The sensation after the car leaves level ground at the station in Vitznau and begins to climb steadily up the mountain is peculiar. The ground seems to melt away, and yet is always replaced. As we mount higher and higher, the view becomes more extensive. Now we can see the little town we have just left on the pretty little bay, at the foot of the mountains. Beyond it the lake stretches out to the mountains that seem to come to its very edge. Then the road passes through a tunnel, a marvel of engineering skill, for going through there the ascent is at a rise of twenty-five degrees.
Emerging from this tunnel, the train speeds across a bridge, over a yawning chasm, whose sides are lined with stunted trees and great bowlders, that are washed by a large stream which takes its rise higher up the mountain.
From this point the view is grand. Pilate, towering above the lake, is clearly seen on the right; just below is Weggis, and further on the bright buildings of Lucerne shine in the sunlight, while the lake, with its different arms, looks like “a painted sea.” All around and above are the huge red rocks of the Rigi. There are two or three stations along the route, but we push steadily on, the views becoming grander and grander with each successive step, until the summit is reached, and then the panorama is complete. You see the Alps in the eastern part of Switzerland, the massive pile of the Loudi, all the western mountains of Schwyz, and to the north the cantons of Zug, Zurich and Lucerne spread out like a map at our feet. Way down the valley can be seen eleven different lakes, with little clumps of houses, the villages on the shores of the “Vierwaldstätter See.”
Passing by the great hotels that flourish here so high above the world, we go to the great bluff which is so prominently seen from Lucerne, and there the view is magnificent. As far as the eye can reach on the south are the countless peaks of the Alps, covered with snow the year around. Near at hand are beautiful valleys with winding rivers and straight, thread-like roads.
RIGI KULM.
As we stand there, lost in wonder at the overpowering magnificence of the scene, the sun, which up to this time had been shining brightly, was obscured by clouds, and we were treated to a thunder storm which raged with terrific fury for half an hour or more. Then the sun broke forth again in all his splendor and we saw the clouds disappear beneath his powerful rays.
