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Wild Card<br />
A journey in the 19 th century<br />
Before we commence our wanderings through the hitherto untravelled<br />
valleys around the Bernina, it may be useful to gather together a few of the<br />
principal characteristics of a region at present but little known in England.<br />
Von Tschudi says, "Nowhere do we find more intricate heights, lovelier valleys,<br />
or more luxuriant vegetation", than in the Grisons. "It contains more<br />
than one hundred and fifty valleys, and must be held to surpass every<br />
other district in the exhibition of those wonderful contrasts of sternness<br />
and beauty in which Nature gives play to her caprices."<br />
To no part of the canton can this description be more truly applied than<br />
to the Ober-Engadine and its many lateral valleys, which spread their<br />
branches far into the mountain region round the Bernina, extending upwards<br />
until they meet the chilling embraces of the glacier, or are enveloped<br />
in a mantle of snow. Nature is here seen in her most varied and attractive<br />
forms, <strong>–</strong> sparkling, transparent lakes, enshrined in rich pastoral<br />
valleys, reflecting the wooded slopes around; or verdant alps, surmounted<br />
by giants of the Alpine world, in their wildest, most imposing, and most<br />
beautiful aspects.<br />
From: "A Summer Tour in the Grisons and Italian Valleys of the Bernina", Mrs. Henry Freshfield<br />
© Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, London 1862<br />
(available print on demand from Amazon through the British Library<br />
Historical Print Editions programme)<br />
2<br />
www.rhb.ch/contura
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