Travels in Switzerland and in the Country of the Grisons; In a Series of Letters to William Melmoth, Esq

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1802 Excerpt: ...of the neighbouring glaciers, ' and the annual increase or diminution of their cattle. These events, the sole that can interest a people who know nothing but their mountains and their herds; and whose life is so uniform that they do not distinguish a single era in it, are written in thirty different hands, with the fame characters, and in the fame style. The names even of these highlanders attest the antiquity of their race. They bear those of the places iu the vicinity of which they built their cottages. One is called John Rock, another Peter Orchard, and a third James Wood; however, the rock from which the first borrowed his name is, since many centuries, covered by a glacier; there is no trace of an orchard to be found near the cottage of the second; and the forest which overshaded the dwelling of the third, has been overwhelmed by au avalanche, time out of mind. i By comparing what I have said here, with my account of the democratical nations, the reader will be enabled to form an adequate idea of the shades which characterize the diverse portions of the inhabitants of the Alps. They are very numerous. Even among the herdsmen I have remarked two very distinct races, not onlyin separate cantons, but sometimes in the very fame. The inhabitants of the lower vallies, who are only shepherds by choice, I found also very unlike those which are spread over the neighbouring heights, which seem to be of a truly nomade origin; and to these principally, we must apply what I have siud of the aborigines that inhabit the higher Alps., ... Want of leisure and os opportunities prevented me from making any farther researches into the antiquities of this people. The sovereign council of Berne, have as I am informed lately caused inquiries to be made in order lo ascertain t...