he hill)
falls over a projecting rock, so that one can walk under the
torrent as it comes over. It leaps so clear that one is hardly
splashed, except at one place. Well, when it gets dark, they burn,
for five minutes, one of the strongest steady fireworks of a
crimson colour, behind the fall. The red light shines right
through, turning the whole waterfall into a torrent of fire."

"_11th June, 1866._

"We leave, according to our programme, for Interlachen
to-day,--with great regret, for the peace and sweetness of this
place are wonderful and the people are good; and though there is
much drinking and quarrelling among the younger men, there appears
to be neither distressful poverty, nor deliberate crime: so that
there is more of the sense I need, and long for, of fellowship with
human creatures, than in any place I have been at for years. I
believe they don't so much as lock the house-doors at night; and
the faces of the older peasantry are really very beautiful. I have
done a good deal of botany, and find that wild-flower botany is
more or less inexhaustible, but the cultivated flowers are infinite
in their caprice. The forget-me-nots and milkworts are singularly
beautiful here, but there is quite as much variety in English
fields as in these, as long as one does not climb much--and I'm
very lazy, compared to what I used to be,"

"_LAUTERBRUNNEN, 13th June, 1866._

"We had a lovely evening here yesterday, and the children enjoyed
and understood it better than anything they have yet seen among the
Alps. Constance was in great glory in a little walk I took her in
the twilight through the upper meadows: the Staubbach seen only as
a grey veil suspended from its rock, and the great Alps pale above
on the dark sky. She condescended nevertheless to gather a great
bunch of the white catchfly,--to make 'pops' with,--her friend
Marie at the Giesbach having shown her how a startling detonation
may be obtained, by skilful management, out of its globular calyx.

"This morning is not so promising,--one of the provoking ones which
will neither let you stay at home with resignation, nor go anywhere
with pleasure. I'm going to take the children for a little quiet
exploration of the Wengern path, to see how they like it, and if
the weather betters--we