Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/115

Rh ladies, on foot, on horseback, or in chairs. And these processions, with the long Alpine staffs of pedestrians, and the fluttering dresses and vails of the ladies, look very picturesque, but are not so agreeable to meet when the road happens to be fearfully narrow. Notwithstanding my confidence in the skill of my bearers, I sometimes grow dizzy when they suddenly swing round the point of a cliff, on the edge of the precipice where the Aar rages below.

The weather which was so beautiful in the forenoon, became in the afternoon, windy, and cold; clouds gathered on the heights, and rain began to fall; whilst the surrounding scenery grew increasingly savage and stern. Human dwellings were no longer to be seen; there was no cultivated spot of earth; nay, indeed, there was scarcely any earth at all. A kind of dwarf pine stretched its ugly shapeless branches out of the stony ground. It seemed to me like a cry for help from vegetation. The rhododendron, nevertheless, grows abundantly by the rocky streams, but the season of its flowering was over. A delicate and beautiful fern, and some small yellow and white flowers, still accompany us. But the wind is colder and colder, and, I know not why, but the heart grows heavier and heavier, amid these surroundings, which bring to mind all that is most depressing in human life. And this stony desert has also its gloomy story of humanity.

We reach the place were the old Grimsel Inn used to stand, which was burned down a year ago, as was believed by accident, but as has since been discovered intentionally to conceal a terrible murder committed