Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-11-10
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER lo,ls26.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER lo,lS26.
From Carey s LEAFS Atlantic souvenier, for 1897
A LEGEND ON THE GRTSONS.
70 sit onrocks, to muse DER food and fell,
Slowly to trace the desess,s winding scene,
Where things that own net mans dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been.
The increase ofiravellers, the improvements
OF civilization, and above all, perhaps, the inde-
fatigable spirit of warlike ambition, have taken
from the various passages OF the Alps, that
character of vast and impene.raSle grandeur
which used to reign, il not in reality, at least IN
imagination, over those lofty ramparts-ram-
parts, which the poets of antiquity loved 10
commemorate as the work OF nature, 10 sepa-
rate and guard forever from the less favored re-
gions Of the north, the beauties and the trea-
sures Of matchess Italy Scarcely half a cen
tury has passed away, since the historian who
long dwelt at their feet, and who has described
with touche, of poetic beauty, the close OF his
immortal labours, in the presence Of their tow
ering SUBMITS, spoke OF the modern ease by
which he was transported across them, by the
light and intrepid chairman Of The Alps. Now
the chairman is himself forgotten. The car
rage Of luxurious indolencc may roll almost
unshaSen, and the victim of ennui and wealth,
slumber without interruption, as he passes those
defles amid which armies have persisted, and
ambition has hardly triumphed.
This however is not the case, unless along
those great passes, which have become the tho
roughfares ofnations; and If a traveller led by
more than ordinary curiosity, fond Of adyenture,
or admiring the wild beauties of sublime ma
ture, have courage 10 deviale into the secluded
districts Of Switzerland, he may find scene after
scene, presenting every feature Of ~primeval
rudeness where the hand Of power is as yet un-
known alike to improve and 10 enslave.
This / found peculiarly among those districts
which lie hidden in the Rhetian Alps. Hold
ing but little intercourse with the inhabitants
Of The neighboring country, the summers are
passed by the herdsmen amid tie green and
fresh fields which are found on the sides of the
mountains; and in the winters they are shut up
in the little villages, which lie sequestere d in
the valleys below. All round rise Lofty ridges,
covered for the most part with perpetual snow,
and their only connection with the surrounding
world, is through those narrow ravines, which
have been worn away by streams roaring thro'
them, for unnumbered ages Their dress, their
manners, their customs, all mark an utter ig-'
norance of the rest Of mankind; and the indul-
gence of those wild superstitions, which nou-
rished in the lap OF age, have descended un-
harmed by the exorcism of increasing know
ledge, but which their simple natures have not
learned to blend with vice or infanly, spread "a
round a strange charm, not uninteresting to
one, who comes among them from scenes more
enlightened but not more yirtuous.
Many years have passed away since visited
Switzerland, yet I still remember it with plea
sure, if NOT with the unrestrained enthusiasm OF
youthful and adventurous spirits. twas early
In the autumn OF a year so long ago, that | do
not exactly remember il, and which if ] did, |
should with the usual precaution of one who is
writing for other people, keep 10 myself, that
] made an excursion Of few weeks through the
northern cantons. Entering the Valais blythe
narrow pass of St. Maurice, where between ire
mendous rugged precipices, the Rhone scarcely
makes its way, | Followed its shores, now view
ing the sluggish waves slowly spreading among
wide morasses, now rolling swiftly through the
ridges of rocks which extended from the neigh
boring mountains. Those mountains them
selves who shall describe? On one hand the
stupendous SUNNI, Of Mount Rosa rising four
teen thousand feet into the air-on the other
the round hoary head of the Gemmi, or the sub
lime forms of the Jungfraw and the Schreck-
horn covered with eternal SHOWS, and rearing
their mighty peaks far above the clouds. AS
I passed from the lower TO the higher regions
of the Valais, all the signs of winter burst on
me as it were from the very bosom Of summer.
From fields yellow with harvest, and vineyards
where grapes hung around in purple clusters,
4 was suddenly transported to meadows where
the green grass was yet untouched by the
scythe, and where ! beheld no yessige Of the
mantling vine. I trayersed the steep decliyi-
ties OF the mountain, and | was fast entering a
loflier and a wilder region. The river no lon
ger rolled smoothly at my side, but rushed down
amid rocky precipices, aud through thick fo-
rests of giganlie pine trees. The juniper and
the barberry, nourished by the congenial cold
ness of the region, sprung up amidlhe ~crevices
of the rocks.
nov began to ascend the celebrated pass,
which leads between the mountains of the Fur
ca and ST Gothard into the country of the Girl
sons. The mingled danger, ~sublimity and
beauty Of this scene will long live In my recol-
lection, bu, i should in vain endeavor to describe
them. The road sometimes led along the edge
of tremendous p~recipices, down which the eye
could not gaze without the senses becoming gid
dy: rocks were hurled upon rocks, as If by the
power Of some mighty earthquake which itself
had formed the rayine, & down which rushed a
2lream m uhita foo m from