The daily gazette., 1881-08-13
Letter From Europe.
Correspondence of the GAZETTE.

ANTWERP, July 10, 1881.
In our interesting wanderings il
Switzerland we were more than once
tempted to take our pen in hand with
the hope Of giving our home friends,
who have not seen it, 80 ne idea of the
awful be uty, the sublime savagery oi
the widest Alpine scenery through
which We have passed. Both pen and
pencil fail utterly to convey the true
impressions, and nothing short of &C.
tual presence and ones own eyes can
realize these manifestations of nature,
whore nature aims at grand display.
We spent short time at Martigny,
q border town nestled in cosy valley
that opens out to the near theatre Of
some Of the most marvelously wild
scenery in all the Alps. Snow peaks
bound nearly the whole horizon, and
leaping waterfalls, on every side,
spring down from lofty heights, scat
tering their waters into spray and mist
that collect again in the green valley
below and float sluggishly along by
green pastures and ripening fields Of
wheat In the shape of the river Dranse.
Climbing one of the peaks, We be-
hold marshalled in full view, the high.
mountains of Switzerland. Monte
Rosa with her rounded while dome
nearly fifteen thousand feet high, Jura
in her awfal majesty, Mount Velan
and the monarch Mount Blanc In the
distance towering amid the clouds.
All of them, and many others of sec-
ondary magnitude, whose baIed sum-
mits have not been seen by any one of
the present generation, aud some of
them by no mortal eyes.
We follow the river Dranse on its
sleepy course through this fertile val
lev, and to the boundary of stately
mountains that enclose it. Here the
river seems to realize the barriers to it's
progress, and rushes ON with mad vio-
lence, sweeping away earth, trees and
great rocks.
A group Of five mountains called the
DiG6lerets, nearly three thousand feet
higher than Mount Washington, bat
without the broad, substantial bases of
our New Hampshire mountain, stand
directly In the way. The mad river,
with fierce leap, cut into them, work.
ing its way into the very centre Of one
of them until it toppled over and scat
tered it's debris through five or six
miles Of the valley the most awful pile
Of ruins There were fifty chalets on
the mountain side, all inhabited by
unsuspecting shepherds and their fami-
lies who were pasturing their f1ocks
and herds on the sweet mountain
grasses.
Every living soul, ami all the cattle
and sheep were buried so deep that no
effort was made to unearth them. The
falling mountain 90 blocked the valley
that lake six hundred feet deep was
formed and still exists. But the mad
river, unappeased by the sacrifice, is
bent upon the destruction of the other
four mountains Of the group, and one Of
them 10 now abandoned with the daily
expectation that it will fall like its fei-
low. II Is only q question of time when
the whole group will succumb, and the
place Is known by the name of the
"Vestibule Of He'll" and thought to be
haunted by evil spirits.
From almost any part of Switzerland
all the seasons may be seen in q single
view. Summer with its broillng heat
dwells in the valley, unmitigated by
sufficient breeze to STR leaf, and rem
dered endurabls only by the cataracts
that tumble from the snowy heights,
scattering coolness and dampness through
the thirsty valley. Winter with Its un-
melted SHOWS Of centuries, ever holds
dominion on the mountain tops, and icy
rivers or glaciers pour down from the
frozen heights into the green valleys.
These glaciers, when not melted as they
slide down into the warmer air, some
times cover and destroy the little farms
In their way. But they generally melt
away as they settle down and form water
meadows, from which three crops Of hay
are nown In the season.
Between the topmost height and low
est depth are all the varieties of the sea-
sons, and where the mountain sides are
not too steep to cultivate, the peculiar
vegetable growths that characterize them
find their places In their proper zones.
But 1t Is seldom that the mountain
slopes are not too steep and rugged for
cultivation. They are SO precipitous
that we wonder why the chalets that
stick to them do not suddenly let loose
and slip down, or how the sheep and
goats can keep their footing.
On the southern slopes the shepherds
find the best aud sweetest pastures.
Often the northern exposures are COW
cred with snow until after midsummer,
and are barren of grass at all times. The
shepherds takes possession Of his chalet
so soon ss the snow leaves it and drives
up few of the hardest sheep and goats.
These are followed by all the flocks and
herds so soon as the grass 10 sufficiently
grown. Hero shepherd and dogs remain
in charge until the harvest is gathered
on the valley farm when the whole fam
lily or q part OF 1t visit him for their hol-
iday. The shepherd then exchanges
homes with them and goes down into |
the warm valley TO recuperate.
A continued residence In the cold,
rarified air of the mountain brings on |
rheumatism and the dreadful goitre. |
Shepherds rarely attain old age, or even
live past middle age, and when they do
their after life 10 wreck and burden. |
Even the dogs that remain continuously
on the mountain become rheumatic and
crippled In two or three years. The ro-
nance of . shepherds life is but in Its
theory and not in its hard, stern