r and to follow in due time.

The porter carried the baggage on his back, by means of a frame, such as
has been already described. Rollo followed him, and thus he arrived at
last safely at the hotel.

CHAPTER V.

THE HOTEL.

One of the greatest sources of interest and pleasure for travellers who
visit Switzerland and the Alps for the first time, especially if they
are travellers from America, is the novelty of the arrangements and
usages of the hotels.

One reason why every thing is so different in a Swiss hotel from what we
witness in America is, that all the arrangements are made to accommodate
parties travelling for pleasure. Every thing is planned, therefore, with
a view of making the hotel as attractive and agreeable to the guests as
possible.

The Hotel de l'Ecu, where our party have now arrived, is very pleasantly
situated on the quay facing the lake. It stands near the further end of
the bridge, as seen in the engraving on page 58. It is the building
where you see the flag flying.

Indeed, all the principal hotels in Geneva are situated on the quay.
Quite a number of the large and handsome edifices which you see in the
engraving, on both sides the water, are hotels. The hotel keepers know
very well that most of the travellers that come to Switzerland come not
on business, but to see the lakes, and mountains, and other grand
scenery of their country. Accordingly, in almost every place, the
situation chosen for the hotels is the one which commands the prettiest
views.

Then, in arranging the interior of the house, they always place the
public apartments, such as the breakfast and dining rooms, and the
reading room, in the pleasantest part of it; and they have large windows
opening down to the floor, and pretty little tables in the recesses of
them, so that while you are eating your breakfast or reading the
newspapers you have only to raise your eyes and look out upon the most
charming prospects that the town affords.

Then, besides this, they have gardens, and summer houses, and raised
terraces, overlooking roads, or rivers, or beautiful valleys, and little
observatories, and many other such contrivances to add to the charms of
the hotel, and make the traveller's residence in it more agreeable.

They hope in this way to induce the traveller to prolong his stay at
their house. And it has the intended effect. Indeed, at almost every
hotel where a party of travellers arrive, in a new town, their