platean of the Alps was the scene of frightful and sanguinary contest, that the rich and lovely country between the Albis and the Lake, through which we had just passed, became a prey to successive hordes of licentious soldiery. The views of the town, lake, and distance, from this quarter of the environs are of that kind to which it is difficult if not impossible for even the pencil to do justice. Westopped several times during the first few miles to admire the varied beauties of the surrounding landscape, and to take a last "lingering look behind," at the already receding sublimities of Helvetia. Now travelling in a northerly direction, we observe the mountains no longer bounding the horizon before us; though to our right hand the Alpine chain in the St. Gall and Appenzel cantons and that in the Vor-arlberg still seem to tower into the very skies. The road, like the country we were traversing, undulates in a constant succession of hill and dale. On each side it appears to be a region of productiveness, but not of such loveliness as that which we had previously beheld in the southern extremity of the same canton.* The land is planted in strips, with vines, clover, wheat, potatoes, oats, turnips, hemp-amidst these fruit and forest trees are plentifully interspersed. We observed * The canton of Zurich is the most powerful of the League, after that of Berne. The country produces corn, wine, pasturages, coal, and turf. The inhabitants are not only good cultivators but skilful manufacturers. Their principal fabrics are thick crapes, woollen cloths, calimancos, silk handkerchiefs, ribbands, and muslins. In Zurich they also make gold and silver wire; and are famous for their excellent curing of beef tongues. Sumptuary laws proscribe, to all but travelling strangers, the use of car riages in the interior of the town.-The population of the Canton in 1789 amounted to 175,000. There are now 182,123 inhabitants. also a considerable quantity of poppies which are grown for their oil. Of these districts the soil is in many parts stony.-Women here are employed in the fields more numerously and laboriously than we are accustomed to see them in England. The cottages and other rural buildings are seldom seen constructed simply of timber: but large pebbles are imbedded in their wood, plaster, and white washed fronts; the roofs are tiled. The land-occupiers farm their own; and there is a marked indication of competency and comfort about their houses and premises.-The oxen and cows are of a large and comely breed-horned: the former are used in their teams, as well as the horses, which are also fine animals and well harnessed. Passing through Kloten, we see to the left of us, the little town of Regensperg, picturesquely situated midway up the mountain of that name, whence, from a Beacon, there is a grand view of the Alps.-The small town of Bulach offers in its interior an exception to the general character of the canton for neatness: witness the dunghills in the streets. But outside the north gate is a very good inn. At Eglisau, I gained my first view of the Rhine. That mighty stream, poured forth from its glacier urns in the Grisons, there winds its rapid course through a deep and narrow gorge of hills cultured on one side with vines, and thickly covered on the other with trees. The town, small and pretty, is situated on the right bank of the river, and wears an appearance not a little striking, with its wooden bridge of two arches, covered in, like a long barn, and having eighteen windows on each side. There is an old tower very lofty and massive, close to the bridge, on the left bank, which adds much to the scenic effect. On crossing the Rhine at this point, we enter an arrondissment of territory belonging, as we were told, to the Grand Duke of Baden, In this almost isolated district, is Rafz, a straggling village, with very large gloomy houses: the inhabitants, (who profess the Roman Catholic religion) appeared to us of a poorer class than any we had seen under the Government of Zurich. The bills are low and rounded-the plains extensive-the former clothed with vines or more frequently with woods-the latter, with plentiful crops of the most varied produce. At Jestetten, still in the Grand Duke's domains, we had a German Turnpike to pay. The toll-bar is a piece of timber resembling the mast of a ship, long enough to reach across the road, and weighted at the lower end, which rests on a pivot in a post, close to the toll keeper's habitation. At the other end of the mast a small chain is fastened, which thence runs along a pulley and proceeds through a channel formed under the surface of the road and communicating with the inside of the man's house. When he wants to make the bar descend he pulls the chain to him, and the road is closed against passengers: to open it again he has only to let go the chain, and the weight at the lower end lifts up the pole to a diagonal position. About a league below Schaffhausen, near the village of Lauffen is the famous Cataract of the Rhine. We had plainly heard its rushing noise, like that of a stormy wind, at more than two miles distance.* Leaving our * In calm nights, the bellowing sound of the waters is sometimes heard at the distance of four leagues.-Robert. carriage at the toll-house on the main road, we proceeded on foot to have a close view of it. After crossing some pleasant fields we walked through a wood which was not so thick, but that it occasionally revealed, in their snowy whiteness, the foam and spray of this tremendous cascade. The first view obtained of the Fall in this direction is replete with peculiar features of picturesque grandeur.* But finding the height of our position too great to do justice to it, we descended to the banks of the river by a path which taking us nearly half round, at length brought us opposite the object of our curiosity. We there beheld the Rhine precipitating its whole volume of between three and four hundred feet in breadth, from an elevation of about sixty feet. Different parts of the cataract exhibited different appearances, according to the thousand accidental obstacles opposed to the force of its overwhelming current. I pretend not to describe such a spectacle, and presume still less to dwell on the effect with which it impresses itself on the senses. If such an achievement be within the power of words, it has been performed by the poetry of THOMSON: A copious flood, In one impetuous torrent down the steep It thundering shoots, and shakes the country round. At first a verdant sheet it rushes broad; Then whitening by degrees, as prone it falls A hoary mist, and forms a ceaseless shower. *M. Ebel strongly advises the Tourist not to approach the Fall of the Rhine from the side of Eglisau, recommending in preference that by Andelfingen. With all due deference however to that intelligent writer's The clear sea-green tint of the waters that in eternal agitation chafe the shore on which we stand-the thick mist that, ascending from the basin below, forms au ample field for those reflections and refractions of light which produce rain-bows of beautifully vivid colours—the deep sullen roar that accompanies the fall-the castle of Lauffen crowning the wooded summit of the eastern heights—the gloomy group of buildings composing the village of Neuhausen on the opposite bank-the wild romantic aspect of the immediately surrounding objects, contrasted with the agreeably rural appearance of the more distant landscape-the fantastic shape of foliaged rocks rising from the bed of the river and on the edges of the ridge whence its waves are burled-those waves commencing their descent of an inclined plane studded with huge fraginents of stone, and, as soon as they reach the above-mentioned rocks, throwing themselves in four momentarily divided but quickly reuniting and intermingling masses— the violent collision and enormous pressure of the falling waters, which break and attenuate them to such a degree, that becoming more light and sublimated than atmospheric air, they mount up in cloudy forms of inexhaustible variety-all this, and infinitely more than is thus attempted to be glanced at in the vague and feeble pencilling of a verbal sketch, not only render the scene a most magnificent one, but also impart to it an interest, which, with any one who possesses a mind attuned to Nature's very superior judgment and experience, I venture to express my opinion that the road in question, which we travelled, leads to a favourable and interesting point for a general view; although from the scaffolding called the Fischetz, erected within its very spray, the cataract is unquestionably to be seen in its sublimest aspect. |
