ed, with pleasure, the hearty salutations of the good people of the place, who were enjoying the repose of a holiday; in knots and clusters, with a simplicity that recalled the fabled innocency of the Golden Age. In two hours we attained the summit of the ridge which separates the heterodox Canton of Berne from the orthodox district of Unterwalden, whose Inhabitants zealously preserve in the bosom of surrounding mountains, the minutest ceremonies of the religion of their Fathers. From this commanding eminence, we had a bird's-eye view of the valley of Hassli, and unwillingly turned our backs upon the fairy scene, studded with cottages, and embroidered with alternate fields and woods, woods, to jump after our Guide, from rock to rock, hewn with laborious perseverance into shapeless steps, to form a practicable descent into the narrow valley of Unterwalden, whose winding course. includes a separate system of religion and policy, for the government of a few hundreds of isolated Mountaineers. Literally descending from the clouds, we landed toward evening upon a little plain, just big enough for a lake and a village; overtopped by rugged mountains, which must in winter almost totally exclude the sun. Next morning we would gladly have procured a conveyance of some kind; but nothing half so good as a Pennsylvania market cart was to be had in the village; village; and we afterward discovered, at our leisure, that the road, or rather path-way, was too steep and stony to admit of any thing better. We arrived however by noon at Alpnach, a straggling village upon the lake of the Four Cantons, the centre of this romantic country, and the scene of many a traditionary tale. Here we took boat twelve miles on our way toward Zurich. About half way, we passed by that arm of the lake over which Lucerne displays its picturesque turrets, and saw the rays of the descending sun irradiate the vapoury clouds which perpetually hover round a stupendous peak of rocks, that rises perpendicularly from the lake. We We regretted missing a sight of the celebrated model of this part of Switzerland, in which General Pfeiffer, a native of Lucerne, has represented with equal accuracy, mountains and lakes, rivers and cataracts, cottages and towns; exhibiting in one view the Cantons of Lucerne, Zug, Berne, Uri, Schweitz, and Unterwalden. But we were now in haste to get back to Zurich, where I was by this time impatiently expected by my Better-Half. Next morning therefore we continued our route on foot, after stopping to contemplate a little chapel, erected on the spot where (according to Tradition-in despite of the silence of History) Tell shot the Tyrant Gessler, and asserted the liberties of his country. Over the entrance are the following quaint but ominous lines. Hier ist Gessler's hochmuth vom Tell erschossen, Wie lang wird aber solche wahren? Noch lang wenn wir die Ælte waren. Arriving at the lake of Zug, surrounded with hanging vineyards, and cultivated fields, we took boat again for the capital of the Canton, and, continuing our walk fifteen miles further, across fields and plains, we again reached Zurich; after having made a circuit of three hundred miles, the greatest part of which had been performed on foot with an advantage of observa-.. tion, richly worth the purchase of fatigue. * Here the proud tyrant Gessler fell, How long t'will last, you ask, and tremble- I |