Jacob Abbott

“ The path led for a time along a very wild and desolate region, which seemed to be bordered on the right, at a distance of two or three miles, by a range of stupendous precipices, surmounted by peaks covered with ice and snow, which presented to the view a spectacle of the most astonishing grandeur. At one point in the path Rollo saw at a distance before him a number of buildings scattered over a green slope of land.
"Ah," said he to the guide, "we are coming to a village."
"No," said the guide. "It is a pasturage. We are too high yet for a village." ”

“ From this place they could see it slowly creeping down the long slope towards another precipice, and where, when it reached the brink, it fell over in another cataract, producing another long peal of thunder, which, being repeated by the echoes of the mountains and rocks around, filled the whole heavens with its rolling reverberations. In this manner the mass of ice and snow went down slope after slope and over precipice after precipice, till at length it made its final plunge into the great chasm at the foot of the mountain and disappeared from view. ”

“ The waters of these brooks—many thousands in all—form a large stream, which flows along on the surface of the ground under the glacier, and comes out at last, in a wild, and roaring, and turbid torrent, from an immense archway in the ice at the lower end, where the glacier terminates among the green fields and blooming flowers of the lower valley.
The glaciers are formed from the avalanches which fall into the upper valleys in cases where the valleys are so deep and narrow and so secluded from the sun that the snows which slide into them cannot melt. ”

“ If you go to the end of the glacier, where it comes out into the lower valley, and look up to the icy cliffs which form the termination of it, and watch there for a few minutes, you soon see masses of ice breaking off from the brink and falling down with a thundering sound to the rocks below. ”

“ Rollo was extremely interested, as he sailed along, in viewing these mountain slopes, exploring the landscape carefully in every part, studying out all the objects of interest which it contained—the forests, the cultivated fields, the great Swiss cottages, the pasturages, the little chalets, the zigzag paths leading up and down, and all the other picturesque and striking characteristics of a Swiss landscape. ”

“ In most other countries, strangers meeting each other on the road pass in silence. Perhaps it is the loneliness and solitude of the country and the sense of danger and awe that the stupendous mountains inspire that incline people to be more pleased when they meet each other in Switzerland, even if they are strangers, than in the more cheerful and smiling regions of France and England.
The guide said something to the girl, but Rollo could not understand what it was, for he spoke, and the answer was returned, in German. ”

“ There were seats along the sides of this hall, with groups of neatly-dressed travellers sitting upon them. Other travellers were walking about, attending to their baggage or making inquiries of the porter or policemen. Others still were standing at the openings of the ticket offices buying their tickets. What chiefly struck Rollo's attention, however, and impressed his mind, was the air of silence, order, and decorum which prevailed and which gave to the station an aspect so different from that of an American station. ”

“ After ascending about an hour more, through a series of very wild and romantic glens, with cottages and curious-looking chalets scattered here and there along the borders of them, wherever the ground was smooth and green enough for cattle to feed, our travellers came, at length, to the summit of the pass, where, in a very pleasant and sheltered spot, surrounded with forest trees, there stood a little inn. ”

“ George and Rollo explored quite a number of them in the course of their travels in Switzerland; and Rollo would have liked to have explored a great many more.
A glacier is a river of ice,—really and truly a river of ice,—sometimes two or three miles wide, and fifteen or twenty miles long, with many branches coming into it. Its bed is a steep valley, commencing far up among the mountains in a region of everlasting ice and snow, and ending in some warm and pleasant valley far below, where the warm sun beats upon the terminus of it and melts the ice away as fast as it comes down. ”

“ I wish to have my mind entirely free, so as to enjoy the walk and the scenery without any care or responsibility whatever."
Sometimes, when fathers or uncles employ boys to do any work, or to assume any charge, they stand by and help them all the time, so that the real labor and responsibility do not come on the boy after all. He gets paid for the work, and he imagines that he does it—his father or his uncle allowing him to imagine so, for the sake of pleasing him. But there was no such child's play as this between Mr. George and Rollo. ”

“ On each side of the glacier, quite near the shore, there is usually found a ridge of rocks and stones extending up and down the glacier for the whole length of it, as if an immense wall formed of blocks of granite of prodigious magnitude had been built by giants to fence the glacier in, and had afterwards been shaken down by an earthquake, so as to leave only a confused and shapeless ridge of rocks and stones. ”

“ There is very little travelling in Switzerland except pleasure travelling. I presume they are all going to see the mountains and the other scenery of the country."
"I should not think that the ladies could climb up the mountains very high," said Rollo.
"Yes," said Mr. George, "they can; for in almost all places where people wish to go there are excellent paths. Where it is too steep for roads the mountaineers make zigzag paths, not only for travellers, but for themselves, in order that they may go up and down to their chalets and pasturages. ”

“ After leaving the chapel the travellers continued their descent, the valley opening before them more and more as they proceeded, until, at length, the village of Lungern came in sight, far below them, at the head of a little lake.
"There!" said Rollo, as soon as the village came in sight. "That is Lungern. That is the place where the carriage road begins."
"I am glad of that," said Mr. George. "A ride in a carriage will be very pleasant after all this scrambling over the mountains—that is, provided you get a good carriage." ”

“ When we get to Lauterbrunnen we shall have to leave our carriage and take horses to go up to the Wengern Alp. The way is by a steep path, formed in zigzags, right up the sides of the mountains."
"How far is it?" asked Rollo.
"I don't know precisely," said Mr. George; "but it is a good many miles. It takes, at any rate, several hours to go up. We can stop at the Wengern Alp as long as we please and look at the Jungfrau and the avalanches, and after that go on down into the valley of Grindelwald on the other side, and so come home." ”

“ George. "It will be so much trouble. We shall have three different arrangements to make for conveyance, in one day."
"No matter for that, uncle George," said Rollo. "I will do all that. Let me be the courier, uncle George, and I'll take you from here to Lucerne without your having the least trouble. I will make all the arrangements, so that you shall have nothing to do. You may read, if you choose, the whole of the way."
"How will you find out what to do?" asked Mr. George.
"O, I'll study the guide book carefully," replied Rollo; "and, besides, I'll inquire of the landlord here." ”

“ George laughed.
"I wish we had brought an umbrella," said Rollo.
"An umbrella would not have done much good," replied Mr. George. "The wind whirls about so much that it would drive the spray upon us whichever way we should turn the umbrella."
"The path goes on a great deal nearer," said Rollo. "Somebody must go there, at any rate, without minding the spray." [Pg 135]
"Perhaps," said Mr. George, "when the wind is in some other quarter, it may blow the spray away, so that people can go nearer the foot of the fall without getting wet. At any rate, it is plain that we cannot go any nearer now." ”

“ These long lines of wall-like ruins may be traced along the borders of the glacier as far as the eye can reach. They lie just on the edge of the ice, and follow all the bends and sinuosities of the shore. It is a mystery how they are formed. ”

“ George laughed. He told Rollo, in English, that he did not think he had any satisfactory answer at hand in respect to the manner in which the American ladies spent their time.
"I pity that poor girl," said Rollo, "hoeing all day on such hard ground. I think the men ought to do such work as that."
"The men have harder work to do," said Mr. George; "climbing the mountains to hunt chamois, or driving the sheep and cows up to the upper pasturages in places where it would be very difficult for women to go." ”

“ From the windows of it there were the most brilliant and charming prospects of the lake and the surrounding mountains on one side, and on the other a view of the town and of two or three very pretty little steamboats lying at a pier.
Behind the hotel the land very soon ascended rapidly, the ascent terminating at last in crags and precipices which towered at a vast height above. Among these heights Rollo saw a sort of pavilion, built on a small projecting point of a hill, four or five hundred feet, perhaps, above the hotel.
"Do you think any body can get up there?" said he to his uncle George. ”

“ George and Rollo went up as easily as they would have gone up stairs.
When the passengers were seated the step ladder was taken away, and a moment afterwards the postilion started the horses forward, and the ponderous vehicle began to move down the archway, the clattering of the horses' hoofs and the lumbering noise of the wheels sounding very loud in consequence of the echoes and reverberations produced by the sides and vaulting of the archway. ”

“ Rollo and his uncle spent half an hour at this hotel. For refreshment they had some very excellent and rich Alpine milk, which they drank from very tall and curiously-shaped tumblers. They also amused themselves in looking at some specimens of carved work, such as models of Swiss cottages—and figures of shepherds, and milkmaids with loads of utensils on their backs—and groups of huntsmen, with dogs leaping up around them—and chamois, or goats, climbing about among the rocks and mountains. Rollo had bought a pretty good supply of such sculptures before ”

“ In a few minutes the boatman was seen coming. He was followed by two rather pretty-looking peasant girls, each bringing an oar on her shoulder. These two girls were the boatman's daughters. They were going with their father in the boat, to help him row.
The boatman took up the trunk, and the girls the other parcels of baggage, and so carried the whole, together with the oars, down to the boat. Rollo followed them, and the whole party immediately embarked. It was a bright and sunny day, though there were some dark and heavy clouds in the western sky. ”

“ About eight o'clock on the morning after our travellers arrived at Interlachen Rollo awoke, and, rising from his bed, he walked to the window and looked out, expecting to find before him a very grand prospect of Alpine scenery; but there was nothing of the kind to be seen.
Before the house was a garden, with a broad gravel walk leading out through it to the road. On each side of this walk were parterres of shrubbery and flowers. There were also two side approaches, wide enough for roads. ”

“ George.
"Because the guide book says there will," replied Rollo. "They always have boats there to take people that come along this road to Lucerne."
"Why do they not go all the way by land?" asked Mr. George.
"Because," said Rollo, "the whole country there is so full of mountains that there is no place for a road."
Just at this time the guide got up from his seat, and seemed ready to set out upon his journey; and so Mr. George and Rollo rose and went on. ”

“ On asking for a further explanation, Rollo learned that the mountaineers were accustomed to drive their herds up the mountains in the summer to places too cold to be inhabited all the year round, and to live there with them in these little huts during the two or three months while the grass was green. The men would bring up their milking pails, their pans, their churns, their cheese presses, and their kettles for cooking, and thus live in a sort of encampment while the grass lasted, and make butter and cheese to carry down the mountain with them when they returned. ”

“ There is a small inn here, built expressly to accommodate travellers who wish to come up and go out upon the glacier.
Although the traveller, when he reaches Montauvert, can look directly down upon the glacier, he cannot descend to it there; for, opposite to the inn, the valley of ice is bordered by cliffs and precipices a thousand feet high. It is necessary to follow along the bank two or three miles among stupendous rocks and under towering precipices, until at length a place is reached where, by dint of much scrambling and a great deal of help from the guide, it is possible to descend. ”