THE ENGLISH EDITIONS OF MURRAY'S HANDBOOKS MAY BE OBTAINED OF THE FOLLOWING AGENTS : KD 1/88/Germany, Holland, and Belgium. AIX-LA- 1. A. MAYER. BADEN-BADEN D. R. MARX. ANTWERP MANNHEIM ARTARIA & FONTAINE.LOFFLER.-KOTTER. H. MANZ. C SCHRAG.-ZEISER. HARTLEBEN.-G.HECKEN AST. -OSTERLAMM.-RATH. CALVE. • KRAMERS-PETRI. ROBBERS. PRAGUE. STRASBURG STUTTGART TRIESTE VIENNA WIESBADEN BASLE BERNE COIRE CONSTANCE NEUCHATEL GERSTER. ST. GALLEN GENEVA. LAUSANNE T. ROUSSY. LUCERNE. . F. KAISER. (Apr. 3, 1941 LIBRARY Mrs. Pinebre Holbrook PREFACE. THE Handbook for Switzerland owes its success, and the favour of travellers, and the number of imitators it has found in France and Germany, to the circumstance that its information was drawn from practical knowledge of the country, gained on the spot; and that it was not a mere compilation from other books. The author, in the first instance by his own travels, and afterwards by the aid of experienced editors whom he has called in to revise the book, has endeavoured to bring down the information of every edition to the time of its appearance, taking note of all changes and improvements that have occurred. The Handbook was the first guide which, instead of stopping short north of the Great Chain, carried travellers down to the more sunny and beautiful peaks and valleys of the Italian Alps. It still remains the only complete single Guide-book for Savoy and Piedmont, as well as for Switzerland. These regions, previously a terra incognita to Englishmen, are now equally resorted to and held in as great repute for the beauty and grandeur of their scenery. This fourteenth edition of the Handbook has not merely been revised: for the most part it has been re-modelled, and an addition of nearly onethird new matter, including many new routes, has been introduced. Plans of the principal towns are inserted, and a carefully prepared Map of Savoy and Piedmont, which it is hoped may prove of use in those countries hitherto so destitute of good maps. This edition is corrected as far as possible up to the time of publication, and contains notices of the railways which now bring Switzerland almost, as it were, to our own door. An Index has been prepared for the Swiss Handbook, independent of the Section relating to Savoy and Piedmont; and as each is furnished with a map, the two parts may be bound up separately for convenience, without injuring the completeness of either. * *The Knapsack Guide to Switzerland, Savoy, and Piedmont, 2nd Edition, Corrected,' is in preparation, and is intended to furnish a more portable and succinct Guide to those countries. SWITZERLAND. INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION, CONTENTS. § 1. PASSPORTS AND CUSTOM-HOUSES § 2. ROUTES TO SWITZERLAND-SKELETON TOURS § 3. MONEY § 4. MEASURES-DISTANCES-ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH SYSTEM § 5. MODES OF TRAVELLING IN SWITZERLAND :— HORSES AND MULES-CHAISES-A-PORTEURS § 11. SWISS INNS . JOURNEY § 12. DIRECTIONS FOR TRAVELLERS, AND REQUISITES FOR A IN SWITZERLAND - MAPS - DANGERS OF ALPINE TRAVELLING-PRECAUTIONS TO BE ADOPTED § 13. OBJECTS MOST DESERVING OF NOTICE IN SWITZERLAND— THE COUNTRY AND PEOPLE-BEST PUBLISHED WORKS -BATHS xxxii xxxix lii lv lvii lxv § 19. HEIGHTS OF Mountains, Lakes, and Passes lxxi § 17. AVALANCHES-SNOW-STORMS-FLOODS ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA, 1873. Particular attention is requested to the following Corrections and Additions. Telegrams in Switzerland cost franc, but if sent through the people of the hotels are charged 1 franc! To secure safe receipt always pay for an answer (réponse payée). PAGE 49. Lucerne. Physician, Dr. Nager, is highly recommended; speaks English, studied in England.-Swann Hotel very good. 80, col. ii. The steamer on the Lake of Thun lands her passengers on the S. side at Därligen Terminus of the Railway to Unterseen, Interlachen, and Brienz. It is called the Bödelibahn. [Neuhaus is deserted.] 81. Dr. Mani has left Interlachen. 83. Mürren. H. et Pension Mürren—a large house, new 1872; splendid view. A third hotel is just built, 1873. 94. Reichenbach H. not so good as Sauvage at Meiringen. 98. Guttanen. Inn Bär is a better sleeping place for ladies than Handek. 112. Brieg. H. Sonnenberg, new and good; a little above the village. Engelberg. New large hotel, Sonnenberg. 121. St. Gothard Railway. The works on this Pass are begun in earnest, The great Tunnel, 8 m. long! (14,900 mètres) was commenced, 1872. below Göschenen, where the rock is gneiss, and also near Airolo, on the Italian side. 133. Kandersteg. H. et Pension Gemmi, 1872. 147. Comballaz. There is but one Inn or Pension here, and that a very uncomfortable one. 173. Geneva. The Musée Académique was removed, 1872, to the New Academy on the Bastion. 178. The Voirons. The Inn here is no longer to be recommended. 180. The Pierre aux Dames is removed to the Bastion, near the New Academy. 210. Domo d' Ossola, H. de Ville (ancienne Poste) is the best Inn. Both are dear. 267. Chiavenna. Conradi's is the only Inn for English travellers. 277. St. Moritz Baths. Hotel cuisine improved, under new manager. 290, col. ii. Bernina Inn by no means to be recommended; uncivil host. 294. Klosters-Inn, Pension Silvretta; good. A hut has been erected on the Silvretta glacier, 3 hours' walk from this, to shelter travellers. 369. The Tariff for Guides has been revised. To Monte Rosa, 40 frs. instead of 50 for guide; 25 for porter. To the Trift, 30 frs. for guide, &c. ROUTES 37 AND 129. Pedestrians going from Leukerbad to the Val d'Anniviers need not go through Sierre, but may reach the bridge across the Rhone by turning into a footpath on left, hour or 20 minutes after passing the village of Salgesch, where lunch should be secured, as there is no other chance before reaching S. Luc. In passing up the sunny and shadeless slope of the Val d'Anniviers, the traveller will not find the opportunity, which he constantly meets elsewhere in Switzerland, of refreshing himself at frequent springs. No spring or stream is met with on the road for 2 hours after leaving the Rhone. ROUTE 31. Engelberg. There is a charming walk along a well marked footpath on the slopes of the mountain, a short way above and south of the village. Ascend a footpath a little beyond the pension of Hotel Titlis, and follow it about 2 miles to the chalets of Schwand. From this point a winding path leads down through the pine woods to the high road in the valley, about 2 miles from Engelberg. The path may be followed along the mountain side some distance beyond Schwand, or by turning up the mountain at the chalets a path leads over a shoulder of the mountain back to Engelberg. [This latter route I was only told of, and cannot speak from experience. I think it must be a pleasant walk.] ROUTE 121. Borca. Note. Pedestrians down the valley should from this point follow the path which runs along a wooden staging raised above the bed of the stream, and is much better than the mule-track. The staging, formerly used as a wood slide, runs continuously from Borca to the Ponte del Valt, where it crosses to the right bank, and must then be abandoned for the bridle-road as far as Campiole, the staging in the gorge having broken away. Below Campiole the wood-slide path should be again resumed as far as Ceppo Morelli. ROUTES 122 AND 127. Weissthor Pass. In crossing this pass from the Riffel to Macugnaga, I saw nothing of "the wall of frozen snow "like a tight-rope," spoken of as the chief difficulty of the pass. The route from the Riffel lay along gentle snow slopes, exactly as described, but there was a steep though very short (scarcely 5 minutes) snow slope to be ascended by steps up to the rocks of the Weissthor. ROUTE 127, p. 374. The passage of the Trift-Joch is much facilitated by the erection of a cabane at "la Mountet," on the southern slope of Lo Besso, just above the Zinal glacier, about 4 hours' easy walking from Zinal. By sleeping at this cabane (it is marked on Dufaur's map) the col may be reached early in the day (easily in 3 to 4 hours from the cabane), and the danger from falling stones almost entirely evaded. A ladder and rope, in addition to the chain, are also fixed near the foot of the rocks, at a point where an overhanging mass formerly barred the passage, and compelled the ascent of a steep iceslope. I can recommend the guides Simon and Louis Zufferey; one of them brother-in-law to Pont, landlord of the excellent Inn at S. Luc. They are both cheerful, active, and willing, and use their axes like men. Our time over the Trift was: Traversed glacier and reached foot of final moraine 12. 0, Noon. Thence it is about two hours' easy walking into Zermatt.—C. |