Du Buque visitor. [volume] (Dubuque, Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory) 1836-1837, 1836-12-14

f
SCENERY IN Sw1TzERLAND.--On
the twenty fourth OF September, we
left st. Martins at six o'clock, for Prize
lure, in the valley of Chamouni. The
pass up into the valley has all the wild
ness expected to see in Switzerland !;
a tremendous gorge, through which the
Arve tumbled and roared, sometimes
FIVE hundred feet almost in perpendi-
cular descent beneath us; stupendous
rocks and mighty fragments Of noun
tains, looking as if they were hurled
down by the hand Of an earthquake;
the thick clothing of fir-trees, whose
foliage scarcely relieves the rugged
features Of rock and precipice, while it
lends to every thing a character more
sombre and stern; the deep shadows
of the early morning lying upon some
parts, and its brightest splendors falling
upon others,-those are the things tina;
might be drawn into picture, but l
have no time to draw picture.
The valley Of Chamouni certainly
has disappointed nc,-and l wonder.
that some traveller could not have said
that it is in itself nothing very remark
able. Chamouni-C hamouni, 1--WE have
heard Of it SO long and so much, and
the word, too, sounds so sweetly, that
we naturally expect something extraor-
binary. Yet, in truth, it is quite infe-
riorto Lautcrbrunnen and Grindelwald,
which, as valleys, wcscarscly ever hear
named.
We arrived at Prieurc at half past
ten O'Clock in the morning, and imme-
diately prepared to some point Of the
surrounding mountains, from which to
see to the best advantage Mont Blanc
and the Mer de Glacc, the largest of
the glaciers. We chose Mont Flegere,
and assembled to point probably three
or four thousand feet high. From this
point, not only Mont Blanc but the
neighboring pinnaclcs were seen; four
teen in all, it is said, are in view. And
now, if could say that these glaciers
are stupendous mirrors, in which the
mountainsare reflected, it would doubt
less be presenting picture ofunequal-
led splendor and subiimity. But, alas!
nothing could be fartherifrom the truth.
A glacier resembles any thing but
mirror. Its surface is rough, ridged,
and covered with rocks, stones, and
dirt. This, at least, is the appearance
in autumn. The finest thing about the
gIaciers--unless it be the stupendous
mass crowding down into the vcrdant
vailey-isthe shooting up ofthe ice in
toinnumerable pyramidsan dpinnacles;
and disappearance is most beautiful,
not in the Mer de ,Glace, but in the
Glacier de Boisson, lying west Of it. |
But if the glaciers disappointed US,
Mont Blame, withihis attendant pima
cles, shooting up into the clear sky
one Of them, a single cone, rising, !
should think, from its base, three thou
sand fcet--Mont Blanc, too, with his
vastness ofbreadth and grandeur Of ele-
vation, eleven thousand seven hundred
and fifty feet from the valley Of the
Chamouni, and with the radiant fields
ofsnow uponihis head, could not well
be said to disappoint expectation. Ne
vertheless, and after all, Jungfrau and
the great Eiger struck me more.
!, SouRcEs 81 THE Mrss1ss1pr1.-|
From a letter written BY the scientific
traveller, Mr.. Nicollet, to the presi-
dent Of St. Mary's college in this city,
dated Oct lst., at st. Peters, upper
Mississippi, we have been kindly per-
mitted to publish the following extract
for the information Of the public and
the qualification of his friends
n have just returned from long
Journey Ia the sources " tho MisSis-s