Part 11 (2/2)
”Why can't we see it all the way?” asked Rollo.
”I suppose,” said Mr. George, ”it may flow for the rest of the way in the bottom of some deep chasms, or it may possibly be that it comes suddenly out of the ground at the place where we see it.”
”Yes,” said Rollo. ”I found a great stream coming suddenly out of the ground at Interlachen.”
”Where,” asked Mr. George.
”Right across the river,” said Rollo. ”I went over there this morning.”
”How did you get over?” said Mr. George.
”I went over on a bridge,” said Rollo. ”I took a little walk up the road, and pretty soon I came to a bridge which led across the river. I went over, and then walked along the bank on the other side. There was only a narrow s.p.a.ce between the river and the precipice. The ground sloped down from the foot of the precipice to the water. I found several very large springs breaking out in this ground. One of them was _very_ large. The water that ran from it made a great stream, large enough for a mill. It came up right out of the ground from a great hole all full of stones. The water came up from among the stones.”
”And where did it go to?” asked Mr. George.
”O, it ran directly down into the river. The place was rather steep where it ran down, so that it made a cascade all the way.”
”I should like to have seen it,” said Mr. George.
”Yes,” said Rollo; ”it was very curious indeed to see a little river come up suddenly out of the ground from a great hole full of stones.”
Talking in this manner about what they had seen, our travellers went on till they came to Lauterbrunnen. They found a small village here, in the midst of which was a large and comfortable inn. There were a number of guides and several carriages in the yards of this inn, and many parties of travellers coming and going. The princ.i.p.al attraction of the valley, however, at this part of it, is an immense waterfall, called the Fall of the Staubach, which was to be seen a little beyond the village, up the valley. This is one of the most remarkable waterfalls in all Switzerland. A large stream comes over the brink of a precipice nearly a thousand feet high, and descends in one smooth and continuous column for some hundreds of feet, when it gradually breaks, and finally comes down upon the rocks below a vast ma.s.s of foam and spray.
Rollo and Mr. George could see this waterfall and a great many other smaller ones which came streaming down over the faces of the precipices, along the sides of the valley, as they came up in the char a banc, before they reached the inn.
”I don't see how such a large river gets to the top of such a high hill,” said Rollo.
That this question should have arisen in Rollo's mind is not surprising; for the top of the precipice where the Staubach came over seemed, in fact, the summit of a sharp ridge to any one looking up to it from the valley below; and Rollo did not imagine that there was any land above.
The apparent wonder was, however, afterwards explained, when our travellers began to ascend the mountain on the other side of the valley that afternoon to go up to the Wengern Alp.
The guide drove the char a banc to the door of the inn, and Mr. George and Rollo got out. They went into the inn and ordered dinner.
”We are going to see the Staubach,” said Mr. George to the waiter, ”and we will be back in half an hour.”
”Very well,” said the waiter; ”your dinner shall be ready.”
So Mr. George and Rollo came out of the inn again in order to go and see the waterfall.
They were beset at the door by a number of young men and boys, and also by several little girls, some of whom wanted to sell them minerals or flowers which they had gathered among the rocks around the waterfall; and others wished to guide them to the place.
”To the Staubach? To the Staubach?” said they. ”Want a guide? Want a guide?”
They said this in the German language. Mr. George understood enough of German to know what they meant; but he could not reply in that language.
So he said, in French,--
”No; we do not wish any guide. We can find the way to the Staubach ourselves. There it is, right before our eyes.”
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