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Railway Up the Rigi

keepers. But, as I was resolute in my determination to proceed, the difficulties vanished, and a few minutes after seven o'clock we were clattering along the stony street which leads from the village. fatiguing, was the old mode of ascent, on For the first hour of the ascent we were foot or horse-back, winding through pine- in deep shadow. There was, indeed, no forests, or among masses of rock, of which real danger; but there was sufficient the mountain is composed. appearance of it to give the zest of excite- Out of half a dozen visits to the Rigi, ment to our journey. Of course, as we the one to which I look back with most were climbing the mountain side the enjoyable feelings is a night ascent. Of moon was rising higher in the heavens, course, the people at the inn protested and by eight o'clock we could see the surrounding peaks lit up in a radiance which there by the lights of innumerable cotmade the gloom in which we were mov- tages; others were clear and distinct in ing the deeper by contrast. In a little the moonlight; overhead stretched a while, turning a projecting corner, we cloudless sky, with one planet and a star came out upon a shoulder of the moun- or two, uneclipsed by the moonbeams. tain, and found ourselves suddenly stand- We stood for some moments silent and ing in a flood of intense white light. spell-bound. The silence was at length Below us was the lake flashing in the broken by one of our party exclaiming, in the words of the psalmist: Lord, how Round us stood the mountains, some manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast in deep shadow, dctted over here and Thou made them all." moonbeams.