Chapter I: Preface

In this little volume, much of the matter in which first appeared in the _St. Moritz Post_, or, as it is now called, the _Alpine Post_, I have jotted down a few things of interest to the ordinary traveller in Switzerland. To climbers, my notes will be but a thrice-told tale, and one which, doubtless, many of them could tell far better, while not a few of them have already told it elsewhere. The idea of publishing these trifling papers came to me through the necessity of replying to many questions on the subjects to which I refer; for, living as I do in Switzerland, I naturally am supposed to be more familiar with the peculiarities of the country and people than is the ordinary tourist. It thus seems to me that a small book, dealing with some of the various objects of interest usually met with during a summer’s tour in Switzerland, might find a corner in a traveller’s portmanteau, and so, asking indulgence for the errors into which I am sure I have fallen from time to time, I commend the following pages to whoever does me the honour to glance at them.

E. MAIN.

ENGADINER KULM, SWITZERLAND.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE
I. ON ALPINE GUIDES 1

II. THE CAUTION AND DETERMINATION OF GUIDES 8

III. SOME MORE CHARACTERISTICS OF FIRST-RATE GUIDES 14

IV. MORE ABOUT GUIDES 20

V. FURTHER ANECDOTES OF GUIDES 32

VI. ALP LIFE 40

VII. THE CHAMOIS 48

VIII. ON GLACIERS 59

IX. ON MORAINES 69

X. ON AVALANCHES 76

XI. THE BERNINA-SCHARTE 90

XII. IN PRAISE OF AUTUMN 98

XIII. THE “MAIDEN” AND THE “MONK” 113

APPENDIX 127

MY HOME IN THE ALPS.