Letters of Rev. John W. Alvord

& from the Myrengen valley on the other side gazing at the falls of Reichenbach then ^almost tired to death^ taking [poise] over the greater & lesser [illegible] for 2 [illegible] days. Your courage perhaps would fail you on some of those dizzy heights — or along those zigzag paths cut in the mountain side — per -haps you would not like to climb up so far upon the slippery glaziers as I did, & ^crawling^ through their chilly crevices ^you would have shuddered^ — but I can assure you that upon a sultry August day it is very comfortable to be up there & the bracing air makes even an invalid feel strong.You would hardly believe me if I should tell you that I could one day fall asleep while the thun-der of avalanches was all around me—so weary was I with excitement & toil— & you would probably have waked up as I did when one larger than the rest came ^tumbling^ with a crash over a pre-cipice at least 1000 feet high—You ^grow nervous as you think of^ my danger but you need not, for so enormous is the scenery here that what seems to be very near you, will often be miles away & no traveller stops only in a place when it is perfectly safe—so we went on (for I had plen-ty of company even that of ladies) past the base of the Wetterhorn [stamp] overhanging Jungfrau the Eiger—the Grimsel & many other peaks whose tops are in the clouds—into the valley of Lauterbrunnen where I saw the Staubach falls 800 or 900 feet in height—& still on through the most romantic scenery to Interlaken where we [illegible] our guide & horses—"Well" you will say "it was enough to still you"—I thought myself the effort a little desperate & felt I confess ^somewhat^ a-fraid of the consequences but through a kind Providence the experiment has been very much blessed. I came on to Bern, Basil, Heidelberg Frankfurt—Down the Rhine—to Aix La Chappelle Brussels & here & as yet I have experienced no [unclear] but feel better than at any time before since (I left home).