The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1853-10-21

| ih unlHldS IndDle rrencn ana OeTHan. "Ict
ici!"
l came back; and, taking my hand, he lee
me along a path where travellers generally
90. went closer, and sat down on a rock
rock under them, and looked up.-The clear
sun was shining through them; clear and
blue looked the riIts and arches, all dripping
and beautiful. We went down upon them
by steps which q man cut in the ice. There
was one rift of ice we looked into, which was
about fifty feet high, going up into a sharp
arch. The inside Of this arch was clear, blue
ice, of the color of crystal Of blue vitriol.
One of our romantic companions, a most
uneasy fellow, wanted, as usual, to do all
sorts of improper things. lie wanted to stone
down blocks of ice, and to go inside the cafe,
and to 60 down into holes, and insisted on
standing particularly long on spot which
the guide told him was all undermined, in
order that he might pelt a cliff OF ice that
seemed inclined to fall, and hear it smash.
The poor guide was as distressed as a hen
when her ducks take to the water; he ran,
and called, and shouted, in German, French,
and English, and it was not till c. had
contrived to throw the head of the little boy's
hatchet down into a creraSSe, that he gave
up. There were two francs to pay for this
experiment, but never mind Our guide-book
says that clergyman of Vevay, on this
glacier fell into a crevasse several hundred
feet deep, and was killed; SO was glad en-
ough when we got our chiyalrous friend off
from it.
He ought to have bell ON his neck, as all
the cows do here; and upropos to this we
mount--we leave the glacier, and ride up in
to land of pastures. Here we see a hun
dred COWS grazing In the fied--the fields all
yellow with buttercups. They are a very
small breed, prettiy formed, and each had on
her neck bell. How many notes there are
in these bells! quite diapason--some very
how prettiy they sound, all going together!
The bells are made of the best of metal, fer
the tone is of an admirable quality.
Oh! do look off there, on that patch Of
snow under the Wetterhorn! 1t is all cover
ed with cows; they look no bigger than in
sects. "What makes them 60 there!' said
we to our guides "Io be cool"' was the an
swer.
Hark what's that, sudden sound, like
the rush of cascade.
"Avaanche!- avaanche!' exclaimed the
guide. And now, pouring down the sides OF
the Wetterhorn, came milk-whte cascade,
looking just like any other cascade, melting
gracefully over the rocks, and spreading, like
a stream of milk, on the soiled snow below.
This is summer avalanche--a mere bJou
"a fancy article, got up, or rather got down,
to entertain travellers. The winter avaanches
are quite other things. Witness a little
further in our track, where our guide stops US,
and points to place where all The pines have
been broken short off by one of them. Some
where along here, remember some old
ghostly pines, dead ages ago, their white,
ghastly skeletons bleached by hundred
storms, they stand, stretching out their long
bony arms, like phantom giants. These
skeleton pines are wonderfulimagei lwcnd-
er have not seen them introduced into
pictures.
There, now, little ahead, is a small hut,
which marks the summit of the grand Schni-
dich. Our horses come up to t,& we dismount
Some of the party go in to sleep--I 60 out
to climb neighboring peak. At the foot Of
this peak lay awreath o! snow, soiled and
dirty, as hal.melted snow always is, but lying
amid the green grass and luxuriant flowers,
it had a strange air-a little spot of death in
the green lap of rejoicing li(e-like that
death-spot which often lies in the human heart
among all seeming flowers and bloom cold,
cheerless, no sunbeam warns it, and the
warming that uniolds thousands of blooms
around it does not melt it.
Now, thought, | have read Of Alpine
flowers leaning their cheeks on the SHOWS.
wonder if any flowers grow near enough to
that snow to touch it. mean to go and see.
So went; there, sure enough, my little trng-
ed purple bell, to which | have given the
name of "Suspirium,' was growing, not only
close to the SNOW, but in it.
Thus Gods grace, shining steadily on the
waste places Of the human heart, brings up
heavenward sighings and aspirations which
pierce through The cold SHOWS Of aflliction,
and tell that there is yet life beneath, and a
power which shall melt all away. These
flowers are the prayers of the afflicted hearts,
called up through the ice of long, pressing,
bitter agony, by the sunshine of Gods mercy.
They teach US never to despair. | climbed
up the grassy sides of the peak, flowers, to
the very top, and on the top rock of loose
shale There sat down and looked. This
is Alpine solitude. All around me were these
deep green dells, embroidered with flowers,
from which comes up the tinkle of bells,
like the dropping of rain everywhere. 1t
seems to me that the air is more elastic and
musical here than below, and gives grace to
the commonest sound. Now | look back
along the way we have been travelling, l look
at the strange old cloudy mountain, the
Biger, the Wetterhorn, the Shuckhorn. A
kind of hazy ether floats around them--an
indescribable aerial halo--whcli no painter
ever represents. Who can paint the air
that vivid blue in which these sharp peaks
cut their glittering imagesl OF all peaks,
the Eiger is the riost impressive to me- l.
is a gigantic ploughshare of rock, set up a.
gainst the sky, its thin; keen purple blade
edged with gl.ttering frost; for sharp is its
point, that only a dazzling line marks the
eternal snow on its head.
| walked out as far as could on narrow
CloaiarsI