It  is not all scenery and hotels. The little nation has a prosperous life apart from the tourists who make of its mountains a playground. There is interesting matter to be gleaned from the facts given in the publications of the Swiss Federal Statistical Bureau. The residential population of Switzerland is 3,753,293, and the area […]

THE Swiss as a people often suffer in the judgment of the tourist by failure to live up to their reputation as a ” mountain people “— to a glorious ” Alpine ” character. The dweller by the shores of the sea or by the riverine plains, setting his feet along a mountain path towards […]

It  became the playground of Europe in the early years of the nineteenth century, and as a consequence its hotels began to attract the attention of the rest of the world, or so much of it as was interested in travel for recreation. The Swiss hotelkeepers of that period may be said to have invented […]

While it would not be practical to attempt to mention all Continental hotels, outside of those in Switzerland, which may be regarded as historic, a few of the hostelries which have some sort of historic atmosphere may be considered in this chapter. Although it has been asserted that the Swiss hotelkeeper of the nineteenth century […]

ON Tuesday the 13th I accompanied a party of friends to the Märjelin See, skirted the lake, struck in upon the glacier, and having heard much of the position and the comfort of a new hotel upon the Bel Alp, I resolved to descend the glacier and pay the place a visit. The Valais range […]

ON Friday the 16th of August I rose at 4.30 ; the eastern heaven was hot with the glow of the rising sun, and against it were drawn the mountain outlines. At 5.30 I bade good-bye to the excellent little auberge of the Bel Alp, and went straight down the mountain to Briegg, took the […]

Dun bivouac at Meyringen was le Sauvage, who discharged his duty as a host with credit to himself and with satisfaction to us. Forster (the statesman) arrived, and in the afternoon of the 3rd we walked up the valley, with the view of spending the night at Hof. Between Meyringen and Hof, the vale of […]

Tais Grimsel is a weird region—a monument carved with hieroglyphics more ancient and more grand than those of Nineveh or the Nile. It is a world disinterred by the sun from a sepulchre of ice. All around are evidences of the existence and the might of the glaciers which once held possession of the place. […]

IN July 1865 my excellent friend Hirst and myself visited Glarus, intending, if circumstances favoured us, to climb the Todi. We had, however, some difficulty with the guides, and therefore gave the expedition up. Crossing the Klausen pass to Altdorf, we ascended the Gotthardt Strasse to Wasen, and went thence over the Susten pass to […]

In the summer of 1866 I first went to Engsteln, one of the most charming spots in the Alps. It had at that time a double charm, for the handsome young widow who kept the inn supplemented by her kindness and attention within doors the pleasures extracted from the outer world. A man named Maurer, […]