Wednesday, July 20. Examined, not the lions, but the bears of Berne.
It is indeed a city of bears, as its name imports. There are bears on
its gates, bears on its fountains, bears in its parks and gardens,
bears every where. But, though Berne rejoices in a fountain adorned
with an image of Saturn eating children, nevertheless, the old
city - quaint, quiet, and queer - looks as if, bear-like, it had been
hybernating good-naturedly for a century, and were just about to wake
up.
Engaged a _voiture_, and drove to Thun. Dined, and drove by the
shore of the lake to Interlachen, arriving just after a brilliant
sunset.
Thursday, July 21. S. and G. remained at the Belvedere. W., II., and I
took a guide and _voiture_ for Lauterbrunn. Here we visited
Byron's apocalyptic horse-tail waterfall, the Staubbach. This
waterfall is very sublime, all except the water and the fall. Whoever
has been "under the sheet" at Niagara will not be particularly
impressed here. This picture is sufficiently accurate, with the
exception of the cottage. People here do not build cottages under
waterfalls.
[Illustration: _of the waterfall and cliff rising sharply to the left
of the roadway. A cabin appears to be located very near its base._]
Here we crossed the Wengern Alps to Grindelwald.
