Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1879-09-18

cent views in the Alps. Ruskin, who,
perhaps, is highest of all authority,
writes: e 1t is a great weakness, not to
say worse than weakness, on the part of
travellers to extol always chiefly what
they think fewest people have seen or can
see. l have climbed much and wandered |
much in the heart of the high Alps, but |
l have never yet seen anything which |
equaled the view from the cabin of the |
Mont-au-V Vert" It's stupendous sight. |
At the feet the glacier, many miles in |
length and mile in width, bearing the |
appearance, as its name denotes, of a |
s' 'sea of ice,'' extends in white, stiffened
pillows, forever apparently motiOnless.
The rocky Aiguilles uplift their heads
200 feet in perpendicular height above
the glacier. Turning round, the look de-
scends into the green vale of Chamouny,
SO that winter and summer meet the eye
almost simultaneously here, while Mont
Blanc towers Immediately above all,
16, 900 feet above the level of the sea.
We are now L, 900 feet high. At the
Mont-au-Vert cabin we saw Marshal Mac
Mahon and wife, late President of France
and noted commander of the French
army. Four of the party (ourself in
| eluded) crossed over the glacier and de-
scended the mountain on the opposite
side by the Mauvais Pas, the MacMahon
party crossing at the same time. This
pass, as the name denotes (s' dangerous
steps'), is the terror of timid tourists,
but presents no difficulty to any one with
a tolerably firm loot and head that can
look without dizziness dewn a precipiee
several hundred feet in depth. 1t con-
sists of pathway about couple of feet
wide, which is rudelv cut for two or three
yards along the side of steep wall of
rock which forms the base of the Aiguille
du Boehard. For the greater safety of
the traveller an iron rail is riveted into
the rock, which he can grasp when neces-
sary, but the unguarded side goes sheer
Fdown to the glacier. The path is not,
however, altogether without danger.
From this point grand view is obtained
of the frozen pillows of ice, which, in
its final slope into the valley, has YER
tical height of over 1900 feet. 1t is con-
torCed into the most fantastic shapes
into pinnacles and pyramids of ice, which
are of the deepest blue-and is fissured
in every direction. The chapeam is soon
reached, from which a lovely picture is
presented of the vale of Chamouny
bathed in the morning sunlight, while
above towers the stupendous granite obe-
, lisk of Dru, which has scarcely its equal
in the Alps for apparent Insulation and
steepness. On the 22d we left Chamouny
by diligence for Geneva, Switzerland
some IS miles distant, a beautiful city o.
fifty or sixty thousand inhabitants. Or
+ the 23d we made an excursion on Lake
4 Leman from Geneva to the Castle of Chill
: Ion, of which Byron writes of the pris
: oner Bonnavard, who was confined thert
: six years in the fifteenth century, stop
j. ping there two hours. We then went t,
1 Lausanne, where we had dinner, and thel
r took the cars for Friburg, where we spen
e Sunday, leaving for Berne and Interla
= ken, where we arrived about P. NJ. 70
n table d'hote. Int rlaken is a great plac
d for tourists in Europe-about what Sara
q toga is to the United States, but no com
g parison with the grandeur of America
u hotels; but then the mountain seener
e around it is magnificent, thesnow-cappe
]. peaks making a strange contrast with tn
n deep green of the lower range that SUI
n round the town. On the 18th we mad
,e an excursion by carriages up the moul
q tsins to Lanterbrunnen and Grindelwal'
n visiting the Staubbach falls and g1acit
St ice caves, returning in time to leave
es steamer of the lake of Brienz for Gies
at bach. The Giessbach Hotel is on an Ell
ri vation 500 feet above the lake, and v
in reach it by an inclined railway. 1t is
y very large and fine hotel, and the Gies
,S bach Falls, of some 500 feet in heigf
IN fall in roaring cataracts close by t
al house. After table d'hote the falls we
in illuminated with cOlored lights, and t
n several hundred tourists who witness
as this scene say that it exceeded anythiI
ha in the role of grand scenery they ev
ad saw. We can only compare the see
.ot with liquid fire in cClors of red, VIII
- and blue, roaring and boiling down t
~ rocky precipice amid the green foliage
oI the spruce and pine. The scene w
to never fade from the memory of those w
de saw it. The next morning we left
od steamer, crossing the lake TO BrieI
WHGEG VIC LOOh anu
WI our journey over the mountains by w
les of the Brunig Pass, which occupied S
he or seven hours, when we came to La
40 Alpnach, where we again took
49, steamer (this time the civilian Tell'
lot and from this lake we pass into Lake +
to Germ (known as the Lake of the Fo
ne Cantons), go to Lucern, leave the hea
baggage and take another steamer
VitZnau, the station where we took t
IS cars ON the inclined railway that leads
of Rigi Kuhn, over five miles in lengt
on where we spent the night at the r
Il Hotel, the finest and most spacious ho
nu we have found in all Europe. The d
lily tance is 5000 feet high. The hotel "
to crowded with tourists, and it is so We
NO day during the summer months. PeoI
go up and remain one night to see
up sun set and rise, and to get view of t
WI country that can only be obtained frC
led the summit of Rigi Kuhn. The peoI
we were awakened from their slumbers
see the sun rise in the manner thus
scribed: At 4 O'Clock, in the dim h
led light of the house, which is still as dea
ne at this hour, there stands in the very cE
ars tire of the hotel, which runs through t
entire six stories to the roof, the gr
Dno monster with his Alpine horn, whC
am melancholy notes resound through /
IN, corridors like unto the trumpet that G
rht briel it is supposed will blow when
p, wakens the dead. You are fast aslet
" not thoroughly in harmony with stran
the room and stranger scenes, Wearied, pt
az, haps, with constant travelling, and lit
bv restless under aamasss of eider-down-1
- it is bitter cold at night in this altitude
Fps when suddenly the whole room, the We
ich atmosphere, the world itself, seems fill
ost with long-drawn moan of pain.
wo first the sounds connect themselves wi
- your dreams, but gradually, with twi
u N Wy irl md oh, 14- =