The _raison d'être_ of Silvaplana was the Julier Pass. Before the construction of the railway, this was a frequent route for entering the Engadine, which makes a much more striking first impression here than from the Albula. After emerging from the grey desolation of the two upper reaches of the descent, a superb view of the Bernina peaks and the ice-fields is gradually disclosed. More and more the panorama is extended to the right, first by the Fex peaks and glaciers, and finally by the massive Margna. The one thing lacking is the Engadine; we seem to have arrived in a land of serried and far-spread mountains, {20} in which there is no place for the valley of the Inn. So precipitous are its sides at this point that no suggestion is given of the broad lake-filled chasm intervening between the immediate foreground and the sombre rampart that rises to those glistening fields and summits. At length we are among the first outposts of the forest, gaunt pines and battered larch, scourged by centuries of storm; suddenly we see through the foliage the glint of water and of verdure; a moment after, and the lovely valley from Sils to St. Moritz, with lakes and forests, meadows and clustered homes, is stretched before us. It is a pleasant walk from Silvaplana to the pass, a broad saddle of bog and pasture, flecked with snow, seamed with rivulets, and bright with abundant flora. The tarns on the left are stocked with trout in spite of being sealed with ice and buried in snow for half the year. A path from the dairy of the Julier Alp takes us in three hours to the summit of the Piz Julier, where, 'walled by wide air and roofed by boundless heaven,' we have an extensive and splendid view. Another delightful walk from Silvaplana, as from most places in the Upper Engadine, is to the Fuorcla Surlej. This saddle between Piz Corvatsch and Munt Arias is equally accessible from Silvaplana, Sils, St. Moritz, and Pontresina; it thus affords a pleasant way of going from any place in the main valley to the Bernina side-valley. {21} The road up the valley from Silvaplana lies straitly between the left shore of the lake and the mountains that rise precipitously from it. Walkers will do well, after Camfer, to take the path that skirts the lakes on the right side of the valley, every step of which is beautiful. It leads now under shady trees, now over parklike or rock-strewn slopes; picks its way along precipitous hillsides, amid many-hued crags, set with steadfast-rooted pine and larch, festooned with red roses, inlaid with dwarf rhododendron, blue clematis, and countless lovely flowers; occasionally may be found masses of the rare and stately Alpine columbine. On the right are the ever-changing waters of the lakes, or the flat, emblossomed meadows that separate them.