The log cabin Democrat., 1912-10-31
CLAUD NELSON
 IN SWITZERLAND AUTUMN SCENERY GRAND
CON w A Y'S REPRESENTATIVE IN OXFORD WRITES OF RE-
 CENT TRIP.
Oxford, England, Oct. 12, 1912. ox. E,,,

Oxford, England, Oct. 12, 1912.
 Dear Faulkner County Friends:
 Perhaps you, who are so warm in expressing your interest in my expe riences and welfare while abroad, will be patient enough to bear with me a few minutes while 1 give a sketch of my recent trip in Switzerland.
 An uneventful but pleasant journey brought me from Conway, which 1 left September II, to Lucerne on Sep tember 24. I had, however, spent 24 hours in New York and few hours in Paris. In Lucerne 1 met, by ap- pointment, my friend, Mir. Tetlie, of Pembroke College, Oxford, Rhodes scholar from Minnesota. We spent some time in making necessary pur- chases, chief of which were a knap- sack and an iron-pointed cane. Our heavy baggage we sent to Geneva, where we were to finish our tramp; ; our handbags We were able to send by post at low rate-15 pounds for 15 cents-to points two or three days ahead of us. We were thus able to travel without much weight.
 Our actual walk, which continued eight days, began at Meiringen, on the River Aare, went south to Zermatt, then east to Chamonix, but several long or short distances were traversed by boat or rail, that we might have time for excursions on foot in the most interesting regions.
 We saw chiefly, of course, what ev- eryone who goes to Switzerland must see-tne towering o-akS of the Jung frau group, around Interlaken; Monte Rosa, the MatterhOrn and the other giants of Zermatt; and Mont Blanc, the rushing torrents and slender, far descending cascades of the Reichen- bach the blue waters and fr-fringed shores of Lakes Lucerne, Brienz, Thuu, Geneva and Neuchatel; and the valley of the Rhone, unrolling like a ribbon before us from Visp to Mar tigny Of all these, I shall not bore you by speaking in detail, for other travellers have described their gran deur too often and too well, to make the attempt worth while for me.
 But we had some advantages which not every traveller has had, not even everyone who has tramped. For we were there at the end of the tourist season-many of the mountain hotels were closed-and were yet fortunate enough to have excellent weather for
 a week. Coming so late, we found the hill slopes and valleys covered with a richer display of autumn colors than Il had ever seen or even imagined l Anythin more pleasing to the eye than the valley of the Dala from Gemmi Pass (where, 5000 feet above 1 the valley, we had our first view ot
 the peaks south of the Rhone), to the station of Leuk, l cannot think possi- { ble. The red, green, brown, gold, vel
 low, of leaves and grass, blended Tn every indescribable manner of pattern
 and shade, was not enough for Ma ! ture's adornment of this walkers par adise: she must add the magnificent cliffs of Gemmi Pass, which, in their
 markings and colors, very much re l semble pictures of the Grand Canyon i The valley of the Dala has its own canyon, a gorge several hundred feet deep. lined with these same colored cliffs, and seven or eight miles in length. We did this 10-mile walk late 1 in the afternoon, after we had already
 done a considerable climb and descent i but though we were tired, and though
 we had seen the wonderful valley of 1 IGrindelwald and Interlaken, and later
 saw those of the Visp, of Mortigny
 and of Chamonix, this valley of the iDala remains for me the most charm
 ing part of our trip.
 The valley of the Dala for beauty