Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/89

Rh the world under snow, is now at last gratified. The road goes up the Reuss, as it dashes down over rocks all the way, and forms everywhere the most beautiful waterfalls. We stood a long while attracted by the singular beauty of one, which, in considerable volume, was dashing over a succession of dark black rocks. Here and there, in the cracks and on the flat ledges, pieces of ice had formed; and the water seemed to be running over a variegated black and white marble. The masses of ice glistened in the sun like veins of crystal, and the water flowed pure and fresh between them.

On the mountains, there are no more tiresome fellow travellers than a train of mules, they have so unequal a pace. With a strange instinct, they always stop awhile at the bottom of a steep ascent, and then dash off at a quick pace up it, to rest again at the top. Very often, too, they will stop at the level spots, which do occur now and then, until they are forced on by the drivers, or by other beasts coming up. And so the foot-passenger, by keeping a steady pace, soon gains upon them, and in the narrow road has to push by them. If you stand still a little while to observe any object, they, in their turn, will pass by you, and you are pestered with the deafening sound of their bells, and hard brushed with their loads, which project to a good distance on each side of them. In this way we at last reached the summit of the mountain, of which you can form some idea by fancying a bald skull surrounded with a crown. Here one finds himself on a perfect flat surrounded with peaks. Far and near the eye meets with nothing but bare and mostly snow-covered peaks and crags.

It is scarcely possible to keep one's self warm, especially as they have here no fuel but brushwood, and of that, too, they are obliged to be very sparing, as they have to fetch it up the mountains, from a distance of at least three leagues; for at the summit, they tell us, scarcely any kind of wood grows. The reverend father