Viewing page 52 of 108

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

For a considerable distance we took the short cut up steep slopes, and had a taste of real ^[[insertion]] mountain [[/insertion]] climbing. We finally reached the regular trail nearly halfway up, and then followed this well up to smaller openings, about two-thirds of the way up. From every open place we had a fine view of Lake Thun, and the valley of the Aare beyond, together with the mountains in the direction of the Stockhorn, and of the great valley ^[[insertion]][[at base of Niesen, [[/insertion]] which is followed by the R.R.
The open places on the mountain are grassy and are the great pastures. There are small houses on these slopes, none of them occupied now so far as I could see. In several places water is piped from greater heights to these places (pastures) for stock.
The timber in some places is heavy,

[[end page]]
[[start page]]

97

and consists of black spruce. In some parts (especially upward) the spruce forest is very dense, and the lower branches are largely dead, - self-pruning.
We left our high-point at 6 o'clock P.M., and reached the base in 1 hour. We followed the trail.
We had a good many cherries (nearly black) at the base of the mountain.
We left Wimmis at 8:35 P.M., and had to change at Spitz. The conductor made no suggestion that we would have to change, and it was only after our train was emptied at Spitz that we learned that a change is necessary.
On our return to Thun we found that the English people whom we had seen in the morning, had been refused R.R. tickets to France, and they remained at the hotel. The excitement increases.