frayed by a joint-stock company, formed in Uri and the neighbouring cantons. The construction of the road was intrusted to an engineer of Altorf, named Müller. The poverty-stricken canton of Uri had scraped together, with great difficulty, funds sufficient to execute her portion of the undertaking, but a storm, such as had not been known in the memory of man, bursting on the summit of the pass, in August 1834, in the course of a few hours swept away nearly one-third of the road, together with bridges and terraces without number, which had been constructed with so much labour, cost, and difficulty. A similar tempest in 1839, effected nearly equal destruction. Considering the previous drain upon the resources of the canton, it is surprising how soon the mischief was repaired. At present the road is excellent, not inferior in its construction to any other of the great Alpine highways, and certainly not surpassed by any in the interest and grandeur of its scenery. The parts of the road, however, which pass over the mountains are not well fenced, and that between Airolo and Faido is by no means in good repair (1841). The journey between the lake of Lucerne and the Lago Maggiore may be performed in 1 or 2 days. The passage is usually free from snow for 4 or 5 months of the year; but in the depth of winter carriages are safely transported across on open sledges, except immediately after a snow storm, when the road is sometimes blocked up for a week. The canton of Uri and the valley of the Reuss possess an historical celebrity, as the theatre of the memorable campaign of 1799, when the armies of the three nations of France, Austria, and Russia, dispossessing each other in turns, marched, fought, and manœuvred, on heights where the snow never melts, and which were previously deemed accessible only to 101 In an en goatherds and hunters. In the month of June, in the above-named year, the Austrians, aided by the natives of Uri, had expelled the French from the valley. Satisfied with the possession of it, they passed nearly 2 months in entire inactivity, when, by a combined movement, planned by Massena, they were attacked at all points by French corps, poured in upon them from the lake of Lucerne, which was crossed by a flotilla of boats, and from every western passage leading over the Alps and into the valley of the Reuss. Lecourbe crossed the Surenen, Loison the Susten, and Gudin, with a large force, fought his way over the Grimsel and Furca, threatening the Austrians in front, in flank, and in the rear. gagement which took place on the 14th of Angust, and which lasted 5 hours, they were driven step by step up the valley, as far as Andermatt. On the two following days the French pursued them out of the valley of the Reuss into the Grisons by the Oberalp, where a bloody encounter took place. A little more than a month after this, intelligence was brought to Lecourbe, the French commander, that another large army had appeared at the S. foot of the St. Gothard. While still at a loss to imagine to what European power it might belong, fresh tidings announced that it was the veteran Suwarrow, who, at the head of a Russian army of 18,000 foot and 5000 Cossack horse, had broken up from his encampment in the plains of Lombardy, and he soon forced the passage of the St. Gothard. The French retired slowly but steadily before him as far as the lake of Lucerne, where Lecourbe, after removing all the boats from Fluellen, entrenched himself in a strong position at Seedorf, on the 1. bank of the Reuss. Suwarrow, whose object was to unite himself with the Russian army before Zurich, of the defeat of which by Massena he 102 Fluellen Route 34. had not yet heard, here found himself without the means of transporting his army, threatened on all sides by enemies. He took little time to consider, but immediately planned and executed his wonderful and almost incredible retreat over the Kinzig Culm and into the valley of Muotta; and though constantly annoyed by the French in his rear, finally conducted his army into the valley of the Rhine, with a loss of 3000 men, of whom more perished from cold, fatigue, and hunger, than from the enemies' bullets. (See Routes 72, 75, and 76.) Fluellen (in Italian Fiora)-(Inn: Croix Blanche; "inferior accommodation and dear. As there is no road from hence to Lucerne, travellers are dependent on the steamers, of which no doubt the innkeepers take advantage." De S.)- Fluellen, the port of the Canton Uri, at the S. extremity of the lake of the Four Cantons, is a small village in a most unhealthy situation, as is proved by the pale faces, crippled limbs, and goitred necks of its inhabitants; and by the number of cretins among them. The malaria, from the marshy ground, produced by the deposits of the Reuss at its entrance into the lake, is the cause of this. The plan of continuing the road along the margin of the lake to Brunnen has been proposed; but in Switzerland such projects are talked of very long before they are put into execution. A steamer touches here daily from Lucerne, and returns after a short stay; it takes carriages. Fluellen is a bad landing-place with a N. wind. (Route 18, p. 54.) Chars are let for hire to convey travellers along the St. Gothard road. About 2 miles off lies. Altdorf-(Inns: Adler, Eagle; Löwe, Lion; Clef d'Or)-the capital of the canton of Uri, the poorest and least populous in the confederation, numbering altogether only 13,000 souls, is a dull lifeless village of 1664 inhabitants, without trade or manufactures, If and still exhibiting signs of the conflagration of 1799, which reduced the larger part of it to ashes. Its only claim to interest the traveller is its connexion with William Tell. credit is to be given to tradition, it was on the open square in the centre of Altdorf that he shot the apple from off his son's head. The place where he stood to take aim is marked by a stone fountain, surmounted with statues of the dauntless cross-bowman and his child. The lime-tree, upon which Gessler's cap was stuck, for all men to do obeisance to it as they passed, and to which the child was bound, to serve as a mark for his father's bolt, existed a withered trunk, down to 1567, when it was cut down and replaced by the other fountain. The tall Tower, ornamented with rude frescoes, representing Tell and Gessler, has been stated erroneously by some writers to occupy the site of the lime tree; but it is proved by records still in existence, to have been built before the time of Tell. On quitting Altdorf the road crosses the mouth of the vale of Schachen, traversing, by a bridge, the stream in which, according to tradition, William Tell lost his life (1350) in endeavouring to rescue a child from its waters swollen by an inundation. He was a native of the Schachenthal, having been born in the village of Bürglen, a little to the 1. of our road. A small Chapel, still standing, rudely painted with the events of his life, was built in 1522 on the spot where his house stood, near the churchyard. The inhabitants of this valley are considered the finest race of men in Switzerland. A path runs up it, and across the Klausen Pass (Route 72.) to the baths of Stachelberg, in canton Glarus, and another over the Kinzig Culm, into the Muotta Thal. On the 1. bank of the Reuss, opposite its junction with the Schachen, stands Attinghausen, the birth-place Route 34.- Pass of St. Gothard-Amsteg. of Walter Fürst, one of the three liberators of Switzerland: his house is still pointed out. Above it rise the ruins of a castle, whose baronial owners became extinct in 1357, when the last of the race was buried in his helmet and hauberk. At Bötzlingen, 3 miles above Altdorf, the parliament (Laudesgemeinde) of the canton Uri is held every year, on the first Sunday in May, to settle the affairs of the state. Every male citizen above the age of 20, except a priest, has a vote. The authorities of the canton, on horseback, with the Landammann at their head, preceded by a detachment of militia, with military music, and the standard of the canton, attended by the beadles in their costume of yellow and black, and by two men in the ancient Swiss garb of the same colour, bearing aloft the two celebrated buffalo horns of Uri, march to the spot in procession. From a semicircular hustings, erected for the purpose, the business of the day is proclaimed to the assembled crowd, and the different speakers deliver their harangues, after which the question is put to the vote by show of hands. When all affairs of state are despatched, the Landammann and other public officers resign, and are either re-elected or others are chosen in their place. "The first part of the way, towards the St. Gothard, lies through agreeable scenery, among rich meadows, shaded by chestnut and walnut trees." L. At Klus the road approaches the margin of the Reuss, and beyond Silinen, where it is partly cut through the rock, passes under the ruins of a tower, by some supposed to be the castle of Zwing Uri (Restraint of Uri), the construction of which by the tyrant Gessler, to overawe the peasants, roused the suspicion and indignation of the Swiss; so that it was demolished by them in 1308, on the first outbreak of the revolt against Austria. Under it, upon the high road, is situated the village of 103 D. S.)— on the high road and at the mouth of the Maderaner Thal, which stretches E. as far as the base of Mount Dödi, a valley little visited, but well worth exploring; abounding in waterfalls and glaciers. The road now first crosses the Reuss and begins to ascend, having on the 1. hand the gigantic mass of the Bristenstock; and on the rt. the river below, dashing from rock to rock in an almost uninterrupted cataract. A second bridge carries it back to the rt. bank; and, after traversing a wood, a third, called Pfaffensprung (priest's leap), from a fable of a monk having leaped across it with a maiden in his arms, brings the traveller to Wasen, or Wesen (Inn: Ochs) -a village of 550 inhabitants, on the 1. bank of the Reuss, at the mouth of the Mayenthal, up which runs the road to the Susten (Route 32). Near this a toll of a batz for each person, and 5 or 6 batz for every horse, is paid. Winding from side to side the road slowly toils upward to Göschenen, where the valley assumes a more savage character, contracting into the narrow ravine of Schellinen, bounded for nearly 3 miles by impending cliffs of granite. One vast fragment, skirted by the road, was dropped here, according to the popular legend, by the devil, and is thence called Teufelstein. This defile is a scene of desolation and awful grandeur; the walls of rock seem almost to exclude the light of day, scarce a blade of grass is to be seen, and nothing heard but the wild dashing of the Reuss at the foot of the precipice below the road, from which hoarse sounds this part of the valley gets the name of Krachenthal, The road hereabouts is much exposed in spring to danger from avalanches. The difficulties of the ascent 104 Route 34. The Devil's Bridge. are here overcome by the skill of the engineer, who has constructed a series of complicated zigzag terraces, first on one side of the Reuss and then on the other, by means of which, and of numerous bridges, the traveller at length reaches The Devil's Bridge, situated in the midst of the most stern but magnificent scenery of the whole pass. The Reuss leaps down into the head of this savage gorge, in a lofty cataract, and in the very midst of its din and spray 2 bridges have been thrown across. Vertical rocks hem in the bed of the river on both sides; those on the left bank especially are perfectly smooth and perpendicular, leaving not an inch of space for the sole of a foot at their base, except what has been hewn out of it by human art. For ages this must have been an impassable den, a complete cul-de-sac, until, by human ingenuity, the torrent was bridged and the rock bored through. The old bridge, a thin segment of a circle, spanning a terrific abyss, had originally an air at once of boldness and fragility, much of which it has lost by the contrast with the towering and more solid structure which has now entirely superseded it, and seems, as it were, to domineer over it, like the horse over the ass in Esop's fable. The and high parapets. The construction of this part of the road presented great difficulties to the engineer from the hardness and smoothness of the precipitous rocks and the want of easy access to them : indeed, the mines necessary for blasting the granite could only be formed by workmen suspended by ropes from above, and dangling in the air like spiders at the end of their threads. The ancient bridge was first founded by Abbot Gerald, of Einsiedeln, in 1118, so that, in the naming of it, the devil has received more than his due: it has been allowed to remain beneath the new bridge, though no longer of any use. During the extraordinary campaign of 1799, the Devil's Bridge and the defile of the Schellinen were twice obstinately contested within the space of little more than a month. On the 14th of August the united French column, under Lecourbe and Loison, having surprised the Austrians, drove them up the valley of the Reuss, as far as this bridge, which, having been converted into an entrenched position, was defended by them for some time. The ancient Devil's Bridge was approached from the lower part of the valley by a terrace abutting against the precipice, interrupted in one place by a chasm. The road was continued over this upon an arch of single arch of slight masonry, sus- masonry which supported a sort of pended in the air at a height of 70 causeway. At last even this - F. L. feet above the Reuss, with scarce a was carried by the French, who, in parapet at the side, and with barely their impetuous pursuit, followed breadth to allow two persons to pass, their enemies across the arch. In a almost seemed to tremble with the moment, while a crowd of combatants rushing of the torrent under the feet were upon it, it was blown into the of the traveller. Mcdern improve- air, and hundreds were precipitated ments have deprived the bridge and into the abyss below. During the its vicinity of much of its terror and night the Austrians, alarmed by the sublimity. A commodious and gra- appearance of another French force in dually sloping terrace, hewn out of their rear, evacuated altogether the the solid rock at the foot of the preci- valley of the Reuss. On the 24th pice, leads to the broad and massive of the following September, the tide new bridge of 2 arches, which, though of war took an opposite turn; Sunearer to the fall than the old, may be warrow, pouring down from the passed without the slightest emotion summit of the St. Gothard, at the of the nerves. thanks to its solidity | head of 5000 horse and 18,000 foot, Route 34.- Devil's Bridge — Urnerloch – compelled the French, in their turn, to retire before him. The progress of the Russians was arrested here for a short time, as they found the road broken up, the Urnerloch filled with rocks, and the passage down the valley interrupted by the gap in the causeway beyond the bridge, caused by the blowing up of the arch. A murderous fire from the French swept away all who approached the edge of the chasm; but the Russian columns, eager for advance, by their pressure, pushed the foremost ranks into the foaming Reuss. The impediments in the road were soon removed; an extemporaneous bridge was constructed by binding together beams of wood with officers' scarfs; and over this the Russian army passed, pursuing the enemy as far as Altdorf. Immediately after passing the Devil's Bridge the road is carried through a tunnel, bored for 180 feet through the solid rock, called Urnerloch, or Hole of Uri. It is 15 feet high and 16 ft. broad. Previous to its construction, in 1707, the only mode of passing the buttress of rock which here projects into the river, so as to deny all passage, was by a bridge, or shelf of boards, suspended on the outside by chains from above. By means of this the traveller doubled, as it were, the shoulder of the mountain, enveloped in the spray of the torrent, within a few feet of which the frail structure was hung. The Gallery of Uri was originally constructed by a Swiss engineer, named Moretini; but was only passable for mules, until, in reconstructing the St. Gothard Road, it was enlarged to admit carriages. Out of this gallery the traveller emerges into the wide basin-shaped pastoral valley of Urseren, which, in contrast with the savage gorge of Schellinen, and from the suddenness of the transition, has obtained from most travellers the praise of beauty and fertility. Taken by itself, how ever, it has little but its verdure to recommend it; owing to its great height, 4356 feet above the sea, scarcely any trees grow in it, and the inhabitants supply themselves with corn for bread from more fortunate lands. It was probably once a lake, until a passage was opened for the Reuss through the rocks of Schellinen. It was originally colonised, it is supposed, by the Rhæ tians. The usual entrance to it was by the pass of the Oberalp. Its inhabitants spoke the language of the Grisons, and the valley was a dependence of the abbot of Dissentis. Down to the 14th century it remained closed up at its lower extremity, and had no direct communication with the lower valley of the Reuss. About that time, however, a path seems to have been opened, and the men of Urseren, allying themselves with those of Uri, threw off the yoke of their former feudal lords. A mile from the gallery of Uri lies On 4 Andermatt, or Urseren (Ital. Orsera) (Inns : Drei Königen, Three Kings, good; Sonne, Sun). It is a village of 600 inhabitants, and the chief place of the valley. The cheese made on the surrounding pastures is excellent, and the red trout of the Oberalp See enjoy the reputation, with hungry travellers, of being the finest in the world. They are, at least, an excellent dish, either at breakfast or dinner. The Church of St. Columbanus is said to have been built by the Lombards. the slope of the mountain of St. Anne, which is surmounted by a glacier, above the village, are the scanty remains of a forest, the last relic of that which perhaps at one time clothed the sides of the valley entirely. "It is of a triangular form, with one of its angles pointed upwards, and is so placed as not only to break the fall of heavy bodies of snow, but to divide the masses, throwIt is ing them off on its two sides. now a slight and seemingly a perish |