walk to saas im grund—fee, and its glacier—the mattmark see
nature never did betray
the heart that loved her. ’tis her privilege
through all the years of this our life to lead
from joy to joy: for she can so inform
the mind that is within us, so impress
with quietness and beauty, and so feed
with lofty thoughts.—wordsworth.
september 4.—started at 6 a.m. my wife and myself on foot, the little boy on horseback. we walked down the zermatt valley to stalden; and then, turning to the right, ascended the saas valley. the latter being narrower—so narrow as to bring the opposite mountains very near to you—makes the scenery often more striking than that of the parallel, and wider, valley you have just left. sometimes the mountain sides are so precipitous, quite down to the torrent, which tumbles, and brawls, along the rocky bottom, that no space is presented even for a cherry or apple-tree. for a great part of the way there is 114no valley, but only a fissure between the two mountain ranges; and nothing can establish itself in the rifts, and almost on the surface of the rocks, but the larch.
we stopped at a small roadside inn, about an hour and a half from saas, for luncheon. a german professor and his wife came in for the same purpose. he was a tall, gaunt, study-worn man; she a tough, determined little woman. he recommended heidelberg (it was not his university) both as a winter residence, and as a place of education. the pair appeared to be, like their country-people generally, honest, earnest, and simple-minded, and in the habit of making the most of their small means without complaining. they were carrying very little besides themselves. we reached saas im grund at 12.30. we had been on our legs for six hours. the reason why walking on the level takes more out of one than climbing for an equal number of hours, is not merely that in walking the effort is always the same, but that it is at the same time rapid and continuous; whereas in climbing it is not only varied, sometimes up and sometimes down, but is also deliberate, and often interrupted for a moment or two, while you are looking where to set your foot.
a guide, who was on his way to saas, overtook us soon after we had left st. niklaus, and asked permission to accompany our party. he had lately made his first attempt to ascend the matterhorn. 115he had not got to the top, but his having failed to do so was no fault of his. he could speak a little french, and was a good-natured, talkative fellow.
at saas we put up at zurbriggen’s hotel. we found the house clean, the people obliging, the charges moderate, and the aspect of things quite unlike—all the difference being on the right side—that of the large swiss caravansary.
the contrast between saas and zermatt is very great. at zermatt the valley ends, with great emphasis, in a grand amphitheatre of mountains and snowy peaks. at saas it seems suddenly brought to a close without any objects of interest to look upon. with the mind full of zermatt, saas appears but a lame and impotent conclusion. the village, however, is very far indeed from being at the head of the valley. that is to be found at the monte moro, five hours further on; and, as it includes the allalein glacier, the grand scenery of the mattmark see, and of the monte moro itself, it has enough to satisfy even great expectations; such as one has, of course, coming from zermatt.
september 5.—went to the fee glacier with the guide who had joined company with us yesterday. my wife and i walked. the blue boy rode. the path from the village lies across the stream, and up the hill on the west side of the valley. this brings you to a mountain-surrounded expanse of greenest 116grass, in which lies the village of fee. the substantial character of the châlets, and their tidy air, imply that the inhabitants of the place are pretty well off. at the western extremity of the reclaimed and irrigated meadow is the great fee glacier. the mounds and ridges of débris the glacier has brought down are very considerable. i mean the mounds and ridges that are still naked; for, of course, all that now forms the cultivated valley must equally, only at remoter dates, have been brought down by the same agency. the only difference between the two is that time, and man, have levelled the latter, and enabled it to clothe itself in a vestment of luxuriant grass. this grass it is that has built and peopled the village. in this way human thought and feeling, or rather the multiplication of the thinking and feeling organism, man, is the direct result of the storms, and frosts, that have shattered, and riven, the mountain peaks above; and of the glacier which has transported the fragments to the sheltered valley, where they could be turned to human account; and, in the act of transporting them, so ground and comminuted their constituent particles as to render them capable of maintaining a rich vegetation; and which same glacier is, at this moment, engaged in supplying the irrigating streams, the stimulant of the richness of the vegetation.
the upper part of the naked débris overlays large masses of ice. this is very uneven, and full of depressions 117and cracks, the sides of which are, generally, covered with loose stones, but, sometimes, only with a thin film of mud. a fall upon this combination of ice, pebbles, and slush is the easily attained consequence of inattention to what you are about, and where you are going, while crossing such ground. we had a walk on the glacier; and then, having taken in a fresh supply of materials for keeping up the steam, at a station on one of the moraine ridges, which gave us a good view of the contiguous glacier, the overhanging mountains, and the green valley, we returned to saas in the afternoon.
after dinner i started with our guide—his communicativeness during the two days he had been with us had made us feel as if he were an old acquaintance—for a walk over the monte moro, down the val anzasca, and over the simplon, to brieg. i also took a porter with me, who was to carry my sac as far as macugnaga, from which place the guide was to take charge of it. he would not undertake to carry it where he was known as a guide, for that, he affirmed, would be losing caste. my wrappers i sent from saas to brieg by post. the charge was a franc and a half for a great coat and shawl. the latter, of fine wool, four yards in length, and two in width, is less than half the weight of an ordinary travelling rug, and more than twice as serviceable. my portmanteau i had already despatched from zermatt for brieg by the 118same common carriers. the facilities of the swiss post-office for the conveyance of baggage—we found them very convenient—result from the department having absorbed all the diligences. it has thus become the carrier not only of letters, but equally of travellers, and of parcels of all kinds. in fact it seems that in switzerland you may post anything short of a house. mistakes appear to be made very seldom; and when they are made you have a responsible office to deal with, whose interest it is to set them right. at saas the post-master was also the chemist, the doctor, the alpenstock-maker, &c. &c. of the place. where there are but few people there must be many employments which will not occupy the whole of a man’s time, or, singly, support him.
my wife and the little boy accompanied me half of the way to the mattmark see. our plan was that they should return to saas, and on the third day meet me again at brieg. soon after they left me i met two well-grown, clean-limbed englishmen—it is always a pleasure to meet such specimens of one’s countrymen—with whom i had a little conversation. i asked them what snow there was on the pass which they had just come over. they told me they had crossed seven snow-fields. the next morning i found only four, and of these two small enough. they could have had no wish to misrepresent; but so fallible 119is human testimony; and nowhere more so than in switzerland, where you never find two eye-witnesses giving the same account of the same thing. it is possible, however, that they may have made some détour in crossing, and, illogically, answered a question different from the one put to them.
when the path reaches the allalein glacier the scenery becomes grand. you are again on the visible confines of the ice-and-snow world. on the left side of the glacier you ascend a stiffish mountain. this brings you to the mattmark see. the path is a little above, and the whole length of, its eastern side. it is carried on a level line along a very rocky descent, a few yards above the water. the humble plants in the narrow rocky strip between the path and the lake were charmingly full of colour, for at this time the leaves of many of them were assuming their rich autumnal tints. at the foot of this narrow strip of shattered rocks, interspersed with highly coloured vegetation, was the unruffled water, looking like polished steel, dark, hard, smooth, and cold. beyond the water, and rising precipitously from it, towered the rugged, slaty-coloured mountains, capped with white, and streaked in their ravines with snow-drifts and glaciers.
at the further end of the lake stands the mattmark inn, exactly where it ought to stand. further back, you would be disturbed by the feeling that you 120had not yet seen everything, and so were forming an imperfect conception of the scene. further on, the scene would, by comparison, be dull. higher up, the opposite mountain would not look so overpowering, and you would lose the mighty masses of fallen rock, as big as houses, which are close to the inn; and you might also lose the water, which is the distinguishing feature of the scene. as to the inn itself, so far away in the mountains you cannot expect anything very extensive either in the way of structure or of cuisine. but you will get here, which is worlds better, a clean house, very obliging people, and all that they can offer for your entertainment—of course without much variety—good of its kind. if you go to switzerland for what is peculiar to switzerland, these are the places you should look out for. large hotels, full of loiterers, among whom there may be perhaps a french count, or even a russian prince, may be found elsewhere than in switzerland, should you think them worth finding. but the very advantage of the mattmark see inn, and of other mountain inns like it, is that you will see in them none of this kind of people, while you will have plenty of the grandest mountain scenery, and plenty of mountain work, if that is what you have come for, all around you. from the great hotels you may see the outline of the mountains; but that is a very different thing from being in the midst of the mountains themselves; 121in the very society and company of the mountains; so that you look at each other face to face, and can make out all their features, and all the components, and the whole colouring, of every feature.
from saas to the mattmark see hotel is three hours and a half. before turning in i ordered coffee at 3.50 a.m., and told the guide and porter to be ready for a start at 4 a.m.
