The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1869-03-05
Alisfellanenns.
A DESCENT TO AN EAGLES
NEST.
A THRILLING STORY.

"YEs SIR," said my guide, who ac-
companied me down from the Righi
through all the highlands of Berne-an
obliging as well as an educated man,
"there is, indeed, difference between
travellers. l have now driven (riding
on pack horses is called driving in
Switzerland) for twenty years, up and
down the mountains; have guided
thousands Of English, French and Ger
mans, and speak these three languages
almost equally well; but have never
yet chat4ed so agreeably with any one,
as with you, sir. And when you have
roamed about, for weeks, in the noun
tains, silent and joyless in the journey,
it is, then, very tedious. l have expe-
rienced it.
"But the most singular being" con-
tinued he, that ever met in my long
practice, was an Englishman. He
might have learned, somewhere, that L
had formerly killed many a chamois,
and had robbed various eagles nests,
above there on the Tyrolean mountains
at any rate, he suddenly engaged me,
through the landlord of the Victoria
Hotel, at Interlaken, for fourteen days;
and one morning, with the first rays OF
the sun, we proceeded into the noun
tains without saying word, and with
out his having answered my English
morning salutation, but, after an hours
wandering, he suddenly stopped. Poin-
ting with his Alpine staff to the snow
crowned summit of the Silberhorn ,and
thence describing circle, as if he would
intimate that the whole mountain chain
wa3 to be traversed, he gazed at me, for
while in silence, and then pronounced
slowly, only these two words: SHOW
eagles = Then he went on. From this
time not syllable passed his lips, du-
ring the entire journey.
"For fourteen days we wandered
through wind and storm, snow and ice;
searched all the passes, peaks and gla-
ciers, but not an eagle did we see; yet
did not hear q mortal word more from
the lips of this man;-hOt complaint,
not an exclamation Of joy. When we
returned, fourteen days afterward, late
at evening, to Interlaken, he silently
counted me out, in fine gold-pieces, the
wages agreed upon, nodded his head
and went into his chamber; horse and
rider never saw each other again."
This comical story put me in "A very
pleasant humor, and, laughing, we
chatted long about the tacitUrn John
Bull, whose figure and manners the
guide described to me very yividly. In
the course Of the conversation, we nat
urally came, also, to his early chamois
and eagle hunts, about which he could
relate much that was interesting.
"Yes, sir" said he, earnestly, as we
climbed up the rocky paths of the Wen
germ Alp, "since my brother was pre-
cipitated from above at the Stag's Horns
that swarm with chamOis, and stay at
nome with wife and child. 1t is, indeed
q peculiar thing, to know that my
brothers. body is below there, in the
abyss, and then to mount up again to
the same cliffs and rocks to which the
poor fellow slipped from. But captur-
ing eagles is now over with me, since
returned from the Tyrolean mountains,
and brought back my white hairs"
| looked at the narrator question
ingly.
"Yes, sir" smiled he cheerfully,
"with hunters on the Alps, Il has hap.
pened that one will climb up the noun
tains in the morning, gaily and brisk
ly, and with thick, brown locks, and
return after few days, pale, feeble, and
with Dhite hair. Thus it happened to
me, yonder in the Tyrol."
The steep path had fatigued me, l sat
down on fragment of rock, and invi-
ted the speaker TO place himself beside
me, and tell his story.
"Not so, sir" said he decidedly, "sit
we will not. We have walked and
talked ourselves warm, and the snow
wind from the Jungfrau, yonder, is
blowing here too icy-cold, for us to