face
of a precipice at a vast height from the ground; and, in times of flood,
it brings down such a mass of sand, gravel, stones, rubbish, and black
mud as sometimes to threaten to overwhelm the village."

"Is there a village there?" asked Rollo.

"Yes," said Mr. George; "the village of Meyringen. This waterfall comes
down out of the mountain just back of the village; and they have had to
build up an immense wall, a quarter of a mile long and twenty or thirty
feet high, to keep the torrent of mud and sand out of the streets. Once
it broke through and filled up the church four feet deep all over the
floor with mud, and gravel, and stones. Some of the stones were bigger
than your head."

Rollo was very much interested in hearing this account of the Fall of
Alpbach,--for that was the name of this unmanageable cataract,--and
expressed a very strong desire to go to Meyringen and see it.

"We will go," said Mr. George. "It lies at the head of the valley of the
Aar, which we are now entering. The River Aar, after being formed by
these cataracts and cascades, flows through the valley, making two long
lakes in its course. This Lake of Thun is the second one. The other is
the Lake of Brienz. The upper end of the Lake of Thun is a few miles
only from the lower end of the Lake of Brienz; and Interlachen is
between the two."

[Illustration: THE LAKE SHORE.]

About an hour after this conversation our two travellers might have been
seen sitting together upon the deck of the little steamer which was
paddling its way merrily along the lake, and occupying themselves in
viewing and talking about the extraordinary spectacle presented by
the slopes of the mountains which bordered the lake on either side, and
which seemed to shut the lake in, as it were, between two immense walls
of green.

Rollo was extremely interested, as he sailed along, in viewing these
mountain slopes, exploring the landscape carefully in every part,
studying out all the objects of interest which it contained--the
forests, the cultivated fields, the great Swiss cottages, the
pasturages, the little chalets, the zigzag paths leading up and down,
and all the other picturesque and striking characteristics of a Swiss
landscape.

The slopes were very beautiful, and densely inhabited; and they were
really very steep, though they looked much steeper than they were, as
all hills and slopes do to a person looking upon them from below and
facing them.

"It seems," s