say? Lord Byron has called it "wonderful and indescribable." It is wonderful, but I must say it rather disappointed us. It is unquestionably a great curiosity; but in respect to beauty not to be compared to the cascade in successive falls, which we had before seen in passing the gorge in our way to Lauterbrunnen. I do not think (though it is a highly poetical figure) that Lord Byron has well described it, by comparing the fall of the Staubbach to "the tail of a white horse streaming in the wind." From the vast height of its sweep over the rock, it is exposed to the air and the wind of the valley, which rush along its sides with great force, the fall which thus meets with so much resistance from the air and the breeze, is blown into atoms of water before it reaches the earth; it becomes therefore so thin, so gauzy, that it literally looks like a thin gauze veil, blowing backwards and forwards, as it hangs suspended from the summit of the precipice. This is the real appearance of the fall of the Staubbach; nor is it one of any great interest. It has not those "lines of foaming light" which Lord Byron describes. The water is too thin, and too much blown about, to foam at all. The figure, however, is quite admissible in poetry; and no one ever felt more deeply the beauties of Switzerland, than did the gifted and unhappy author of "Childe Harold." The scenery which surrounds the Staubbach is its greatest charm, and that nothing can exceed in beauty or in grandeur. Here my nephew joined us; and after enjoying the scene together, he took his leave of us, at the foot of the rock over which fell the cascade, and off he set with his guide for the Wengern Alp. We returned to the carriage, and soon retraced our steps down the valley of Lauterbrunnen, hoping to reach Grindelwald before the day should be completely closed in upon our road to that Alpine station. I remain, my dear Brother, Your most affectionate Sister, LETTER XX. TO J. A. KEMPE, ESQ. F.S. A. The little Alpine Eleanor. The White and Black Lutschine. Combinations of Mountains. Road to Grindelwald. Rock. Precipice and Tor- rent. Geological Appearances. Ascent continued. Sunset. Summit of the Wetterhorn. Singular Appearance through the racters at the Inn. Supper. Early Morn. First Sight of a Glacier. The Eigher and Mettenberg. A second Glacier. Warm Atmosphere. Roses in blow. Proximity to Ice and Snow.. Situation of Grindelwald. The Schreckhorn and Wetterhorn. Genial Air of the Alps.- Effects on Human Life. — Dreadful Accident among the Glaciers. Clergyman killed. -Arrival of the Writer's Nephew. - Account of his Expedition and Adventures in the Wengern Alp.- Proposal to visit the vast Ice Plains among the Mountains of Grindelwald. The Cause of Glaciers. An Avalanche at Grindel wald. - Houses in the Village-curiously in scribed and carved. River crossed. the Glacier. - Return to Grindelwald. My dear Brother, Visit to We found the road so steep in descending the valley, that we fully appreciated the services of a Swiss lad who ran by the side of our carriage all the way down, to be at hand to lock and unlock the wheel repeatedly during the drive. Here we were again beset by beggars. One of them gained from me the last smaller pieces of coin that I had left, by a claim that was irresistible. As she ran by the side of our vehicle, she held up a nosegay of wild flowers. I turned to look at her; when I was so much struck by the resemblance she bore to my niece Eleanor, being about the same age, also, that I took advantage of our driver going a little slower at an ascent, to try to talk with her. Neither of us, however, could make ourselves understood; but that was of no consequence. I heard the soft tones of her voice, saw the same pretty features, the same archness of countenance and sweetness when she smiled, and the same blue loving eyes as in Eleanor. When I gave her a trifle it seemed to rejoice her young heart; and I kept her nosegay, even after it was withered, in memory of the little Alpine Eleanor. We drove as far back on the way we had already traced, as a bridge on the torrent-like river, of soap-sud appearance. That bridge we now crossed; and leaving the White, as it is called, began to ascend the side of the Black Lutschine. Wherefore it should be so named, I cannot conjecture, as it had the same disagreeable colour, whilst its waters ran roaring and tumbling over rocks as before. We had now scenes around us not inferior in sublimity to those we had already passed. Looking back or looking forward, new and innumerable combinations of mountains arose, and the magnificent rocks and precipices of the Wetterhorn appeared before us, the summit of the mountain itself crowned with snow, and the peaks of the Eigher peering beyond them, with indescribable majesty. I shall here copy from my |