GRINDELWALD is the name of a village of Swit zerland, in the canton of Bern. • It is situated in a rich Al pine valley, at the height of 3150 feet above the level of the sea. The direction of the valley is N. E. and S. \V. and it is encircled with lofty mountains. The Faulhorn, to the north of Grindelwald, is 8020 feet high; the Wet terhorn, to the east, is 11,433 ; the Eiger, to the south, is 12,268. The Schreckhorn, to the south-east, is 12,530 feet; and the Jungfrau, to the S. S. W. is 12,840 lect. The valley is shut up at the north-cast by the Scheideck, which is 6045 feet high.
This valley is one of the most frequented in Switzer land, both from its proximity to Bern, and from the facili ty with which its two glaciers may be visited. These glaciers are parallel to each other, and are each about a league distant from the Inn. The smaller glacier forms an arm of the immense valley of ice which is situated be tween the Schreckhorn, the Viescherhorn, and the two Eigers. In the middle of this glacier there is a rock, al most vertical, on which the snow cannot rest, and which has, therefore, received the name of the warm rock. The surface of the glacier is extremely unequal, and is formed into many splendid pyramids of ice. Near it is a wood of
elder trees, where excellent strawberries may be gathered almost close to the ice.
The great or upper glacier, almost entirely separated from the small one by the rocks of the Schreckhorn, lies between the Mettenberg and the \Vetterhorn. Its an cient limits were farmed by a hill of debris, thirty feet high, and covered with pines of considerable height. In 1720, the glacier extended thus far, but it afterwards re tired, and the space which it left was covered with trees. A new augmentation, however, which it experienced in 1780, destroyed this wood. The torrent which flows from it is the Black Luischinen. In this valley the traveller fre quently hears the thunders of the glaciers, and experiences the violence of the winds which issue front their crevices.
The road from Grindelwald to Meyringen, in the valley of Hasli, by the Scheideck, is extremely interesting. It is only a distance of seven leagues, and may be perform ed on hot seback without any danger. See Ebel's C.7c.