Yet, beautiful as this landscape undoubtedly is, I had seen it surpassed in Switzerland.

The immense valley which lies spread out before Brussa is uncultivated, deserted, and unwatered; no carpet of luxuriant verdure, no rushing river, no pretty village, gives an air of life to this magnificent and yet monotonous region; and no giant mountains covered with eternal snow look down upon the plain beneath.

Pictures like these I had frequently found in Switzerland, in the Tyrol, and also near Salzburg.

Here I saw, indeed, separate beauties, but no harmonious whole.

Olympus is a fine majestic mountain, forming an extended barrier; but its height can scarcely exceed 6000 feet; {71b} and during the present month it is totally despoiled of its surface of glittering snow.