After an hour or two, we began to think of descending, as the path was yet to be found.  The summit, which was a mile or more in length, extended farther westward, and by climbing over the dwarf pines for some time, we saw a little wooden house above us.  It stood near the highest part of the peak, and two or three men were engaged in repairing it, as a shelter for travelers.  They pointed out the path which went down on the side toward St. Gilgen, and we began descending.  The mountain on this side is much less steep, but the descent is fatiguing enough.  The path led along the side of a glen where mountain goats were grazing, and further down we saw cattle feeding on the little spots of verdure which lay in the forest.  My knees became so weak from this continued descent, that they would scarcely support me; but we were three hours, partly walking and partly running down, before we reached the bottom.  Half an hour’s walk around the head of the St. Wolfgang See, brought us to the little village of St. Gilgen.

The valley of St. Gilgen lies like a little paradise between the mountains.  Lovely green fields and woods slope gradually from the mountain behind, to the still greener lake spread out before it, in whose bosom the white Alps are mirrored.  Its picturesque cottages cluster around the neat church with its lofty spire, and the simple inhabitants have countenances as bright and cheerful as the blue sky above them.  We breathed an air of poetry.  The Arcadian simplicity of the people, the pastoral beauty of the fields around and the grandeur of the mountains which shut it out from the world, realized my ideas of a dwelling place, where, with a few kindred spirits, the bliss of Eden might almost be restored.

We stopped there two or three hours to relieve our hunger and fatigue.  My boots had suffered severely in our mountain adventure, and I called at a shoemaker’s cottage to get them repaired.  I sat down and talked for half an hour with the family.  The man and his wife spoke of the delightful scenery around them, and expressed themselves with correctness and even elegance.  They were much pleased that I admired their village so greatly, and related every thing which they supposed could interest me.  As I rose to go, my head nearly touched the ceiling, which was very low.  The man exclaimed:  “Ach Gott! how tall!” I told him the people were all tall in our country; he then asked where I came from, and I had no sooner said America, than he threw up his hands and uttered an ejaculation of the greatest surprise.  His wife observed that “it was wonderful how far man was permitted to travel.”  They wished me a prosperous journey and a safe return home.