the Vallais and of Uri, there is a beautiful view of the Bernese Chain, the Finster-Aar-Horn being pre-eminent among its peaks. The top of the Furca is never altogether free from snow: there is no plain or level surface on it. The descent commences, as soon as the crest is crossed, into the valley of the Sidli Alp, which is covered with pastures, but monotonous and uninteresting in its scenery and destitute of trees. The traveller must pick his way as he best may among a multitude of deep ruts, cut by the feet of mules and cattle. Except a few scattered chalets, no human habitation occurs between the Chalet of the Rhone Glacier and the small hamlet of Realp, where refreshments may be obtained from the Capuchin monks, who have a small chapel and convent of ease here, in which they receive strangers. It is about 4 miles from hence to Hospenthal, on the St. Gotthard (Route 34). ROUTE 31. : PASS OF THE SURENEN, FROM STANZSTADT, AND BUOCHS, TO ALTDORF, BY THE CONVENT OF ENGELBERG AND THE BASE OF THE TITLIS. 13 3/4 stunden = 45 Eng. miles. There is a good char-road as far as Engelberg ; thence to Altdorf, across the pass, a very difficult foot-path. Stanzstadt, the landing-place for those coming from Lucerne, is a small village on the margin of the lake immediately opposite Winkel (p. 79), under the Rotzberg, whose ruined castle is an historical monument (see p. 79). Stanzstadt is distinguished by its tall watch-towers, 5 centuries old. In 1315 a little before the battle of Morgarten, a vessel laden with Austrian partisans was crushed and swamped by a millstone hurled from the top of this tower. An avenue of walnutreess leads, in 2 miles, to Stanz. Travellers coming from Brunnen, or from the E. end of the lake of Lucerne, land at Buochs, a village at the foot of the Buochser-Horn. It has no good inn, but can furnish chars or horses. Like Stanzstadt, it was destroyed by the French in 1798. It is 3 miles from Stanz. Inns: Krone (Crown); Engel (Angel). Capital of the lower division (Nidwalden) of Canton Unterwalden, contains 1200 inhabitants. It was in the Rathhaus of Stanz that the venerable Swiss worthy Nicolas Von der Flue appeased the burning dissensions of the confederates in 1481, by his wise and soothing councils. In the existing building there is a picture (? daub) representing him taking leave of his family. In the market-place is a statue of Arnold of Winkelried, a native of Stanz (see page 18), with the "sheaf of spears" in his arms. His house is also shown here, but it seems modern, or at least is modernized. The field on which it stands is called in old records "the meadow of Winkelried's children." Ont he outer walls of the bone-house, attached to the handsome Parish-Church, is a tablet to the memory of the unfortunate people of Nidwalden (386 in number, including 102 women and 25 children) who were massacred in defending their homes by the French in September, 1798. In that year this division of the canton was the only part of Switzerland which refused the new constitution, tyrannically imposed on it by the French republic. The ancient spirit of Swiss independence, fanned and excited by the exhortations of the priests (which in this instance must be termed fanatic, -as all resistance was hopeless and useless), stirred up this ill-fated community to engage an army ten times greater than any force they could oppose to it, and consisting of veteran troops. At a time when the larger and more powerful cantons had yielded, almost without a struggle, the brave but misguided men of Unterwalden and Schwytz afforded the solitary proof that Swiss bravery and love of freedom was not extinct in the land of Tell. Their desperate resistance, however, served only to inflame the fury of their foes. After a vain attempt made by the French to starve the Unterwaldeners into submission, "on the 3rd of September, 1798, General Schauenberg, the French commander, directed a general attack to be made, by means of boats, from Lucerne, as well as by the Oberland. Repulsed with great spirit by the inhabitants, only 2000 strong, the attack was renewed every day from the 3rd to the 9th of September. On this last day, towards two in the afternoon, new reinforcements having penetrated by the land-side, with field-pieces, the invaders forced their way into the very heart of the country. In their despair the people rushed on them with very inferior arms. Whole families perished together; no quarter was given on either side. Eighteen young women were found among the dead, side by side, with their fathers and brothers, near the chapel of Winkelried. Sixty-three persons, who had taken shelter in the church of Stanz, were slaughtered there, with the priest at the altar. Every house in the open country, in all 600, was burnt down; Stanz itself excepted, which was saved by the humanity of a chef de brigade. The inhabitants who survived this day, wandering in the mountains without the means of subsistence, would have died during the ensuing winter, if they had not received timely assistance from the other cantons, from Germany and England, and from the French army itself, after its first fury was abated." Simond. The attack upon Stanztad was conducted by the celebrated General Foy, afterwards so prominent a leader of the liberal party in France. That unfortunate village was totally consumed. The distance from Stanz to Engelberg is about 13 miles. The road follows the course of the Aa upwards, gradually ascending, and passing Wolfenschiess with its ruined castle, and Grafenort, where there is a small inn. Beyond this the valley contracts. The road is carried up a steep ascent nearly 6 miles long, traversing thick woods amidst scenery of the highest sublimity. In the midst of it, in the depth of the valley lies the village and Abbey of Engelberg-Inns: Engel; Rössli. - 3220 feet above the sea. It is hemmed in on all sides by lofty mountains topped with snow, and based by precipices, from which, in winter time, and in spring, numerous avalanches are precipitated. At their base, upon a verdant slope, contrasting agreeably with rock and snow, the Benedictine Abbey rises conspicuous among the ordinary habitations of the village. It was founded in 1120, and received from Pope Calixtus II. the name of Mons Angelorum, from a tradition that the site of the building was fixed by angels "Whose authentic lay, Sung from that heavenly ground, in middle air, Wordsworth. Having been three times destroyed by fire, the existing edifice is not older than the middle of the last century. "The architecture is unimpressive, but the situation is worthy of the honours which the imagination of the mountaineers has conferred upon it." The convent is independent of any bishop or sovereign but the Pope himself, or his legate: its revenues, once more considerable, were seriously diminished by the French, but it still possesses valuable alpine pastures, and the cheeses produced on them are stored in an adjacent warehouse. It contains, at present, only 19 brothers: it has a large Church and a Library of some value; the roof of the apartment in which it is placed has been cracked by an earthquake. Travellers are received and entertained in the convent-those of the poorer classes gratuitously. The Titlis, the chief of the mountains which overhang this romantic solitude, rises on the S. of the convent to a height of 7530 ft. above the valley, and 10,570 ft. above the sea-level. Its principal peak, the Nollen, composed of limestone, is said to be visible (?) from Strasburg: it is frequently ascended, and without danger. It is covered with glaciers, 175 feet thick, from which numerous avalanches fall, in spring, with a roar like thunder. The difficult pass of the Jöchli (6714 ft.) leads directly from Engelberg, W., into the Melchthal. From Engelberg to Altdorf, by the Pass of the Surenen, is a fatiguing journey of 9 hours, about 29 miles. The footpath reaches, after about 3 miles, the dairy belonging to the convent, called Herrenrüti, where good cheese is made: 50 cows are attached to it; the pastures are refreshed by more than 20 springs rising upon them. From the steep sides of the Hahnenberg, on the N. E., a beautiful water-fall bursts. forth, called Dätschbach. The path now winds round the base of a projecting mountain, beyond which the valley makes a bend in a N. E. direction, and, following the course of the Aa for about 6 miles, crosses it, and then turns nearly due E. The Stierenbach, the principal feeder of that stream, is now seen descending in a pretty cascade into the deep abyss. Half an hour's walk below the summit stand a few chalets, and beyond them the traveller has to make his way across a field of perpetual snow, to the summit of the pass, or Sureneck, a narrow ridge not more than 5 ft. wide, between the Blakenstock on the 1. and the Schlossberg on the rt., 7220 ft. above the sea. During the greater part of the ascent the Titlis shines forth an object of the greatest magnificence, and a long line of peaks and glaciers extend from it uninterruptedly to the Surenen. Another view now opens out on the opposite side into the valleys of Maderan and Schächen, and is bounded in the extreme distance by the snowy top of the Glärnish in Canton Glarus. On the side of the Surenen, lying within the limits of Canton Uri, the surface of snow to bel crossed is greater, and the descent is steeper, Traversing the snow, and a desolate tract covered with broken rocks beyond, the chalets of Waldnacht are passed; and then, by the frightful gorge of Boghy, the path is conducted into the valley of the Reuss, forking off on the rt. to Erstfeld, for those who wish to ascend the St. Gotthard-and on the l. to Attinghausen, for those who are bound to Altdorf. In 1799, a division of the French army, under Lecourbe, crossed this pass with cannon to attack the Austrians in the valley of the Reuss, but were soon driven back the same way by the impetuous descent of Suwarrow from the St. Gott hard. Altdorf. (See Route 34, p. 131.) ROUTE 32. PASS OF THE SUSTEN, FROM MEYRINGEN TO WASEN. 12 stunden 39 1/4 English miles. In 1811, when the Vallais was added by Napoleon to the French empire, a char-road was constructed from Meyringen to Stein, and on the side of Canton Uri from Wasen to Ferningen, to enable the inhabitants of Canton Bern to convey their produce into Italy through the Swiss territory; but now that circumstances are altered, it has fallen out of repair in many places, and can only be regarded as a bridle-path. The word Sust means toll or custom-house, whence the name. The route of the Grimsel is followed from Meyringen as far as Im-Hof (p. 116), where, quitting the side of the Aar, the path follows the course of the Gadmen, ascending the valley called, at its lower extremity, Muhli-thal, higher up Nesselthal; and beyond the village of 4 1/4 Gadmen, Gadmenthal. This village contains 550 inhabitants. The inn, a very sorry one, is at Obermatt, 3/4 of a mile higher up. The char-road was not carried further than the chalets of Stein, and a portion of it was destroyed a few years ago by the sudden advance of the glacier of Stein, which was originally a mile distant from it, descending from a valley on the S. The appearance of the glacier is remarkable, as it assumes a fan shape at its termination. A steep ascent of 1 3/4 hour brings the traveller to the top of the Susten Pass, 6980 feet above the level of the Mediterranean. The view is very fine; the serrated ridges and the manypointed peaks of the mountains bounding the Mayenthal, through which the descent lies, especially arrest the attention. There is always some snow on the east declivity of the pass. The first chalets are met with on the Hundsalp. The'stream is crossed several times, until at the Hauserbrücke, a considerable distance below Ferningen, the unfinished char-road again commences. Lower down is the village of Meyen. Most of the houses of this valley, which numbers but 400 inhabitants, are protected from the descending avalanches by a stone dyke, or well-propped palisade of wood raised on the hill side behind them, to turn away the falling snow from their roofs. Near the junction of the valleys of the Mayen and the Reuss are shattered remains of an hexagonal redoubt (schanze), which was fortified by the Austrians in 1799, and stormed and taken from them by the French, under Loison, who forced the enemy back up the vale of the Reuss, and, after five assaults, made himself master of Wasen, an important point. A very steep and rough road leads |