. The view on the water,
on the bays of Lucerne, of Alpnach, of Kussnacht,
of Buochs, and presently of the lake of Zug, changes
at every step from lovely to lovelier and loveliest.
There was not a breath of air to stir an aspen leaf ;
the greenish surface of those lakes looked heavy and
compact as lead, and the mountains emerged from
the lake one by one, bathing in their thin haze, smok-
ing and sweating, as it were, in that sulky, sultry
atmosphere. It was past 2 o'clock, and the sun smote
down upon us from the top of the heavens with a
strength against which the few clumps of fir trees
afforded but rare, scanty, and precarious relief. The
heat was something not to be forgotten in a whole
lifetime, and it required little less than a negro's skull
or mine to save the brain from melting in that unmi-
tigated glare. The guide-books allow 3 hours to
man or beast for the ascent of the Righi. The time
was when I discounted the distances assigned bysuch
authorities by at least one-third ; but, alas ! the
power to go uphill abates with all of us as we go down
in the vale of years, and by the time I came panting
to the Kalt-bad Hotel the cracking of the whips be-
neath announced that the noisy cavalcade in my rear
were gaining upon me. Up they came with me just
as I had swallowed my thimblefull of kirschwasser
on the threshold of that great establishment, and,
giving my monkey-boy, Clementz, a hint to hurry
forward and bespeak my night-quarters, I was fain
to let the riders pass on, and followed with half-
spent breath, so that I only reached the Kulm at 5,
after three hours' march.

I do not believe so calm an afternoon, and one so
stifling, is to be had on the Righi top twice a-year
To say that the air was motionless is the same as to
say that the mountains were overcast and the view
none of the freest. I had all the time expected no
better, and was not disappointed ; nor did I, not-
withstanding, think, with the many who stood on
the green platform straining their eyes for some dis-
tant mountain top, that the Righi was a " sell," a
delusion, and a snare. I had already been thrice on
the spot, as I before said, and seen the panorama in
all its unclouded glory; but the Righi is the Righi
for all that, and the vapours which encompassed us
yesterday by no means robbed us of those peculiar
charms which set it apart from all other mountains,
as it rears itself into air like a great citadel, with a
whole string of lakes for a moat at its feet. For a
range of about 6,000 feet above those waters the
look-out was unimpeded ; and the mountains, al-
though bathing in those warm vapours, rose all
round, distinct and vivid, cutting their dark shadows
one upon another in an interminable perspective.
On the side of Lucerne, Zug, and Zurich, the atmos-
phere was free ; the lower lands stretched broad and
level before us, the map of half Switzerland ; and the
eye revelled in that expanse of green streaked here
and there by the silvery watercourses, and dotted
with the glittering white abodes of men in single
lh dwellings and in clusters, in the consciousness that
nothing half as high as the watch-tower on which AT
stood
intervened
time
betweenen a
wwomen,n
usaend,
horses and tlieNorthYOle
guides,All this
were coming up the steep in a perpetual stream.
The tourists threw themselves down from their hard
saddles, and , trudged up to join us, all agog with
expectation, cursing the hard fate which had de-
layed them on the road, and robbed them of the
great treat of the expedition—the view of the set-
ting sun ; and the sun was setting, calm, and un-
concerned, heedless of all that garrulous impatience,
a sun blurred all over with russet vapours, a tem-