ROUTE 72.

WESEN TO GLARUS, THE BATHS OF STACHELBERG, AND THE PANTEN

ALTORF.

Wesen to Glarus 3 leagues.

A diligence leaves Wesen for Glarus on the arrival of the diligence from Zürich daily. It is a drive of 1 hour; 2 hours more to Lint-thal, and again 2 hours on foot to the Pantenbrücke. Diligences run daily from Glarus to Lachen (Inn Ours), a village of 1200 Inhab., on the margin of the Lake of Zürich, where coaches to Zürich, Lucerne, and St. Gall cross and take on passengers.

The canton of Glarus consists of one great Alpine valley, and of several secondary or tributary valleys, branching off from it, and penetrating deep | into the high Alps. There is but one carriage-road into it, which terminates, after a distance of 6 leagues 19 Eng. m., at the baths of Stachelberg; and, except for pedestrians, there is no egress save the portal which has admitted the traveller. It is a truly Alpine district, abounding in very wild

scenery.

of the foragers, in spite of the disproportion of numbers, but after 11 distinct charges, aided by volleys of stones and rocks discharged from precipices above, which threw the Austrian cavalry into confusion, finally repulsed the invaders, with a loss of 2500 of their number left dead on the field.

The anniversary of the fight of Näfels is still celebrated through the canton by an annual festival. An engagement took place at Näfels, in 1799, between the Austrians and French.

From Mollis, the village opposite Näfels, the river Linth is conducted into the lake of Wallenstadt by the artificial canal constructed by Escher (see p. 31). In the churchyard of Mollis the heroes of Näfels are buried.

The valley of the Linth is subject to much danger and injury from its sudden rises, and the swelling of its tributary torrents. The broad fringe of unsightly sand and gravel visible on both sides of the Linth, the common drain of the district, will show what mischief that river occasions after storms of rain, and during the melting of the snows. The whole of the lower part of the valley is at times converted into a lake; and the little patches of ground, which have cost the peasant much hard labour and care to cultivate, are at once overwhelmed and ruined. The limestone mountains of this district abound in caverns, which serve as reservoirs for the melting glaciers. In the spring and early summer, the rocks appear to stream from every pore, while every gorge and hollow sends forth a raging torrent.

1 Glarus, or Glaris-(Inns: Aigle d'Or, not large, but very comfortable; Rabe). This little village, the capital of the canton, is chiefly remarkable for its secluded situation at the base of the Glärnisch and Schilt, encompassed and shut in by the Alps, whose bare and bleak precipices and tops contrast remarkably with the milder verdure

about their base. The inhabitants, 4320 in number, are distinguished by their industry and enterprise, which has converted Glarus into a place of manufactures, especially of cotton, printing of muslins, &c. They are reported to retain that simplicity of manners which their seclusion from the rest of the world would lead one to expect.

They possess a Club (Casino), a modern house of fine masonry, and a Free School for 700 children, erected by private subscriptions, and reflecting much credit on the public spirit of the citizens. The houses, chiefly of stone, and many of them ancient, are frequently ornamented outside with fresco paintings. In the old Rathhaus is some fine painted glass, and enormous horns of steinbock decorate the antichamber. The Gothic church is open to Protestant and Romanist alike. Zwingli was the pastor here, 1506 to 1546. The Linth is crossed by two bridges.

The name Glarus is said to be a corruption of Hilarius, a saint to whom a shrine was built among these mountains at a very early period.

Diligence to Lachen, where it meets the coach from St. Gall and Lucerne to Zürich.

There is one manufacture peculiar to the canton Glarus, that of the green cheese called Schabzieger. It owes its peculiar appearance, smell, and flavour, to an herb (Melilotus cærulea; blue melilot; Germ. Honigklee), which is partly cultivated for this purpose in gardens within the canton, and partly imported from others. To fit it for use, it is dried, ground to powder, and, in that state, mixed with the curds, in the proportion of 3 lbs. of the herb to 100 lbs. of curds. The cheese is said to be made of cows' milk, like any common cheese, and not of goats'. The curds are brought down from the high pastures into the valley in sacks, and, after having a due proportion of herb incorporated with them, are ground in a mill resembling that used for making cider. After being thoroughly kneaded by this process for an hour or two, it is fit for pressing, The cheese is

a

ripe for use after a twelvemonth's keeping. A large quantity of it is exported to America; and the manufacture of it is considered lucrative trade. The natives attribute its peculiar character to some virtue in the pastures on which the cows are fed.

Many mountain paths ramify in various directions from Glarus.

a. The pass of the Pragel (a horsepath) to Schwytz, by the Klönthal and the Muotta-thal; the former a most beautiful pastoral valley, a tributary of the Linth; the finest part of it is not more than 8 m. from Glarus.-(Route 75.)

b. The pass of the Klausen to Altorf. -(Described below.)

c. 4 passes into the Valley of the Vorder Rhine:

(a) To Dissentis over the Sandfirn (8999 ft.) 13 stunden.

(b) To Brigels, by the Limmernthal and Kistengrat (8650 ft.)-(R. 73). (c) To Panix, by the Panixer pass, 9 st. a horse-path; much snow.

(d) To Flims, by the Segnes pass, 8 st.

The most interesting excursion is that to Linththal and Stachelberg, up the valley of the Linth, where first the Glärnisch, and, higher up, the Dödi, with their snowy satellites, are objects of extreme grandeur and beauty.

A good road leads up the valley of the Linth, about 13 miles, to the village of

3 Lint-thal (Inn: Löwe. Resorted to only by the peasantry of the neighbourhood.) The Diligence crosses the river below Lint-thal, leaving it on one side. Strangers proceed & m. further to the handsome Hotel and Baths of Stachelberg, an excellent and most comfortable house, built on an eminence in this remote spot, surrounded by torrents, rocks, and glaciers. It has greatly risen in repute as a watering-place, and on account of the exquisite beauty of its situation, and the virtues of its concentrated alkaline sulphureous spring, which distils, drop by drop, from a fissure in the Braunberg, is much resorted to. The period of the "cure" is fixed at be

tween 20 and 24 days. The hotel stands on the 1. bank of the Linth, here crossed by a wooden bridge, and is surrounded by walks and pleasuregrounds. About 1 m. from Linththal is the Fall of the Fätschbach. "About 1 hour above Linththal is the fine fall of the Schreyenbach, of the Staubbach kind, which when seen from below appears to issue from the sky. At the bottom it spreads over 30 yards of rock, coming down in a shower of water-rockets."-M,

Above the baths the vale of the Linth becomes grander and more savage, and at length contracts into a chasm, low in the depths of which the river worms its way, while a narrow and steep path alone leads, along the edge of the precipice. 5 miles up (2 hours' walk), at a spot where the gorge is deepest, a singularly bold bridge of a single arch of stone, 20 ft. span, and 140 ft. above the torrent, but only 4 ft. wide, has been thrown across it. This is the Pantenbrücke, an object of considerable romantic beauty, from the boldness of this work of man in such a scene of wild nature, and from the depth of the gulf below. It is often visited by ladies; but the excursion, though not dangerous, is fatiguing.

The Gorge, hour's walk above the bridge, is one of the grandest in the Alps.

The valley of the Linth terminates in a group of magnificent mountains, whose tops are occupied by vast fields of never-trodden glaciers. The Dödi or Todiberg (12,800 ft.) is the giant of this portion of the chain of Alps, and its summit has been ascended only once, by M. Dürler of Zürich, in 1838, who perished 1840 by falling from the lowly Hütliberg near Zürich, while meditating a 2nd ascent of the Dödi. A difficult and dangerous path, practicable only in the height of summer, leads across these glaciers to Dissentis, over the Clariden-Grat.

The Klausen pass - Stachelberg to Altorf, 10 hours.-The distance is about 26 miles; 3 hours to the top. The path is so well marked that guides may be dispensed with; it is practi

cable for horses. It turns out of the valley of the Linth to the W. about a mile above the baths, and ascends the valley of the Fätsch, or Urner Boden, keeping along its 1. bank; a very stiff pull of 13 hours. Within a mile above the junction of the Fätsch and Linth, the valley belongs to canton Uri. It abounds in fine mountain pastures, and many of the inhabitants of the Schächen-thal pass their summer here among the cows. Urner Boden is a scattered hamlet of 80 houses, with a church extending the whole length of the valley, The culminating point, or Klausen pass, is a ridge of 6150 ft. high, connecting the snowy chain of the Clariden Alps on the S. with the shattered Zingel, Glatten, and Camli. On the top stands a little chapel. A little further on the path divides, leading 1. by a rapid descent, or straight on along the higher level until it falls in with that from the Kinzig Culm, and descends upon Spiringen. This, though the longest, is said to be less fatiguing: it is probably also the less beautiful track.

The other and more frequented path descends by long and steep zigzags into the Schächen-thal; on the 1. hand is seen the very pretty cascade of the Stäubi. Opposite the chapel of St. Anne a bergfall occurred in 1833, which arrested for some time the course of the Schächen, and produced a small lake. At the village of Unter Schächen, the first on the Uri side (a small Inn), another branch of the valley opens S., and sends forth the main stream of the Schächen, which some consider to rise from the Stäubi, The Spitze, the mountain on the 1. bank of the torrent, discharges dangerous avalanches in spring. At Spiringen, and a little lower down, near the chapel of St. Anthony, there are inns, tolerably good for this country.

It was over the steep and barely accessible ridge of the Kinzig Culm, which walls in this portion of the valley to the N., that Suwarrow's memorable retreat was conducted, 1799. Having pounced down, as it were, upon the French from the

heights of the St. Gothard, and driven them before him to Altorf, he there found his progress barred by the lake of Lucerne, without a boat to cross it, his troops exhausted by fatigue and famine, and the country so completely drained by war as to be quite incapable of supporting them. The only alternative that remained to him, was to attempt to join the forces of the allies, through the horrible defile of the Schächen; and to cross the rarely-trodden summit of the high Alps. The only passage up this valley was by a mere path; so that his army was obliged to advance in a single file, abandoning much of their artillery and baggage. Their march lasted 14 hours; and before the rear-guard had left Altorf, the van had reached Muotta. Many of the Russians sank from fatigue by the wayside, and perished; others fell into the hands of the French, who hovered in their rear; the valley was strewn with dead bodies of men and horses, with arms and equipments. The remainder of this memorable march is described in Rte. 75.

Bürglen, the birthplace of Tell, stands at the mouth of the Schächenthal. (Rte. 34.)

Altorf, or Altdorf, p. 102.

ROUTE 73.

BATHS OF STACHELBERG IN THE LINTTHAL, TO BRIGELS IN THE VALLEY OF THE VORDER RHINE, OVER THE KISTENGRAT.

"After crossing the Pantenbrücke (p. 201), which is nearly 2 hours' good walking from the baths of Stachelberg, the path over the Kistengrat turns rather sharply to the 1., and ascends through pleasant woods and green pasturages for a time. 24 hrs. from the Pantenbrücke, always rising, brings you to the summit of the little secluded nook in which the châlet of the Limern Alp, the highest belonging to the Lint-thal, is built. It consists of 3 miserable hovels of loose stones, one a piece for the cows, the goats, and the men. This is separated from the black precipitous face

of the Selbsauft Mountain by a deep chasm, the bottom of which can scarcely be seen from the edge. Here a man and 2 boys, with 3 or 4 cows and some goats, pass 3 months of the year in seclusion, taking with them their supply of flour and bread. On the 1st Sept. 1843, in consequence of leaving the baths of Stachelberg too late, I was compelled to pass the night in this miserable hovel, because the snow on the mountain was declared impassable at that time of day (1 o'clock). After quitting the Limern Alp, there was no semblance of a path, and I found the snow, which in the middle of the day before had been declared by the guide and peasantry to be quite impassable from its softness, had become early in the morning so hard and icy as to be nearly impassable in the steeper parts from its slipperiness; so great is the difference made by a few hours. It took us quite 54 hrs. to go from the châlet on the Limern Alp to the village of Brigels, and of these 3 were on the snow. We passed close by the Mütten See, leaving it on our left. It was then a mass of snow and ice, no water being visible. In a different state of the snow a path is sometimes taken across a lower part of the mountain, leaving the Mütten See on the right, but it was too steep and slippery for us to attempt. We crossed a higher part of the mountain by aid of the solitary foot-tracks of some shepherd, (made when the snow was softer, as the guide said, in search of some lost sheep,) and which we luckily discovered just at the steepest part, where a slip would have carried one down over a precipice of unknown depth. The views of the distant Alps from the summit are very fine, and the descent into the valley of the Vorder Rhine, near Brigels, affords one continuous view of that valley from above Dissentis, almost to its junction with the valley of the Hinter Rhine, and is also very fine; but the expedition was hardly worth the trouble and danger, although it enabled me to see the upper part of the Lint-Thal and the Pantenbrücke,