The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1886-12-18
Correspondence Baltimore County Union.
A FIRST VISIT TO EUROPE.
PAPER No, 7


Kanderstaeg, horseback thence to Schwarenbach
to Wildstrubel, but is obliged to foot the rest
the dangerous precipitousness of the descent pre-
Guiding the use of even the sure-f footed mountain
mule.
The drive to Kanderstaeg is seven hours-by
time they reckon distance in these mountain re-
gions, never by space, and reasonably, five miles
as the crow flies being often necessarily lengthen
ed into twenty as the horse travels-and the road
lies mostly through the valleys-yaleys deep and
narrow, walled by hills high and steep, the whole
lined everywhere with that soft bright green grass
that one sees only in Switzerland. For miles we
face the snow mantled Blumlis Alp, and we silent
ly but rapturousy study the different phases of
her beauty from slightly varying standpoints in
the road-turns, her soft white outlines clearly de-
fined against sky of deep speckless blue. Pres
emily a bend in the road takes her from sight
and we condescend to the contemplation of things
less lofty. We are touched by the evidences of
the hard struggle for existence on the part of the
inhabitants of this region, manifested in the need
to pile their house roofs with stones protection
against the force of the fierce winter winds, in the
necessity to utilize every tiny spot of land even
along the edge of the road, for gardening pur-
poses, in their being driven to the cultivation OF
hay SO far up the steep hllsides, that the mowers
must need to clutch the very earth to prevent be-
ing precipitated into the valley below. Most
pathetic too are the marks of severest physical
dren look old and withered, while the really aged
resemble resuscitated mummies. Each peasant
builds his chalet and upon the front of almost
every house is cut in German some scriptnral
quotation, such as Except the Lord build the
house they labor in vain that build it," &c.
Midway between Spiez and Kanderstaeg, in a
region as wild and strange Prospero's Isle, lies
the "Blane See." We dismount in an apparently
most commonplace woody section, enter descend
ing path, closely bordered with underbrush, walk
some fifty yards, and 10! eare in the play ground
of the Ttans. Great boulders lie loosely about in
strangest positions if thrown in sport by giant
hands; here is one balanced upon another SO that
tip would tilt it seemingly; there, one lies across
two so as to make covered way, and here again
are several piled together in such manner as to
form lovely little grotto and oil softly covered
or lined with natures velvet.
In the centre of this marvellous region lies lake
into which the sky seems to have emptied its blue
Across one end of the bed and seemingly but a
foot or two below the surface of the water, are
number of tall tree trunks, encrusted with svery
looking substance. Silently under the inAu-
| ence Of SPELL we enter boat waiting at the
| bank and are rowed out few feet from shore
We look down over the boats edge and break the
silence by CALCULATIONS over the amazing cearness
| of the water, through which is plainly visible
| every tiny pebble upon the bed below. We reach
down our hands almost in expectation of touching
| bottom. We are informed that the lake at this
| point is sixty feet deep. We naturally in
credulous. The rover takes from his pocket some
white pebbles and throws them overheard. We
| watch them descend, taking on the most wonder
| full iridescence they go. We are convinced
when finally they settle beside their fellows upon
the bed beneath. Rowing further we reach the
| submerged trees and we hold our breath in expec-
tation of hearing the keel CRATE upon them as the
| boat passes them over, but we find that they are
at least twenty feet below the surface; that they
have lain there for ages and that they are petri
fed by the action of the water, which has peculiar
mineral qualities. This romantic lake and sur
| roundings are portion OF the property OF a
wealthy foreigner, who kindly keeps them open to
| visitors the year round.
| We reach Kanderstaeg at about FIVE in the after
noon. We propose to start over the Gemmi at five
next morning. Our landlord informs us that
there is wonderful gorge near, which we can"do"
| in half an hour. We scan the rocky walls all
about US in vain for any evidence of the existence
of such gorge Finally we notice sort of spliced
| break in the perpendicular brown heights, and
walking toward the point we discover a narrow
| and ascending path, bordering one side of a noisy
| torrent We climb through this miniature of the
great st. Gothard gorge, of which it frequently
| and strongly reminds US, till we reach mountain
amphtheatre-a tiny reproduction of the valley
about Andermatt. Here we find that the torrent
has its beginning in quiet little cloudy stream,
formed by melting SHOWS dripping from the sur
rounding heights. Here too we find few stray
hocks of goats, with their unromantic looking
| Shepherds and here and there dismal looking
hut, temporary shelter from the mountain storms.
Next morning we mount up and ever up until
we ride upon the very tops of the hills that shut
| in the little valley at the head of the gorge, and
still must we go higher. Soon we hear innumer-
| able tinklings, growing louder and louder as we
enter another and loftier valley-a valley that
| seems alive with cows. Here they are, then, the
COWS that we missed on the little farms below
| This is their summer pasture ground. Here are
they kept during the cheese-making season, and
in those miserable looking huts, which we see
made the famous Swiss cheeses, the palatal de-
light of the worlds epicures
| A few miles further we come upon the Dead
Sea, fifty named-in the midst of the "Valley OF
Desolation," we called it. Dore should have
| painted the place; he reveled in such subjects.
The sky was heavily clouded as We entered, and
an awful greyness was upon everything. The
lake was sullen body of lead hued water, the
cumulations of melting glaciers, and the surround
ing heights had been barred to ashen nakedness by
tremendous land slides, which had thickly strewu
| with awful boulders the once grass carpeted val
ley. 1t was hard to realize that this was not the
desolation of volcanic fury, the place so strongly
| resembled pictures we had seen of the craters OF
| Mama Loa.
On to Wildstrubel we fastened, hoping against
/
to afford, but the mists gathered thick and fast
and we reached the summit only to find ourselves
surrounded with grey curtain, impenetrabIe to
vision. As we descended, however, occasional
riffs in the curtain gave US enrapturing gimpses
into the sunlighted Rhone Valley so far below US,
that we seemed to be standing up on one planet
and looking off into another.
The descent of the Gemmi is 90 steep and mar
row and so close to preciptous verges to be al
most frightful at times. A portion of the road is
in spiral sudden in its turns as to be but few
feet in diameter and so declivitous that one must
almost slide in going down. Once mules were
used on this perilous way, but certain countess,
dizzied by terror, having fallen from her saddle at
q certain point, to her death, the government has
since forbidden the traversing of this dangerous
| path save on foot.
To stand at the base after the descent and look
up to the heights of Gemmi is almost as ave.
inspiring as to look down therefrom. So regular,
so perpendicular, so smoothly cut are these walls
of rock that they the outer lines of some
colossal fortifcation built by giant masons, for a
giant garrison, and by comparison men and their
structures seem pigmy-like as we come among
them again. NJ. A. G.
Uncertainty of Circumstantial Evidence.