CHAPTER XXXI.

THE LAKE OF WALLENSTADT—GLAKUS—KLONTHAL—THE BATHS OF PFEFFERS—THE

VIA MALA.

The lake of Wallenstadt is about twelve miles in length and two in breadth; it isentirely bounded by high mountains, except to the east and west. From this situationa breeze generally blows from those two quarters, beginning at break of day, andcontinuing for some hours, then changes from west to east till sunset: this breeze is veryconvenient for the transportation of the merchandise. Sometimes, however, a violentnorth wind rushes down from the mountains, and renders the navigation dangerous.Terrible tales are told of the tempests on this lake, as indeed on all the lakes enclosed, asthis is, by mountains ; government has, therefore, thought proper to interfere for thesafety of ignorant or rash travellers, forbidding the boatmen to venture out at all undercertain circumstances of weather, obliging them, in more dubious cases, to keep closealong the southern shore, where there are harbours, and allowing no boat to remainmore than three years in use. The most dangerous is supposed to be the north wind,which, falling vertically, furrows the surface of the water into deep short waves that aresaid to suck in every floating thing. The lake is, however, seldom more than two milesacross, so that sail where you will you cannot lose sight of either bank.

The scenery of the lake is exceedingly wild and picturesque, and affords a perpetualvariety of beautiful and romantic scenes. On the side of Glarus , the mountains, whichform its borders, are chiefly cultivated, enriched with wood or fine meadows, andstudded with cottages, churches, and small villages; the Alps of Glarus rising behind,their tops covered with snow. On the other side, for the most part, the rocks aregrotesque, craggy, inaccessible, and perpendicular ; but here and there a few cultivatednecks of land are formed at the very edge of the lake, and at the bottom of these veryrocks, exhibiting a beautiful contrast to the barrenness above and around them.Numberless waterfalls, occasioned by the melting of the snows, fall down the sides of themountains from a very considerable height, and with an almost inconceivable variety;some of them seeming to glide gently in circular directions ; others forming vasttorrents, and rushing into the lake with noise and violence ; all of them changing theirform and their position as the traveller approaches or recedes from them. The lake isexceedingly clear, deep, and cold, and is said never to be frozen.

This part of the country has always been subject to earthquakes. Thirty-three are onrecord as having happened in the seventeenth century, and eighty-seven in theeighteenth; that is, thirty-seven between August, 1701, and February, 1702; fiftybetween September, 1763, and May, 1764; “but,” says Coxe, “the geologicalrevolutions, indicated by the general appearances of this district, are far beyond thepower of common earthquakes, which are, indeed, more likely to have been an effect thana cause ; for the vast vacuities left between and among the fragments of the old earth’s