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Over The Alps

Over The Alps image
Parent Issue
Day
4
Month
December
Year
1863
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Foreign Correspondencyof the Argus. Lntkrlaken, Oct. 3lst, 1S6& I bade the readers of the Akgus good i bye, at the towu of tylartigny, in the valley of the Ehone ; let us shake hands again at Thuu, the guardián city of the ïhuner See. We are here to see Alpine scenery in its greatest grandeur. Let us asoend the well constructed path which extonds up the lofty bilis just behind the Belle Vue Hotel. The Belle Vue possesses not only a charming situation, and is the pioture of retirement amid the English grounds which surround it, but it has also a walk up the hill side behind it, where its guests may ascend and get the graudest view in Swilzerland. Along the walk are placed here and there seats to rest the climber, and now and fhen a pavilion stands in a commanding position, which, shaped antiquely and peoriag out from the forest of trees that clothe the hill-side looks like somo old castle or hermitage in a position impregnable. We pass the English chapel which belongs to the hotel ; we ascend by stairs a steep ascent ; we wind around the edge of the hill betweon arbors of trees ; now resting a moment, we press on, going highei' and higher, until at length we stand in the little round summer house, called the pavilion of St. Jacques. And now what a view is before us ! In the East the whole range of the Bernese Alps bursts upon us. There stand the Jungfrau, the Monch, the Eigher, the ; FiDsteraarhorn, and the Blumlis Alps, upon whose suuimits vegetation never , springs, but the snows of winter ever dweil, How near and distinct they seem ! How contrasted their fornis with the darker and emaller mountains beiore them ! Immensity envelopes them, and grandeur rests upon their summits. From them our eyes wander around the ampitheatre of the Alps, and rest upon the two dark forma of the Niezen and the Schreckhorn, just opposite and quite near to us. No snows tiDge their summits but Nature has spread there the turf and the forest and the rook. Now our eyes turn lower, and wc see the calía waters oí Lake Thun quietly resting within her banks of mouatains. A littlo gem she seems, in the roughest setting. Along her banks are scattered numerous villages, and vineyards without nuinber extend up the gradually ascending mountains. And now we turn in the opposite direction, and we see spread out, like a panorama, the beautiful valley of tbe Aar, abounding ia fertile fields and rural life ; while just beneath us is the towu of Thun, with its white-waslied stone houses, its crooked and narrow streets, and the Aar rushing through its midst. - Within it, on a high hillock, stands its eastle, dating from 1400, older than Anierica's discovery ; but why look upoii the little modern thing, when the eastle of the Alps, as old as the world, and massiveness itself, can be seen ? There too stands its church which man calis ancient ; but what is it in comparison with the grand old cathedral of Nature, the Jungfrau and its attendants ? Look upon one sidc and see the works of man the little city and its houses - then turn to the other and gaze upon the works of Jehovah, the eternal mountains with their rocks and snows. Contrast them. How puerile seems humanity before Divinity ! Could any one ask for a greater variety than is seen here ? - Mountaiu, lake, plain, river, city, country, all are spread before hiin. Here is the grand, the beautiful, and the useful. Here is power, inajesty, and endurance. After having enjoyed this scène for an hour, and feasted upon the richness of Nature, let us descend from the pavilion. Behold ! the little steamer is ready to cross the lake. Let us aboard ! and discover more closely the beauties of the Thuner See. To the Wolrorine, accustoined oecasionally to look upon the great lakes which make Michigan a península, and to fcel their waters toss the vessei like the ocean's waves, the Thuner Soe seems indeed a diminutivo specimen oí the lake species. " Pond" would be a more approiate title, (no insinuation is intendod, Mr. Editor,) since ton miles is its length and about two its breadth. But what it laeks in magnitude it makes up in beauty. Olear are its waters, calin ia its surfaoe, beautiful its position. Somc of the mountains that border it, press near and stand frowning over it, othera are more retiring, and of gentier slope ofifering a place for the cottage or the, villagc. Here an oíd castle keepsguard beside it a Parisian has built for himself a palace where he may retire from the busy and gay lile of the metropolis to "a purer spring." After au hour's puffing our gallant little steamer arrivés at the head of the lake. We diseinbark, and proceed immediately to Interlaken, about two and a half miles distant, with its long list of hotels and pensions, with itsquaint old houses standing side by side with modern structures, with its ineadow where have congregated yearly, from the time ot Berthold, the young men of the cantón, to celébrate the games peculiar to Switzerlaud, with the lofty mountains which surround it upon all sides, with its almost endkss excursions upou land and water, Interlaken offers many attactions to the traveller. And now ia this old town,asthe suu disappears behind the hillsgand Lastens tó the "West, towarás Araerica, my home, carrying with it my thoughts, and tender emotions, let the readers of the Aruus and I part onoe more. We may meet again by the Staubbach or on the Wergern Alp.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus