St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1899-03-08
The Swiss Mountains.

The admirable collection photographs
OF the snowy ranges of the Swiss Alps,
now to be seen at the Athen9um, de
serves more than a passing notice. To
people fond OF mountain scenery the
pictures are OF absorbing interest. To
see and study them is second only to
seeing the mountains themselves. One
indeed may say that these pictures afford
an unrivalled opportunity to impress
upon the mind the relation to one
another of the towering peaks OF three
great groups of Swiss mountains, the
Bernese Overland, the Mt. Blanc range,
and the mass OF mountains OF which the
Matterhorn is the most famous, and
singuarly beautiful. The panorama OF
the snowy range of which. Mt. Blanc is
the monarch, is from point about five
miles northeast, as the bird flies, from
the famous Hospice OF st. Bernard. The
outlook includes, from southwest to
northwest, the vast masses of Mont
Blanc and the peaks northward, until
the Dent-du- Midi so conspicuous from
portions of Lake Geneva, greets the eye.
In the middle ground we look down
upon the valley which forms the northern
approach to the famous pass OF the
Great St. Bernard. This, it will be
remembered, for thousands Of years has
been great route for armies. Almost
at our feet, Napoleon in 1900 found in
his passage OF the Alps, his greatest
difficulties. To the northwest, down the
Rhone valley, beyond Martigny and st.
Maurice, in the vague mist, beyond the
northern flank of the Dent Midi we see
the dim outlines of the head Of Lake
Geneva.
The reverse Of this picture is offered us
from a point near the Glacier D'Orny at
the northern end of the Mont Blanc
range. From this point we look east
ward to the splendid Grand Combin and
Mont Velan just back OF the Hospice of
st. Bernard. To the southeast the iso-
lated peaks of the Gran Paradise and the
Grivola are the conspicuous features of
the Graian Alps south of Aosta.
To many travellers the most interesting
| group OF high Alps is that of which
Monte Rosa is the highest, and the
| Matterhorn the most noted. For these
peaks and their glaciers the village of
Zermatt is a convenient center of explora
ton. An irregular curve, not unlike that
of the horseshoe with the opening to the
northward, marks the outline OF this
group of which we may easily count
nearly score of prominent peaks.
In the collection at the Athen9um the
panorama from the Breithorn is Of
especial interest. We look northwards
down the Visp valley, to the mountains
of the Bernese Overland. The great
masses of the Mischabel and the Weiss
horn, to the east and west of the valley,
and the connecting series of gigantic
peaks on either hand around to our base
on the Breithorn, form perhaps the most
interesting group of high peaks in all
Europe. 1t shares with the Oberland
and the Mont Blanc range in the annual
pilgrimage OF thousands and thousands
OF delighted visitors. From the Mscha-
bel there is in this collection an interest
ing outlook upon the Overland, in which
we can see the sinuous body of the
Aletsch Glacier, the largest of Alpine
glaciers, fanked by the Finsterarrhorn
and the Aletschhorn, monarchs of the
Overland. At the farther base OF the
near by Fletschhorn is the Simplon Pass
and on the far edge OF the Overland the
dome of the peerless Jungfrau
S. o. TODD.