Part 4

With Flüelen, exactly at the head of the lake, we conclude our perambulation of the Vierwaldstättersee. I do not know that this little village has much of particular interest; but a couple of miles beyond it is the small mountain capital of Uri, where Tell is reported in the immortal legend to have shot the apple from off his boy's head, and where his statue still stands in the diminutive market-place. The vale of the Reuss at Altdorf, and indeed as far south as Amsteg, where it is blocked, as it were, by the huge pyramid of the Bristenstock, and where the floor of the valley first begins to rise in earnest towards the far-away _col_ of the St. Gothard, is merely a prolongation of the mountain basin of the Urnersee, with the substitution of flat green pasture for a pavement of crystal lake. Of the Bay of Uri itself I feel that I have said little, yet feel, with some sincerity, that there is little to be said. Its elements, though majestic, are exceedingly downright and simple, whereas those of the rest of the Lake of Lucerne are multiform, subtle, and complex. Whatever be the impression that it effects on the spectator, it is likely to accomplish this at once; it is no finer at the head than at the foot; and all that it has of grandeur (and nothing of the kind in the Alps is grander) is flashed upon us in a moment, in complete and final revelation, when first it comes into vision between the piers at Trieb and Brunnen. It varies, of course, in splendour as the day is bright or dull; but less, I imagine, than the lower reaches of the lake, which depend more for their effect on screens of mountain more remote, and are capable of assuming softer and lovelier colouring exactly because their atmospheric distances are greater. In gloom, or rain, or heat-haze, it is the one division of the lake that will fail to disappoint us, but perhaps it is also the one division that responds less readily to the vivifying influences of sunshine and blue sky. Nor is it really wild, if one may say so without paradox, in the sense in which Ennerdale is wild, or Wastdale Head, or Langstrath, among the familiar fells of Cumberland. The cliffs that drop directly to its eastern shore are indeed tremendous and unapproachable, but above them, as we know, are gentle Alpine pastures that are musical with cow-bells, and meadows that are fragrant with hay and flowers. The tops of distant snow-clad mountains, again, though visible from its waters, are really removed to immense distances, above it and beyond it, and though they ring it round in insuperable barrier, almost belong to another world. Land where you can, or will, and you find your immediate environment scarcely wilder, if wilder at all, than the lower slopes of Pilatus or Rigi. It is only, in fact, in the upland vales of Switzerland--at spots like the Grimsel Hospice, or towards the summits of passes like the Simplon or the Splügen--that the ordinary wanderer, who is not a climber, will realize that _abandon_ of wild and savage sterility that delights him in a hundred glens among the mountains of Scotland or Carnarvonshire, in Glen Sannox, or Glen Sligachan, in Llanberis, or Cwm Llydaw. The Bay of Uri is indeed majestic, and its framework of distant summits is indeed magnificently wild, yet not here, I think, shall we taste with Shelley the strange

"Pleasure of believing what we see Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be."

INDEX

[The principal reference is given first.]

Ahorn, Lukas, 21

Alpnach, Lake of, 41

Altdorf, 61, 40

Axenberg, the, 60

Axenfels, the, 57

Axenstrasse, the, 60

Beckenried, 53

Beromünster, 10

Bettelirüt, the, 49

Bone-houses, 48, 50

Bristenstock, the, 52, 61

Brünig Pass, 50

Brunnen, 57, 52

Bruder Klaus (see Flüe, Nicolas von der)

Buochs, 53, 54

Bürgenstock, the, 42

Capuchin Friars, 32

Carlyle (quoted), 20

"Dance of Death," the, 18

Engelberg, 48, 44

Flüe, Nicolas von der, 46, 45, 49, 50

Flüelen, 61

Flühli, 46

Frackmünd, the, 24

Gersau, 54

Gesler, 37, 38, 40

Gesler's Castle, 37

Gesner, Conrad, 26

Goat-whey cure, 32

Hapsburgh, Dukes of, 54, 55

Hochfluh, the, 54

Hohenzollern, House of, 55

Hohle Gasse, the, 37

Ingrund, Heini, 46

Küsnacht, 36, 40

Küsnacht, Bay of, 34

Leopold, Duke, 53

Lopperberg, the, 42

Lowerz, Lake of, 38

Lucerne, 14-21, 53 Barfüsserkirche, 14 City Walls, 14 Gletscher Garten, 21 Hof-Brücke, 17 Hofkirche, 15, 16 Kapell-Brücke, 17, 18 Lion Monument, 20 Mühlen Brücke, 18 Quays, view from, 8, 21 Rathhaus, 14, 53 St. Peter's Kapel, 17 Spreuerbrücke, 18 Wasserturm, 17

Lucernersee, 53

Meggen, 35

Mountain railways, 33

Mythen, the, 55, 38, 53

Nasen, the, 53

Nidwalden, 44, 47

Nidwalden Aa, the, 44

Oberland, Berner, 42

Obwalden, 44

Obwalden Aa, the, 44

"Our Lady of the Snow," 31

Pilate, Pontius, 23

Pilatus, Mount, 23, 25, 30, 42, 53

Ramstein, Barons of, 54

Reuss, River, 17, 61

Rigi, 27, 23, 32, 38, 53

Rigi Klösterli, 31

Rigi, view from, 32

Rossberg, the, 38

Rotzloch, the, 43

Rumligbach, the, 24

Ruskin (quoted), 8, 37

Rütli, the, 59

Sachseln, 50

St. Gothard Pass, 60, 61

St. Gothard Railway, 57, 60

St. Leodegar, 15, 17, 18

Sarnen, 44, 49

Sarnen, Lake of, 50

Scheuber, Conrad, 49, 51

Schwyz, 38, 56

Schwyz, Canton, 56, 61

Sempach, 12, 10, 41, 53, 55

Sempach, Lake of, 7, 10

Seelisberg, the, 57

Sisikon, 60

Sonnenberg, the, 59

Spannörter, the, 50

Stans, 47, 11, 44, 45, 46, 51

Stans, Convention of, 47

Stanserhorn, the, 42, 47

Stanstad, 43

Sursee, 9

Tell, William, 37, 39, 53, 60

Tellsplatte, the, 60, 38, 39

Thorwaldsen, 21

Ticino, Canton, 60

Titlis, the, 22, 50

Tödi, the, 22

Tomlishorn, 24

Unterwalden, 43, 8, 41, 61

Uri, Bay of, 61, 34, 52, 57, 58

Uri, Canton, 61

Vierwaldstättersee, 5, 9, 34, 35

Vitznau, 53

Von Moos, House of, 54

Weggis, 53, 54

"Weisses Buch," the, 39

Winkelried, Arnold von, 11

Wolfenschiessen, 49

Wordsworth, William, 58

Wordsworth, Dorothy (quoted), 58

Zugersee, the, 38

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BILLING AND SONS, LTD., GUILDFORD

Transcribers' Notes:

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.

Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.

This book does not have a Table of Contents.

Text uses both "Küsnacht" and "Küssnacht"; both retained.

Index not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.

Frontispiece: "FLÜELEN" was printed as "FLUELLEN" and "FLUELEN" but changed here for consistency with all other occurrences of the name.

Page 9: "Vierwaldstättersee" was printed as "Vierwaldstattersee" but changed here for consistency with all other occurrences of the name.

Page 19: "courve" probably is a misspelling for "couvre".

Page 48: "Engelberg" was printed as "Engelburg" but changed here for consistency with all other occurrences of the name.

Index: "Tellsplatte" was printed as "Tellplatte" but changed here for consistency with all other occurrences of that name. "Axenstrasse" was printed as "Axentrasse" but changed here to match the [correct] spelling on page 60. "Lopperberg" was printed as "Loffenberg" but changed here to match the spelling on page 42. "Spreuerbrücke" is printed as two words on page 18.