vator Rosa have been a spectator of that bloody conflict between the French and Austrians in the campaign of 1799, what a subject it would have presented for his pencil!-a scene in consonance with his own wild genius, and worthy his immortal canvass!

mit of the Grimsel. We were en route for the Giesback Falls and Interlachen, and the Hospice was simply one of the termini of a day's walk. The Inn, or Hospice," as it is usually called, is a very rough but strongly built edifice of stone. It was originally intended as a refuge for the traders who pass from Hasli to the Vallais, but it is now greatly frequented by travelers, sometimes to the number of ninety in a single day. Its situation, says Murray, is as dreary as can be

From this spot the road passes through the gloomy tunnel of Unerloch, and emerges into the wide valley of Unseren, which spreads out, green and beautiful, in delightful contrast with the gorge of Schellinen. Traversing this, and pass-conceived. Lying in a rocky hollow about a ing through Andermatt, we soon reached our starting point in this tour of retrospection, the village of L'Hospital, where, if it please you, we will light our segar, and join the group which has gathered at the door of the "Golden Lion."

"We shall have a rough time to-morrow," exclaimed one of my companions, as I approached the party; Anderson has just come down the Furca, and reports the summit of the pass to be covered with snow."

thousand feet below the summit of the Pass, surrounded by soaring peaks and steep precipices. The rocks around are bare and broken, scarcely varied by patches of snow which never melts even in mid-summer, and by strips of grass and moss, upon which the goats eagerly browse. During the winter, the Hospice is tenanted by a single servant, who is provisioned for his period of banishment, and keeps with him two Alpine mastiffs to detect the approach of the occasional traders, who, even at that season, penetrate into the valley. The landscape is worthy of Spitzbergen or Nova Zembla. The Hospice has, upon two occasions, been overwhelmed and crushed by avalanches, and although rebuilt in a very substantial manner, it occupies the same locality and is constantly liable to a like casu

This intelligence was by no means agreeable, for however pleasant it may be for the imaginary tourist who sits in his snug parlor at home, to traverse in fancy these snow covered Passes, and leaning back lazily in his well stuffed chair, dream over the romance of Swiss travel; my experience of the actual, had taught me the wide difference between it and the ideal, and my ex-ality. clamation of impatience testified to the disagreeable nature of the news.

"Yes," said Anderson, "we had several miles of very hard work. The snow is fresh and the tracks are nearly obliterated. How far do you mean to go to-morrow?"

I have now, my good sir, or madam, given you some idea of to-morrow's walk, and, so paved the way for a sketch of "A Day among the Alps," which shall be sufficiently detailed to give you some idea of the troubles and dangers to which the tourist in the magnificent Switzer

To the Hospice of the Grimsel," was the land" is frequently exposed. reply.

"Well, you must make an early start, or you may have to pass the night upon the Mayenwand. We have been since breakfast walking from the Rhone Glacier, and you know that is just about half way, and hard work we had, by the by, to cross the Rhone, for the snows are melting above, and the river fills the valley. Our guide, in jumping from one of the rocks, fell in, and Frank and myself richly earned a medal from the Humane Society for our exertions in getting him

Out."

Well, sufficient for the day is the evil thereof," was the careless answer; "who is for a stroll ?"

The party started up the valley, and while they pursue their walk, I may as well give the reader some idea of the geography of to-morrow's tramp. In order to reach the Hospice of the Grimsel, it was necessary to cross the Pass of the Furca, traverse the Rhone Glacier, ascend the Mayenwand, and toil over the rugged sum

66

The morning of the 23d of June dawned clear, cold and bright, and about the time the sun had thoroughly washed his face in the mists that formed the curtains of his bed chamber, our merry party gathered around a well supplied table in the back parlor of the Lion," and did ample justice to all the delicacies of a Swiss breakfast. We had honey as clear as crystalchamois meat nicely roasted-capital cheese, a little strong both in smell and flavor, but one soon gets used to that-trout fresh from the mountain stream-some very passable «vin ordinaire," and to crown all, voracious appetites. "Our lot" to adopt the phrase of Grinder in the "Curiosity Shop," consisted of five Americans and one Spaniard, as fine a fellow, by the way, as ever sat down to chamois and trout in the village of L'Hospthal. Breakfast despatched, and our flasks filled with cognac, we mustered in the street, buttoned our overcoats up to the chin, and mounted the queer looking beasts, half

Trying-detecting where the surface smiled;
And with deliberate courage sliding down
Where on his sledge the Laplander had turned
With looks aghast."

horse and half mule, which were to take us up, to the summit of the Furca. The first few miles of our route passed along the bank of a quiet little stream, and through the midst of a rich pastoral valley, and we worked off some of our These animals are used to convey packages of extra exhilaration of spirits in races over the merchandise across the mountains, and as these smooth sward. Soon, however, the road began are liable to strike the projecting rocks, which to ascend, and the business of the day commenced rise upon one side of the narrow pathway, they in earnest. Along the face of a steep mountain, have acquired a habit of walking upon the very some 3000 feet high, wound a narrow bridle-edge of the precipice so as to prevent this collipath, scarce wide enough for a single mule.sion; and thus the danger seems magnified to the Upon one side rose the dark rocks, bald and ab-eye of the inexperienced traveler.

In this manner we slowly ascended the Pass. The road was in wretched condition. The mountain side had not long before been swept by an avalanche, and the "debris" which it had started in its progress, had fallen in the path and greatly obstructed it. Another form of danger was to be encountered in crossing the many chasms or gulleys which occurred along the route. These are sometimes one or two hundred feet deep and very wide. During the winter they are filled with snow up to the level of the moun

rupt; on the other, the eye glanced fearfully
down a swift slope of some eight hundred feet to
the far bed of a torrent, which growled through
the ravine below. The soil of the mountain side
was loose and crumbling, and each instant the
stones, displaced by the horses' feet, would go
whirling down into the stream; suggesting to
the mind of the traveler, thus perched in mid
air, highly curious speculations about the velocity
with which he would be apt to accomplish the
descent himself, should an incautious step precip-
itate horse and rider from the uncertain path.tain side.
Although accidents of this sort do not very often
occur, owing to the wonderful sagacity of the
mountain horses, yet it is well to be watchful
and guarded; and one is very apt to lean far
over in his saddle toward the mountain side, and
to sit with his feet loosely in the stirrups, ready
to tumble himself off up-hill, should accident
precipitate his beast down.

As the spring advances the snow slowly melts, the water from above percolates the mass, and winding through, it issues forth at the base of the mountain, and, gradually, the snow beneath the surface is worn away, leaving an arch or bridge of varying thickness spanning the gulf. In crossing these, great caution is necessary. The Guides go before, and sound the snow with their long iron shod poles-the cavalcade then slowly advances-the mules following strictly in the steps of their leader. In crossing one of these frail bridges, just as my horse put out his foot to touch the firm ground, and I was chuckling at having got over so well, his hind legs sank through the yielding mass up to the body, making an angle of inclination very unpleasant to his rider, who speedily tumbled him. self off, and rolled to a respectful distance. Finding that the snow did not seem to yield any more, and that the beast was stuck fast; we went to work and extricated him from his disagreeable position, and the rest of the party found a safer passage higher up the mountain.

The horses which are used for this description of travel, are small, stoutly built, and very rough in appearance. Their sagacity is wonderful, and at every spot of peculiar peril, it is advisable to trust wholly to the instinct of the beast you ride, and laying the reins quietly on his neck, derive consolation in your hour of peril from the prudent manner of his progress. With nose close to the ground-ears laid back-eyes intent upon the path before him, he stretches out his foot and feels every inch of ground, before he ventures upon it with his whole weight. It is a very curious process, independant of the interest which your connection with it forces you to feel, and as you sit loosely in your saddle, ready for a jump, When we reached the summit of the Furca, now eyeing the path before you, and now glancing we found the whole mountain covered with snow. down the steep precipice along whose crumbling The prediction of our friend Anderson was about edge you are skirting; you will find yourself, ifto be realised. The snow was fresh and soft, timid or religious, murmuring a quiet prayer, or if excited by the novelty of the danger and poetic in your memories, you will call to mind the beautiful sketch which Rogers has given of kindred scenes, as the beast on whose sagacity your life depends creeps along;

and the horses sank so deeply and toiled along so painfully, that we were forced to dismount and send them back somewhat earlier than we had intended.

Shouldering our knapsacks, and grasping our alpenstocks, we continued our route, and the next hour and a half brought little to interest either ourselves or the reader. We had snow around us

and beneath us at each step we sank deeply in the soft slush, and as it soon penetrated our boottops, we had to toil on with our feet wet and

half frozen.

of the year with snow, and as the path is tortuous and somewhat dangerous, as you approach the descent of the Grimsel, lofty poles with red streamers are planted at intervals to mark out the path. The great utility of these signal staffs we were about to test. The snow fell so thickly that we could scarcely see one another at a distance of three or four rods, and the cold wind which swept round the rocks and through the clefts of the mountain, forced us to draw our caps over our faces, and struggle on with our heads bent down half frozen and well nigh blinded. To increase our perplexity, we found that the guides were in doubt about the path-the tracks were all filled with snow, and, unable in

Our slow and disagreeable progress at length brought us in view of the great Glacier of the Rhone. This mountain of ice fills the deep gorge between the Furca and the Mayenwand, and from its base far down in the green valley, the turbid waters of the Rhone first start forth on their long journey to the Mediterranean sea. Imagine the floods of Niagara, pouring from the crest of a mountain eight thousand feet above the level of the ocean-the huge waves rushing down a rough descent of a thousand feet at an angle of 45° between two precipitous mountains, whose garni-the height of the storm to find any of the poles, ture of pine and fir stretch down to the very brink of the foaming waters; and then at a moment of wildest commotion, when the curling billows are dashing highest to heaven, and the dense columns of mist rise loftiest from the deep abyss, fancy that, clear above the thunder of the cataract, the chaotic waters heard a voice of power which said to them be still;" and instantly the descending mass hardened into icethe waves arrested in their mid descent flash back the sunlight from shining surfaces of every wild, irregular shape, that fancy can conceive of: the pillars of mist, glittering and sharp, cut the air with their delicate outline, and the roar of the headlong flood, sinks into awful stillness. Fancy this, and you may have some faint idea of the Rhone Glacier.

After a short sojourn at the rude chalet which lies at the base of the mountain, we started up the Mayenwand. The ascent is very rapid, and the rocks are occasionally hard either to get round or get over. Ere we had fairly got under weigh, it began to rain, and, for an half hour, it came down in torrents. This of course greatly retarded our progress, as the path soon became very heavy and slippery. By the time, however, that we reached the snow line, the rain ceased and we were favored with a change of weather. The shower had been a donation from a passing cloud, which was sailing down the valley just over our heads. When we stood upon the broad table land which stretches from the summit of the Mayenwand to the edge of the Grimsel, the heavy clouds which were banked up before us gave token of their kind intentions by an occasional flake of the purest white, which, as we advanced, came faster and thicker, and we were soon in the midst of the severest snow storm which I ever encountered on the Alps.

The tract of land over which we were passing, was very much broken by projecting rocks, steep slopes and gulleys. It is covered at all seasons

they were fairly lost. Our situation was now sufficiently romantic to satisfy the most fastidious. On the summit of a bleak mountain-eight thousand feet in the air-miles of snow before us ere we could attain the sheltering Hospice-a fearful storm raging around us—the path lost, and each onward step fraught with danger. We were truly in a nice "fix."

After consultation, it was agreed that one guide should go upon a voyage of discovery, and the other should remain with the party until the track was found.

As standing still, under the circumstances was about as unpleasant as going ahead was dangerous, I determined to join my good friend « John” with whom I had previously seen some trouble of a similar kind; and trust myself to his skill in the present emergency. With our alpenstocks pushed ahead, we felt our way rather than saw it, and ere long the voices of our comrades died away, and John and I, were left alone in our glory! For about half an hour we pushed along, making all sorts of turns and detours, so that I soon lost all idea of the position of my party as well as my own. I was trotting along just behind the guide, with my head bent down, and my eyes intent upon his heavy boots, as he alternately jerked them up from the deep snow, and thinking to myself whether Swiss travel was indeed as pleasant a thing as it was cracked up to be: when the boots suddenly turned a sharp corner, and, as I raised my head to try and get a glimpse of their owner, bang, came my bump of causality into contact with a projecting rock-a fierce gust swept a snow drift full in my face-my cap went up in the air, and my body went down a steep slope head over heels, some ten feet into a peculiarly soft bed which seemed to have been made up in view of just such a catastrophe.

When I had clambered out of the gully, shaken myself well, and found my cap, I made some remarks to John about the " imminent deadly

load down the wings of the Present; then with each "puff" comes up a fragment of philosophy, and the fire of my segar shines out from its shrine of ashes like a bright star in an unkindly heaven.

The

breach" into which I had tumbled. As no answer { I have great faith in the weed. If I have hard was vouchsafed, I looked about for the boots-study before me, I put a segar in my mouth-if they had vanished-their owner, unconscious of I desire to dash off an article for 'maga," I my accident, which had occurred suddenly and smoke-if I have just parted with a sweet girl without any noise, had quietly plodded ahead, whose bright smiles and gentle words have so and was now entirely out of sight! I tried a charmed the flying hours that the “iron tongue quiet hillo, John!— hold on for me"-no of time" tolls midnight, ere the silver tinkle of answer-then came a succession of «hillos” and {the tea bell has died away in mine ear, I go to "Johns," rising higher and higher in the chro- my quiet room, and the blue smoke of my segar matic scale, until I got too hoarse to bawl, and is as a magic mirror wherein I see how the swift stopped to think. It was high time to think. I was hours flew so unheeded by ?-If I am in trouble in a combination of "fixes." In what Mrs. if a friend has proved false-if evil tongues Malaprop, would call a "parlous" state. What have done me wrong-if the Future looks dark was I to do? Go back? I did not know how-to the eye of despondency, and the cares of life follow John? I could not-the drift which upset me had obliterated the tracks of those blessed boots which were as guiding stars in my hour of trouble-stand still? No, I thank you. It was rather too cold for that. The result of the council was a determination to push ahead at any risk. My position was about as unpleasant as it could well be, so on I went. My progress for some time was exceedingly cautious; the mountain horses could not have been more careful; and I gave out an occasional shout, partly for fun, and partly because, to be honest my dear reader, I was becoming very anxious to hear the sound of a responding voice. Before I had gone very far, the wide field of snow was diversified by something dark which I could not exactly make out until I stood beside it, and I then found myself on the edge of a Lake, not very large but very unpleasant looking. I remembered that I had heard the guides talking of a body of water on the summit of the Pass, which the peasants called the "Lake of the Dead." I cannot say I admired their taste in choosing a name. It had a very disagreable sound to my ear. I turned away from its dark waters and, a few rods farther on, found a large rock which jutted out to some distance, and made a snug little cavern beneath which the snow had not wholly penetrated. Into this, after trying the efficacy of a farewell shout in my very best style, I crept, and stretching myself upon the muddy floor, with the water trickling down from the cracks above, I prepared to make myself as comfortable as possible.

The first thing which prudence and experience suggested, was to slip off my canteen, and take a long pull at the " cognac "

Oh believe me, there is much virtue in a good segar; high intellectual enjoyment in a genuine Havana. It clears the head-it fires the fancy it sooths the spirits-it puts a man in a good humor with himself, and makes him charitable to all the world besides-in fine it is D-1! why John is that you?" was the sudden exclamation which interrupted my reverie, as the figure of a man passed before the entrance of my retreat, and springing out, I saluted with intense satisfaction, the worthy wearer of the boots. The honest fellow had been prevented by the wind from hearing my shouts, and had gone on for some distance without missing me. When I showed him the Lake of the Dead, he was at home again, and leaving me, before long he collected the rest of the party, and in much better spirits we started once more one after another in Indian file, each man's eyes steadily fixed upon the pedal extremities of his leader. In about three quarters of an hour we reached the edge of the descent, and far down in the rocky valley beneath us, lay the Hospice of the Grimsel. The violence of the storm had somewhat abated, and we could just make out the dark mass of the refuge, in whose sheltering walls we so heartily wished ourselves.

But although we could see it, we were by no means in it. Our party was collected upon the crest of a mountain which shelved down with a rapid slope of over a thousand feet to the bed of a stream, which ran between its base and the Hospice. The ordinary descent was by a series of zigzags, which wound gradually and by an easy path into the valley. The large quantity of snow which had recently fallen, however, had filled up the road, and the whole side of the mountain presented a uniform appearance, smooth,

I was thoroughly soaked between snow and rain, and my quarters were rather damp, so I took the creature, medicinally of course. This duty to my health honestly discharged, I composed myself for a little more cogitation, and to that end I took out my tinder box and lighted a segar; for it is a settled principle in my philoso-white and glittering. phy, that smoking is an aid to thinking.

We looked at each other-at the snow,

and at

the Hospice: how were we to reach it? The guides suggested that we must slide down. Now I knew from the experience of my school-days, that sliding was fine fun-most excellent sportI had done a good deal of it in my time, and the swift descent of Pleasant Street," or " Court House" hill, was all well enough; but the idea of a slide of a thousand feet down the face of an abrupt mountain, was another thing altogether. However, the Guide said it was nothing, and as the Hospice was certainly at the bottom, why it was nothing-in comparison.

inches from the end of his nose. In addition to his specs, he carried in the breast pocket of his coat, an opera glass which he used to survey objects at any distance. Hardly had he got fairly under weigh, before he became alarmed at the rapidity of his progress, and I could see him digging his hands and feet into the snow in order to retard it. His efforts were vain, and ere long he was astounded by sudden contact with the ridge which I had struck; and as he bounded up his specs dropped off, the opera glass flew out of his pocket, and he performed the remainder of the descent in a highly curious manner-now with his heels uppermost-now his head, and then rolling over and over, with constantly increasing velocity until he plunged head foremost into the snow bank, as though it were a house of refuge, and I could hear him giving vent to his horror in a series of exclamations in French, broken by gaspings for breath, and pathetic inquiries as to his whereabout, so droll that I rolled over in the snow perfectly convulsed with laughter.

When I turned to comfort him, he had commenced crawling up the mountain on his hands and knees in vain search for opera glass and spectacles, talking energetically to himself all the time.

Knowing that in his blindness he would never succeed in finding his lost treasures, I mounted and recovered them for him.

The rest of the party came down the mountain

The Guide sighted down the hill, chose his starting point, and seated himself just on the edge of the descent. I sat down, drew my mackentosh around me, stuck my legs straight out-fixed my alpenstock under one arm somewhat in a style of a rudder, and nodding a good-bye to the fellows who stood watching the experiment, slid myself over the crest of the mountain. For the first minute or two, I shot ahead pleasantly enough. I got into the spirit of the thing—all idea of danger vanished and romance got the better of reality. As I acquired momentum I flew ahead like an arrow -the speed of a locomotive was nothing to my { progress-like lightning I slid over the smooth snow-when about half way down I saw John { turn partly round, and gesticulate violently toward the left, and I could indistinctly hear him shout something in which the words "a gauche," "a gauche," were alone audible. In the midst of his warning he came into violent contact within a more cautious manner. Standing upright, something beneath the surface, and bouncing up and leaning heavily upon their alpenstocks which into the air, he rolled down the balance of the they trailed behind them, they were able to slide descent like a barrel. Sticking my foot deeply down at a less rapid rate. in the snow, and pressing in my alpenstock, I endeavored to change my direction, but it was too late. In a moment after I struck a ridge of rock which ran across the face of the mountain, and felt myself hurled up into the air. When I recovered, I was rolling head over heels down the mountain, and I soon brought up in a snow bank in which I was half smothered. After shaking myself I found that I had escaped a frightful danger. We had started too far to the right, and in my precipitate descent, I had just grazed the edge of a precipice of some two hundred feet. A foot or two more, and I should have been hurled upon the sharp rocks which jutted up from the rushing waters of the torrent below!

When I recovered from the shock of my perilous descent, I seated myself in the snow, and watched the movements of my companions-my friend the Spaniard, to whom I have before alluded, adopted my mode of transit. He was very near sighted, and without his spectacles which he constantly wore, could scarcely see six

{

The ridge alluded to, however, generally wrecked them, and a series of ground and lofty tumbling wound up the descent.

Altogether it was a scene so fraught with danger, novelty, excitement and fun, that I shall never forget it. Mustering at the foot of the mountain we passed over the Aar by jumping from rock to rock, and entered the welcome Hospice as thoroughly soaked and fagged out with our tramp of about thirty miles, as we could well be. After bathing from head to foot in brandy, and taking an hour's nap between blankets, we gathered about seven in the evening around the dinner table, with excellent appetites and capital spirits, and in discussion of the good things provided for us, soon forgot the perplexities and troubles of our “ Day among the Alps."

Baltimore, Md.

J. M. H.

above article, is a pole of stout wood, surmounted The Alpenstock to which reference is made in the with a chamois horn, and heavily shod with pointed iron-it is of great service in getting over the ice, and is a constant companion of the Swiss pedes

trian.