The Grimsel is one of the stupendous mountains of Switzerland, 5,220 feet in height, as marked on Keller’s admirable map of that country.  It is situated within the Canton of Berne, but bordering on that of the Valais, and not far from Uri.  The auberge represented in the sketch, although not quite upon the very summit of the mountain, is almost above the limit of vegetation, and far remote from any other dwelling.  Indeed, excepting a few chalets, used as summer shelter for the attendants upon the mountain cattle, but deserted in winter, there is no human habitation for many miles round; and it is one of the very few spots where the traveller has an opportunity of reposing for the night, under a comfortable roof, in so lofty a region of the atmosphere, amidst scenes of Alpine desolation—­or rather, the primitive elements of Nature, “the naked bones of the earth waiting to be clothed.”

The proprietor of this simple, but agreeable, auberge, is what Jeannie Deans called her father, “a man of substance,” and amongst other sources of wealth possesses about three hundred goats, which contrive to pick up their living from the scanty verdure of the surrounding hills.  Three times a-day they regularly assemble in front of the auberge to be milked, affording the raw material for a considerable manufacture of cheese.  While we were lounging about before dinner, admiring the beautiful shapes of the rocky peaks, which even in the beginning of September were blanched with the previous night’s snow, we were pleasantly surprised by the sound of a cheerful bleating, which was echoed on every side; and one after another the graceful creatures, as small and playful as our kids, popped up amongst the fragments of rocks from all quarters until the “gathering” was complete, and our meal was enlivened by the treble of their voices as the milking proceeded.  When the operation was over, off they scampered again, “the hills before them were to choose”—­again to return in due season with their bounteous store for the benefit of man.  “This is not solitude.”  The milk is rich, but tastes rather too strong of the goat to be agreeable to every one at first, although probably we should soon have thought cow’s milk comparatively insipid.  On the day’s journey we had seen some of these goats at a considerable distance from the auberge, and a young man who carried our luggage, after giving chase to several, at length caught one, and in spite of her remonstrances, milked her by main force into the cup of a pocket flask, that we might enjoy a draught of the beverage.  Still holding the animal, he then filled the vessel more than once for himself, and it was amusing to see the gusto with which he drank it off.  We afterwards had the milk with coffee; indeed both here and on the Righi it was “Hobson’s choice,” goat’s milk or none at all.