[85] A report, made in connection with the Swiss National Exhibition of 1883, calculated that up to 1880, 1002 inns had been built for the special use of travellers, and that they contained 58,137 beds, an average of 58 apiece. The capital value of the land, buildings, and furniture belonging to these was estimated at 320,000,000 francs; the gross profits on which were 53,000,000 francs, or seventeen per cent.; this was reduced by deduction of working expenses to 16,000,000 francs, or five per cent. Of these 1002 inns no fewer than 283 are situated in positions above three thousand four hundred feet, and 14 are actually above six thousand five hundred and sixty-two feet in elevation.
Switzerland only became a “play-ground” within the last century. The first English guide-book appeared in 1818, by Daniel Wall, of London. The first of any kind was published in 1684, by Wagner, a Zurich naturalist, and called “Index Memorabilium Helvetiæ.”
[86] Ruskin.
[87] When these storms break upon the mountain, be it night or day, the bells of the village churches are vigorously rung to exorcise the evil one, and bring the pious villagers on their knees in prayer.
[88] These are made of maple, linden, and pine by the shepherds themselves, who bestow much time on their manufacture. The ladles are made in the shape of shells. The milk-strainer, the measures, and the milk-hods are all elegantly shaped and very clean.
[89] The chamois is a small species of antelope, somewhat resembling a goat. Its hoofs are remarkably cloven, with a protruding border, which enables it to climb almost perpendicular declivities. Its muscular power is great: it can leap chasms twenty feet wide, and jump down rocks the same distance to platforms with only just room enough for its four hoofs. In the autumn, when strongest and fattest, it is black, in the early spring gray, and in the summer red.
[90] It measures four and one-half feet in length and nine to ten feet from wing to wing extended, weighs as much as twenty pounds, and is of a rusty brown color. It is a fierce enemy of sheep, goats, dogs, hares, etc., and has been known to carry off young children.
[91] The Swiss infant is bandaged into a large piece of cloth,—to be kept straight, it is explained,—and resembles a pappoose. In the country churches can be seen old paintings of the Virgin holding the infant Christ swathed in just the same manner.
[92] A French writer, Picot, went so far as to say of the peasants of Valais: “The Valaisans, far from desiring to attract attention from the world, are jealous of their obscurity, of their ignorance, and even of their poverty, which they believe essential to their happiness.” Many localities have their written existence in song or story. The words of the Vaudois poet, Juste Olivier, “Vivons de notre vie,” have sunk into the hearts of a number of writers who, under their own public alone, are cherishing and seeking to reproduce the life about them, dwelling especially upon those local and traditional phases which they feel daily to be giving way before the march of progress.
[93] The winds, refrigerated in their passage over fields of ice and snow, meet there a warm aerial current coming from the plains of Italy.