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Fires and winter clothes would have been acceptable, but at last came warmth and sunshine, and we set off for the Col de la Schlucht, the grandest feature of the Vosges, and the goal of every traveller in these regions.
The fighting in the other part of the Vosges had to do principally with the valley of the Fecht. The stream runs from Schlucht and Bramont east, and proceeds past Münster and Metzeral. On its right bank is the railroad from Colmar to Metzeral. The heights in the upper part of the valley were held by the Chasseurs Alpins; and they desired to take both towns.
There is a strange contrast between the calm valley of Gerardmer, a little haven of tranquil loveliness and repose, and the awful solitude and austerity of the Schlucht, from which it is separated by a few hours only. Not even a cold grey day can turn Gerardmer into a dreary place, but in the most brilliant sunshine this mountain pass is none the less majestic and solemn.
The sound of these rushing waters is long in our ears as we continue to climb the splendid mountain road that leads to the Schlucht, and nowhere else. From a giddy terrace cut in the sides of the shelving forest ridge we now get a prospect of the little lakes of Longuemer and Retournemer, twin gems of superlative loveliness in the wildest environment.
The Frankfurter Zeitung, July 31st, gives Bethmann-Hollweg and the Chief of the General Staff the lie direct. The paragraph is dated July 30th, Kolmar, and runs: "The Schlucht Pass has just been barricaded by German frontier guards. This is to prevent motor-lorries and such-like vehicles from entering French territory without our permission. The report is an absolute invention.
One obtains the sense of contrast by slow degrees, so that the mind is prepared for it and in the mood for it. The acme, the culminating point of Vosges scenery is thus reached by a gradually ascending scale of beauty and grandeur from the moment we quit Gerardmer, till we stand on the loftiest summit of the Vosges chain, dominating the Schlucht.
But long before this single instance occurred, French airmen had penetrated into Southern Germany and dropped bombs, and French troops had attacked our frontier-protection-troops in the Schlucht Pass. Up till now our soldiers have confined themselves entirely to protecting the frontier. "So far the report from the Chief of the General Staff.
Treading the road built by Napoleon, I was enveloped in the gloom of the wondrous Gondo Schlucht, to come out into a broad valley, a green amphitheatre, above which a company of white, mountain gods sat grouped to watch a cloud-fight. If I had not been heart-broken by the cruelty of Helen Blantock, I should have been almost minded to thank her for sending me here.
As I ascended, the mountains became rougher and wilder, and in the shady hollows were still drifts of snow. Enjoying every thing very much, I walked on without taking notice of the road, and on reaching a wild, rocky chasm called the "Schlucht," was obliged to turn aside and take a footpath over a high mountain to Andreasberg, a town built on a summit two thousand feet above the sea.
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