The anti-monopolist. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1874-1878, 1877-06-21

peculiar cry with which the noun
taineers are wont to converse at long
distances, among their craggs and
waterfalls, was heard clear and dis
tinct above the roar of storms, and
even above the thunders OF the
avalanche. The cry was uttered by a
female voice, not evidently very
distant from the spot on which lay,
and was answered after pause of a
very few seconds by a similar response
from distance, seemingly up the
mountain side.
1t needed no further solicitation to
arouse me, for / had dwelt long
enough among the Alps to recognized
the meaning Of that shrill, musical
cry, quavering among the snow-peaks,
and pealing through the valleys, as
easily as would the discordant bray
ing of the tin dinner horns Of New
England. Both sounds were Identical,
summons of the swineherd ploughman
from his half-tilled stubble, or the free
shepherd from his mountain pasture,
to Join the social meal, and in both
lands in some sort bidding the chance
wanderer, stranger though he be, to
frugal, but unrestricted hospitality.
SO gathering up my knapsack and my
wallet fiinging my plaid about my
shoulders, and grasping my trusty
|Alpenstock, l hurried up the glen,
now on one side, now on the other Of
the gushing rivulet, which crossed 1t
and recrossed it in many an arrOwy
shoot and glancing rapid, shot off at
angles from the elbows Of hard rock
!; against which it dashed impetuous.
A walk of tenminutes brought me to
an angle in the glen, where it was mar
rowed by the profusion Of two great
shoulders of the mountain, between
which the stream leaped down over a
: percipitous ledge of some eighteen
or twenty feet, in one broad sheet OF
f snowy foam.
At first sight, it seemed that al
: access to the upper glen was barred
= by the rocky barrier over which the
y brook broke in foam, but a closer in
spection discovered a rude path, mid
way between staircase and ladder
> by which the inhabitants were wont
to pass to and fro between their wllC
!, fastness and the more genial vale:
below.
y 1t did not required much effort fol
E practised foot to scale that brie-
G ascent, moistened though it was, ant
I slippery with the spray of the water
/ fall; and had it really been Difficult
b or perilous task, peril and difficult.
had been we'll repaid by the view
$ that presented itself so soon as tht
@ barrier was surrounded.
/ The glen here expanded itself int
e broad green lap or basin, through
which the rivulet wandered more
d tranquility. encircled by soft slope
/. covered with the richest greensward
). or feathered by waving cOppices o
r deciduous trees, all freshened ant
s nOurished into perennial verdure b.
h scores of bright, silvery sources, which
s sent their tribute down in lines o
e liquid light through every hollow, t.
s swell the mountain, brook. Abov'
d the waving underwood of oak AM
J. halle and ever tremulous aspen, tn
e rocks gray and broken. but decked il
" many places with shrubs and parasite
It plants, growing greenly from thei
!. crevices to height Of three hundre'
g feet where they were crowned witt
y the dense fir-wOod, which clothed al
d that region of the mountains; beloy
+ their intermediate zone of stern, hert
~ less granite, and their summit of i'm
maculate snow. At the upper end o
q the basin, where it again contracts
o itself into mere ravine, large enough
n only to admit the passage of the STREAM
It between precipitous cliffs, there stood
e surrounded by q small orchard Q
s apple trees. pretty mountain farm
o house, picturesque with the wide pre-
# jecting caves, carved wooden balco
,r MES and exterior staircaseS, peculia
v to- the rural architecture of Switze1
W land, and lending it so singular an a:
s. pect of romantic beauty.
A flock of beautiful white goat
ID were feeding every where on tn
!: slopes and amid the brushwood on til
J. hillside, while a few had climbe
10 higher in search of some aromati
Ie herb. and sported fearlessly on height
ID among which the boldest cragsma
" would have deemed himself insecure
IF In the valley near the brook. cattl
v of peculiar breed and of great bea,
\. ty were pasturing, and nearer to tn
n. house, prettily fenced garden, ga
10 with such flowers as loved the bris
II air of the uplands, showed both tn
10 hand of women, and the easy indepe1
o dence of the owners of the land, abb
h to spare few thoughts from the wal
IS of the present, and to hestow fe'
r cares on those artificial ornament:
ID which foreshadow something of int
n lect and refinement in those who ma
,e not be content without them.
II Beyond the farmhouse, the mario
ravine stretched away far aloof, as
4 seemed, in almost interminable pc
ST spective, mounting higher and highe
d, yet among the Hottest pinnacles {
k. the hills, showing here and theT
e. cataracts of several hundred feet
te fall, and traversed at intervals by dl
d. zy bridges, sometimes no more tina
Of single trunks of pine trees withot
" barrier or breastwork, at an altltuo
h which, even in imagination. made n
h. tremble.
IL As / entered the little valley, til
figure of a man was seen in relic
no against the brilliant wilderness of It'd