Upon quitting Altdorf, a town situated at the southern extremity of the lake Lucerne, the traveller proceeds southward to St Gothard, keeping close by the channel of the Reuss. For nine miles alter leaving this city, he passes through a well cultivated valley of consider able breadth, hounded un the east and west by calcareous hills. Afterwards the valley contracts, and takes the name of Sclla:Ilene:1k The road now along the steep sides of the mountains, and the Reuss, confined to a narrower channel, is heard at a considerable dis tance below, forcing its way through the opposing rocks, now presenting a beautitufeascade, and now sul lenly retiring to the shade of firs and pines. The scenery on every side i romantic in the highest degree. On the rigidt and left are In held sheets of water dash ing front rock, to k, and lorming ten or fifteen cas ades before they lose themselves in a forest of pines, whose dark foll.,ge Corms a delightful contrast to their NI bite spray. Ilerc arc seen houses of a particular con struction, placed against the projecting rock, to shelter them from the desolating fury of the avalanches, or huge masses of hardened snow, a hich are constantly rolling down from the impending mountains ; there rough arches of stone, joining two frightful precipices, and large trunks of trees thrown across the Reuss, and the torrents which descend from the mountains. Hitherto the country appears well peopled, and hears some marks of cultivation. The sides of the hills arc occasionally strewed with cottages, and in the lower part of the val ley, where it accidentally widens, thriving hamlets are sometimes discovered on the banks of the river. But upon leaving Wasen, a small village where the travel ler usually passes the night, the scene suddenly changes ; the trees become thinner at every step, the rocks are bare and craggy, and no human habitation, scarce, a blade of grass, is to be seen. Nothing is now found to relieve the eye but the incessant dashing of the cascades from the impending heights. While contemplating these inferior exhibitions of wild nature, the attention of the traveller is suddenly roused by the distant murmur ing of cataracts ; and upon advancing nearer, he per ceives before him an immense cloud of spray. But be fore he can discover the secret cause of all this uproar, Ire finds himself placed on a bridge of a single arch, thrown across a deep and narrow chasm, where he be holds the Reuss forcing its way with resistless fury, fal ling from rock to rock, and dragging along with it huge masses of granite, which it had undermined in its impetuous course. After passing this bridge, usu ally called Tezifees Brack, or the Devil's Bridge, the traveller is unexpectedly introduced into a subterra nean gallery above 200 feet in length. This passage has lately been cut through the solid rock, in order to prevent the afflicting accidents which were daily occur ring on the old road, when it run along the face of the precipices which overhang the bed of the Reuss. Here all is silence and darkness, except where a ray of light breaks through the opening- rock, thus forming a re markable contrast to the violence and uproar of the last scene.
But scarcely has the traveller time to reflect upon the change of situation, when the curtain again rises, presenting before him an open plain clothed with 1-er dure ; and the river, ix hich was recently all foam and agitation, now flowing silently in its channel, and roll ing its limpid waters through rich meadows and cul tivated fields. This valley, which takes the name of 1.:rseren, is about six leagues in length, and picturesque in the highest degree. The lower part presents a plain
of au oval form, divided into small pasturages. On the right and left are naked mountains thinly covered with verdure. In the back ground, towards the south, ap pear the mountains of St Gothard, rising in gloomy greatness. The edge of the stream is fringed with bushes, among, which, at considerable intervals, a tall willow is seen to rise. Here and there ate found scat tered cottages of wood, or a solitary shed on the brow of the hill. On tut left is the village of Indremat, and in the bottom or the valley, farther to the south, that of Hopital, situated on the ridge of a ruck, at the junction of the little Reuss, a small stream which descends from the l'urca. Near this last village, the cross roads from the Vallais and Grisons join the high road to Italy by the pass of St Gotlrard.
The traveller now turns to the left, after which, the ascent of St Gothard properly begins. The path be comes steep and rugged, winding- through a narrow valley, bounded on the right and left by bare mountains, whose craggy summits, and projecting cliffs, threaten every moment to fall, and bury the traveller in their ruins. As he ascends, the valley gradually closes be fore him, leaving scarcely an opening fur the road ; and the channel of the Reuss, now a rapid torrent, descends on his left with tumultuous uproar, darting from rock, to rock, or forcing its way between huge fragments of granite which occasionally interrupt its passage. The whole of the valley, indeed, is strewed with these frag ments of rocks from the neighbouring heights, sonic of which are of a remarkable size. At a particular spot, says Bourrit, (tom. ii. p. 54.) where the road passes over the face of a rock, by steps cut in the form of a stair, an immense block of granite 80 feet in height, and some thousand feet in front, is seen overhanging the bed of the torrent. After about an hour's climbing, the traveller perceives his horizon gradually opening, and is surprised to find himself at the entrance of a circular plain, three miles in diameter, surrounded on all sides with lofty mountains, whose rugged tops are continually covered with snow. This circular group of mountains takes the general name of St Gothard, while some of the more prominent of them have received distinct ap pellations, such as the Salla, Prosa, and Surechia, on the east ; the Feudo, Petina, and Locendro, on the west ; the Ursino on the north ; and the rocks of Val. Alaggia on the south. On the right, at the foot of Mount Petina, one of the highest of these mountains, is situated a lake of considerable extent, from which the Reuss obtains its first supplies. Upon advancing farther into the plain, the traveller discovers, at a small distance be fore him, the house of the Capuchin friars, situated be yond some other lakes of small extent, which furnish the first streams of the Tesino. Adjoining to the house of the friars is a small inn, where the traveller is some times obliged to pass the night, and in the morning be gins to descend into Italy. But instead of pursuing this route, we shall again descend into the delightful valley of Urseren, and proceed westward by the mountains on the north of the Vallais, commonly called the Helvetian Alps, of which the more prominent are- the Furca, the Grimsel, the Schreck-horn, the Eiger, the Jungfrau horn, and the Gemini.
The road to the Vallais, we have already observed, leaves the vale of Urseren at the village of Hopital ; and from this place proceeds in a_westerly direction over the south brow of the Furea. This mountain lies N.