Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-11-16
Masbington Sentinel.
Correspondence Of the New York Observer.
Ixa.,oo..a II affors G..on, S,xuitx a..I I, nd

ley, by the side of lake forever dark with the
shadows of overhanging hills, is the hospice, a
name that here combines the idea of hospital
and hotel; its design being to furnish lodging
and entertainment to travellers, whether they
are able to pay for the hospitality or not. Last
winter the landlord of the Grimsel, having in
sured his house, set FIRE to it. to get the money,
and now is in prison for twenty years, as the
penalty of his crime. In years past there have
been terrible avalanches here, AMI once the
house was crushed by the "thunderbolts of
snow" Often it is surrounded by snow drifts
twenty or thirty feet high, yet some one lodges
here all winter to keep up fire and furnish
shelter to the benighted traveller. 1t is won
yersed at all in the depth Of winter. But there
is no other mode of communication between the
valleys, than along these defiles, and the traffic
among the people of one canton with another
is carried on, and the intercourse of families is
kept up at the risk of life here as in other
countries. If one has good home, it were
better to stay in it than to cross the Grimsel
in the winter.
As mixed a multitude as you will often find,
were under the roof Of theh ospice last night
! The building is yet unfinished; and it must
have required prodigious exertions to get it SO
far uuder way, since the fire, as to make it
habitable for travellers this season. Every
stick of timber must be brought up by hand
from the plain some miles below. The walls
are of stone, about three feet thick, and rough
enough. No attempt to smooth wall, or paint
board, appears on the edifce, and the rude
bedsteads, benches, and chairs suggest to the
luxurious traveller how few of the good things
he has at home are actually essential to his
comfort. The house has about forty beds, but
Lo., och
weary pilgrim one. Many were obliged to
choose the softest boards in the dining room
floor and sleep on them. Yet in that company
of sixty who crowded around the supper table
were many of the learned, and titled, and beau
tiful, and wealthy, Of many lands; meeting So
cially in a dreary valley, on journey OF pleas
ure, and refreshing each other with the " feast
of reason and the flow of soul" Reserve was
banished, and the hour freely given to good
cheer, in which all strove to forget the tolls OF
the day in the pleasures Of the evening and the
repose of peaceful night.
THE GLACIERS or THE AAR.
Within an hours walk from the door of the
hospice is the glacier of the Aar, the most in
teresting and instructive of all the glaciers of
| Switzerland. 1t has been more studied by men,
of science than any other. Agazziz and Forbes
had their huts on its bosom, and spent many
long and weary months in prying into the mys-
teries of these stupendous seas OF solid water.
/ Yet to my great surprise, not one of the whole
company who staid at the hospice last night
turned aside for day to study with us this
wonderful scene. A party of English people
read the guide book on the route to Meyningen,
and congratulated themselves on having "com.
Portable" day, as there was very little to see
They were doing Switzerland, and were evi
4 IDENTIFY pleased to fnd.a day before them wher
they had nothing to do but to go on, without
being worried with fine views and climbing hills
One party after another came down and took
wretched cup of coffee, and we're off on their
pilgrimage some on foot some on mules, and
one or two were carried on chairs by porters;
a mode of travelling well enough for invalids,
but must be very sick indeed to submit to it.
I Perhaps those who adopt it are willing to pay
more than am for the sake of seeing Switzer-
land, but am very sure that some ladies have
met in this conveyance would be greatly bene-
fitted by being compelled to foot it half the
day. and to ride on a mule the rest.
We were left alone at the hospce, and after
breakfast set off to spend the day on this
glacier. There are two of them, called the
! Ober and Inter, or Upper and Lower; the
latter being the most easily reached, and hap
PLY the most interesting. 1t is no less than
eighteen miles long, and about three miles
wide. To crcumnayigate it, therefore, is not the
journey of a day, but it may be explored on
foot, and Hugi, the naturalist, is said to have
rode over it on horse. The morning was not
/ promising when we set of. Heavy mists had
lodged in the vale of the Grimsel But far
above them in gloomy grandeur rose the sterile
ridges of rocks, towering aloft, and looking
like the battlements of giants castles, inacessi
BILE save to the chamois, and his pursuer, who
often risks, and sometimes throws away, his life
| in his daring adventures to secure his prey.
| Even the chamois has now almost entirely dis
appeared, and the eagles alone have their
! dwelling places in these desolate abodes. Yet
from the lofty heights some beautiful cascades
are pouring all the way down into the vale,
| foaming as they fall, and sometimes caught by
| the intervening rocks, and sent out from the
side of the precipice, they melt into spray, and
again on lower ledge are gathered to pursue
their downward course. Along the bottom of
this gloomy vale we walked for an hour, till
we came in sight of a mighty pile of earth,
rocks, ice, and snow.
| At first we thought we had come to vast
heap of sand, or to the debris brought down
by an avalanche of soil with stones inter
mingled, but from the base of it a torrent was
| rushing not of clear blue water, but of a dirty
milky hue as are all the streams when they is
sue from the beds of these Glaciers. The front
of the mass was perhaps one hundred and fifty
feet high, and nearly perpendicular, and here it
was half mile in width. On nearer approach,
we could see the rocks of blue ice projecting
through the coating of earth showing plainly
that the body of the great pile before us was
the cold icebergs hid beneath a covering of
earth that had been washed down upon 1t, from
the mountains above. Now and then huge
masses of earth, or a huge boulder would be
dislodged from the brow Of the pile, and thun.
der along down, as we sat watching. for these
miniature avalanches, The sense of the terri
BILE was strong upon us now. 1t was not beau
tiful; it was grand and awful, as we changed
our position lest the falling rocks should over
take ms in their course. But few little birds
were flying about from stone to stone, uncon.
scious of danger the solitary inhabitants ofthis
frozen world.
We now determined to ascend and look on
its face With incredible toll we climbed the
Hill hv the side of IT. If there even was n path