pleasure-seeker will vote the town to be one of the most charming in Switzerland. Many of the houses are built in the most perfect and accomplished Swiss style. It consists of a principal one-sided street, on which are placed the hotels and pensions, or boarding-houses. With the exception of the hotels, nearly all the houses are of wood, with overhanging eaves, galleries, shingle-roofs, and ornamented with quaint carvings and inscriptions. Some of these houses bear date 250 years ago, and yet look as sound as ever, though they are never painted.

From the door of your hotel, in the quiet of the eventide, you may often hear the peculiar sound produced by an avalanche from one of the neighbouring mountains. For in the vicinity of Interlacken there are "giant mountains, massive glaciers, rushing cataracts, picturesqne villages, green oases, and the ever-changeful combinations of Alpine nature in her most lavish mode."

At Interlacken there are no end of temptations to the spending of money in articles of Swiss manufacture, from the most minute figure in wood, or the horns of the chamois, etc., to good-sized drawing-room tables and other large articles of household furniture. The whey-cure is one of the institutions of Interlacken, but what that is, or what the ailments it cures, we know not; it certainly seems to belong to the class of "simples," and stands in juxtaposition with more potent liquids. Very probably the mountain breezes and exercises have as much to do in the accomplishment of cures, as either whey at Interlacken, or grapes at Vevey, where the "grape-cure" is the popular remedy for many of the ills of life, though they be not such "as flesh is heir to;" for we have a strong radical notion that sound limbs and good health are the constituents of the normal condition of humanity. It is well, however, that cold water in England,

whey at Interlacken, grapes at Vevey, and other articles of simple diet and regimen, often effect more good than bushels of pills and hogsheads of nauseous liquids. We strongly recommend the tour-cure, as, in many cases, superior to all others. The question of expense often lies between the physician and the tourist manager, and we prescribe with confidence for many maladies, the London and Swiss tourist ticket, with the supplementary coupons of the Oberland and Chamouny series. The reader must not look in Bædeker or Murray for this prescription, though the principle of it is embodied in their books.

Opinions differ as to the enjoyment of a lengthened stay in Interlacken. While one traveller of a merry, social, fashion-loving turn of mind will revel in its promenades, billiard-rooms and concert-halls, and such like, the thoughtful, meditative man will turn aside, glad to find a more secluded spot elsewhere.

Here is a description, to be taken for what it is worth :— "Interlacken is a painful place. It is Regent-street, Hydepark, Cheapside, and Margate, broken loose and jumbled together. Rash intruders here come to disturb the tranquillities of that glorious spot, and the place that once was beautiful is now fashionable. Bah! leaving the beautiful valley, where the brooks are singing soft music, and the very air breathes peace, and coming into Interlacken, where swells in patent-leather boots talk to ladies in long trains about the last new novel, and promenade up and down 'show' gardens, where German bands are playing discords against Nature's harmonies, is as painful to me as coming out of the House of God on Sunday, and passing through Shoreditch or Walworth, where the stalls and shops, and the bustle and traffic make you forget that it is a Sabbath-day. Years ago I was travelling in the far south, and exploring a

part of the Bush with some friends: we thought we were in the solitudes where human foot had never trod, when suddenly we came upon a ginger-beer bottle and a sheet of a newspaper! Imagine our disgust! It was only equalled by the 'shows' of Interlacken. I do protest against turning the beautiful spots that Nature loves to call her own into promenades, concerts, and gardens. I believe if the original site of the Garden of Eden were to be discovered, some modern spirit would erect an hotel, the 'Adam and Eve,' and invite tourists to come and play billiards and croquêt there!"

Interlacken is a capital place as a centre for excursions; and if the tourist is working his way from Geneva, instead of towards Geneva-the route we are now describinghe will branch off here to scale the Wengern Alp, Grindelwald, and other places of the Bernese Oberland, already referred to, and described fully at p. 81-84.

Whether the whole of this detour be undertaken or not, no one should miss the delightful drive from Interlacken to Lauterbrunnen, and the Falls of the Staubbach. It is a charming valley, and a description of it will be found on p. 84.

LAKE OF THUN.

From Interlacken we go by railway to Därligen, and then by steamboat, on the Lake of Thun, to Thun (the former station of the steamers of this lake was Neuhaus, a walk or omnibus drive of two miles through a long grove of poplars).

On both sides of the lake is a constant succession of rustic villages, and dotted here and there, on the hill sides, are châlets, villas, and gardens, backed by the snowy giants of the Oberland. On the southern shore are two isolated

mountains named the Neisen (7,000 feet), and the Stockhorn (7,200 feet).

The lake is ten miles and a half long, and two miles broad. Before quitting the steamer, we notice a perpendicular cliff, forming the base of the Beatenberg. Here is the cavern of St. Beatus, who, says tradition, was the first to introduce Christianity into these parts; of course, no old-fashioned saint could have made his abode in the side of such a cliff, situate in such a place, with a cascade issuing from it, without having some strange legends also attached to it. It is reported that a dragon originally occupied the cave, but was turned out much in the same way as St. Saba ousted the lion. St. Saba had also accomplished the art of navigating the lake on his cloak, without any other external assistance.

THUN.

(Hotel Belle Vue.)

If the tourist wishes to proceed direct to Berne without stopping at Thun, he will alight at

Scherzligen, the landing-place being close to the railway station.

Thun has somewhere about 5,000 inhabitants; it is traversed by the River Aar; and its principal street is its principal curiosity. "There is a sort of terrace some ten or twelve feet high, on the flat roof of which are the slopes, while the carriage-way is bounded by the cellars, of which the terrace is the roof." The sights of Thun are few, and therefore we ascend to the church by a covered way of 218 steps, where a magnificent view is obtained; one of the most striking objects from here is the Stockhorn, whose bell-shaped summit differs from everything else within range of our view. The late Emperor Napoleon III. was a resident in Thun for

eight years, and the house he occupied, when a captain in the Swiss artillery, is pointed out.

As there is not much to detain us in Thun, we will proceed by Central Swiss Railway a short but delightful journey, with views which will require incessant watchfulness out of both sides of the carriage windows, to

BERNE.

(Hotel Belle Vue, situated near the Mint.)

We have now arrived at the capital city of the Swiss Confederation, and there is, of course, a good deal to be done and seen before we leave it. Bædeker gives the population as 36,002, of which number 2,644 are known Catholics, they constituting the exception in this Protestant city. We have to look at Berne in its double character-as the seat of the Government of the Swiss Confederation, and as a local city. We have not, in this little Guide, found opportunity of giving any information on the Constitution of the Confederacy; but we venture to occupy a little space with a copy of the "Constitution of September, 1848."*

The Helvetic Confederation consists of twenty-two cantons. Each canton possessses its own laws, and regulates its own internal affairs; subject only to the control of the sovereign power vested in the Confederation.

No canton has more than 300 men embodied without the consent of the Federal Government.

The Confederation cannot maintain a permanent army. The army is only a Militia Force, in which every male Swiss must serve for a certain number of years, holding himself at all times ready, if called, for cantonal or federal service.

The Federal Government has the control of the custom and transit duties, postal service, and the currency.

* Since this was in type a new Constitution has been voted, Sunday, April 19th, 1874.