St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-10-03
A Week Among the Alps.

zell and Voralberg Alps, but it's shores
are otherwise destitute of distinctively
Alpine scenery. Yet the facts that the
Rhine flows through it, for nearly the
whole 40 miles of its length, and that
its shores are divided between five
nations, Baden, Wurtemberg, Bavaria,
Austria, and Switzerland, make it in
teresting. The ride of two hours across
it from Lindan to ROmanshorn, was
pleasant change from the close, warm
compartment of the car, and with a
glass there were seen many villages,
villas, and chalets around and above it's
shores.
Two hou by rail brought US to
Zurich, Oh the lake of the same name,
and one of the largest and most beauti-
fully located cities in Switzerland. The
lake and its outlet, the river Limmat,
divide it into nearly equal parts, and
on the east side the streets rise one
above another in terraces, the higher
commanding fine views of the city, the
lake, and the Alps to the south and
west. For the sake of the outlook we
chose a hotel high up, and secured a
room from the windows of which we
never tired of gazing. Beneath and to
the right was the city, with its univer-
sity and scientific schools, its cathedral
and churches, its busy streets and man
ufactories, (there are 10000 silk looms
in this canton.) In front and leftwards,
the lake-both shores of which as far
as the eye could reach were covered
with villages and hamlets,-beyOnd,
the Uetliberg, rising 1900 feet above
the lake and crowned with a mag
nificent old abbey which presents a
front of $50 feet in length; and from
that stretching far away the Albis
mountains, and a dozen high Alp sum-
mits terminating either in bare rock
or eternal snow. One of these, the
Bristenstock, seemed massive octago-
nal cone terminating in pyramid, and
it stood out alone and above its neigh
bors like giant sentinel guarding the
defiles and the glaciers. Several of
these mountains are from 5000 to 10, 900
feet high.
Here we spent a delightful, quiet,
restful Sabbath, attending the English
church service in the morning, but
having in the evening home Congre-
gatiOnal conference. Our host, M.
HiltpOld, Swiss, was Union soldier
in our late civil war, serving three years
in the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment.
He showed us his discharge in the sum
mer of 1865, and told us how after
wards he roamed in California and the
Nevada mines till hunted out by the
Swiss Consul in New York who wished
him to return to his native land to at
tend to the affairs of his fathers es-
tate.
Aug. 25. This Monday morning our
first two hours of travel were by steamer,
25 miles to Rapperswyl at the head of
Lake Zurich. The whole territory ad-
jacent to the lake is thickly covered
with vineyards, orchards, gardens, and
houses. A little back are dwellings
farther apart and slOping fields of grain
or grass, and still higher pastures of a
rich emerald bounded by the forest or
the sheer mountain wall. At Rappers-
wyl, where we take the train for the
fifty miles to COire, we were joined by
the village school-master who with his
flock began the week with picnic to
Walenstadt, by lake side of the same
name. Here we enter the gorge of the
mountains, the outer vestibule of the
Splugen, the easternmOst of the three
great passes into Italy. The north side
of this lake is bounded by perpendicu-
lar precipices 1900 to 5000 feet in
height, and in full view to the eastward
are seven peaks each seven thousand
feet above the level of the sea. Within
few miles hereabOuts we pass through
dozen or more short tunnels, and get
glimpses of as many castle ruins perch
ed on the high spurs of the rock where
it is difficult to determine where nature
ends and mans work began.
At Sargans, GA miles from Zurich, we
strike the Rhine, but at the next sta
tion, Ragatz, leave both the river and
the railway for visit to one of the
most wonderful natural curiosities of
Switzerland. From Ragatz we ascend
500 feet in three miles along the river
Tamina, by road hewn out of steep
rock and often overarched by it, through
a defile whose sides are so precipitous
that sunlight finds entrance for but five
or six hours daily, and at last come to
a hOtel-half house, half castle-that
completely blocks the way. Entering
the hall, we procure tickets for a franc
each person to the Pfaeffers hot baths.
Hence we are conducted by guide to
a rear door of the house, beyond which
we cross the stream by wooden bridge
and are led one fourth of a mile by a
foot path cut out of the solid rock,
through gorge 80 to so feet wide and
600 feet high, where for most of the way
we can see no sky above us. 1t has
evidently been all worn out by the
rushing stream beneath our feet. the
inclination of the sides of the gorge
ten or fifteen degrees from the perpen-