The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1883-08-05
OUR EUROPEAN LETTER.
A Tourists Paradise Wood.
Carving Tho Jung.rrau-Reai
I.ive Glactcrs-An Unac-
commodatsng Avn.
Innche-Iake
Geneva.
Especial Correspondence OF the Dispatch.l
INTERLACKEN, SWITZERLAND, ]

Especial Correspondence of the Dspatch.l
INTgRLAcKEN, SWITZERLAND
July %. 1883.
This appears to be sort OF tourists
paradise. Hitler they flock from ali parts
Of the world, very large proportion OF
them being English and Americans. Inc
town is small--not over two or three thou-
sand inhabitants--and nearly all the houses
are hotels, the rest being bazaars Tor the
sale OF such things rs travellers are most
likely 10 buy. The Swiss are most ingeni-
Gus wood-carvers. or makers OF what
they call "sculptures in wood; and
this town seems to be sort OF
centre of this industry. We have spent
hour after hour i'm the shops or at the
tempting windows wondering over the
products OF skill and industry that patient
bands have wrought. from elaborate works
Of art down to the tiniest toys and what
nots for the children; and everybody else
seems similarly occupied. Here they
come-trayellers all-in little, odd groups,
armed with shawl-straps and red guide
books, or with satchel and feld-glass
swung over the shoulder, or with queer
hats on, or brandishing huge irop-shod
alpen-stocks and they peer In windows
and set up their Babel of tongues, and the
loads TO swell the mongrel mass. Such Is
life In Interlacken.
TIE GROWING ATTRACTION.
The town Is on small, level plain, with
lake on either side, mountains in front and
rear, and small river In the middle. JOIN
ING the two lakes. But the browning at
traction OF the place is the view which IT
,riyes of the beautiful snow-clad peak OF
Nat1nn
would scarcely believe that much enthusi
asm could come from simply looking at
mountain many miles away, even though il
bore name so prepossessing and though
dazzling white mantle hung gracefully on
lis fair shoulders, and the ever-shilting
clouds. sometimes above and sometimes far
below its summit, seemed ever dallying
with it-now striving to hide it from
the world and now to deck it in their
pallZy drapcry. But so it is; and men
come far TO see it and climb great heights
TO get new views of il. and eagerly buy the
pretty little Swiss oil-paintings in which
the Jung-Frau or the Watterhorn forms
the central background.
But for us Interlacken will suggest rather
the excursion that we made from it yes
terday in carriages up the Valley OF the
Tutschine TO the Grindenwald glaciers.
The trip itself, taking three hours each
way, was delightful enough, as il was made
over splendid road winding beside a
mountain torrent with almost perpendicu-
lar cliffs hemmIng us in on both sides,
through whose gOrges now and then the
higher snow.clad mountains behind would
show theirs heads, while here and there
were Swiss cottages surrounded by their
well-kept patches, with occasional broader
views Of outspread valleys: but the gla-
ciers themselves made us forget everything
else.
REAL LIVE GLACIERS.
| had long wanted TO see some real live
glaciers. They have played such part in
geologic history and are withal so wonder
full that ! wanted TO come face 10 face with
one. This wish have ut length realized.
Miles away it is visible rs dirty-looking
mass OF something squeezed in between
two mountains and filling up the valley,
reaching back out OF sight to the limitleSs
snow-teds beyond, and on these upper
parts looking more like ice, except that the
color is an intense bluish-green. You
only begin to realize their magnitude
thousands of feet i'm breadth and hundreds
IN thickness-as you get nearer (Which you
seem never able to do); then, as you stand
ut it, foot, or walk, as you can do by an
artificial tunnel 200 feet into its interior,
YOU feel dwaried and overwhelmed. Yet,
in almost childish glee, using my knife as
an ice-pick, broke oil pieces from the in
terror, and then, seeking the very end OF
the glacier. irreverently shipped it off and
ate il: and then triumphantly washed my
hands in the ice-cold riyulet that (as usuaD
flows from its base, and went to "study
up" the glacier-markiDGs on the adj Joining
rocks.
AN UNACCOMMODATING AVALANCHE.
On the homeward route | was favored
with another sight / had long wished TO
see: an avalanche, with its peculiar rum-
Die, prCcipitated itself over a projecting
ledge and tumbled down the mountain
side in full view. 1t disappointed me; it
did not roll Standardization. gathering
size as it went, though perhaps it had done
that before | saw il leap down. Ii was
more like sort OF snow stream pouring
itself for two or three minutes down 4
rocky precipice.
But my letter grows too long; let me
simply mention an item or two more. First,
then, we have been on Righi-kulm, the
summit OF the Right, nearly 5000 feet high,
ascending by peculiar railroad; and,
though shsverug with cold on the mid
summer day, and sometimes with the
clouds all about rs well as below us, we
seemed to see all Switzerland at glance.
ABEAUTIFUL SIGHT.
And what q sight Five lakes I counted
without turning the head; and then all the
glorious country between and the NOUN
tains beyond!
We have seen, too, the Giessbach Falls
(seven cascades, in all LOO feet Of falD,
walking over. beside, and under them, and
having them illuminated ut night with ina
gical effect by colored lights.
We have tarried awhile in Bcrne, the
Swiss capital, which Is queer old place,
with its halI-heathenish, semi.worship OF
bears; and in Fribourg, coming in on
"market-day," when the odd-looking pea
SAINTS swarming around would have form
ed a q" study" had we not been more in-
terested IN looking at the dizzy suspension
bridges and In hearing the great organ,
said TO be the Z" sweetest in the world -
Then we saw Lausanne, and climbed
the tower OF its 700 or s00-year-od
Cathedral; and now, as finish this letter,
we are at Ouchy, only 100 yards from the
shore OF Lake Geneva Caesars old Lake
Lcman). No more delightful spot have |
seen than this. Byron and Shelly once
lived here awhile, and near by Gibbon
completed his history; aud IL only the
enyious clouds would rise could see from
my window as write the Castle of Chill
ION, from which some OF our narty have
Just returned, and (onlv think of il y that
Mecca OF mountains, Mount Blanc.
Yours truly, c.. II. w
a Novel Structure.
Two suspension bridges already cross