There are mountains that consist entirely of ice--_Firnen_; they shine like glass and get their isolated conical shape from the process of melting in the summer.--Clouds form in the mountain-gorges and attach themselves to the rocks; herefrom prognostication of the weather.--View from on high when one stands above the clouds. The landscape seems to lie before one like a great lake, from which islands stand forth.--In the summer, cascades everywhere in the mountains.--Chamois graze in flocks, the picket (_Vorgeis_) piping in case of danger.--Weather signs: Swallows fly low, aquatic birds dive, sheep graze eagerly, dogs paw up the earth, fish leap from the water. 'The gray governor of the valley (_Thalvogt_) is coming'; when this or that mountain puts on a cap, then drop the scythe and take the rake.--Peculiarity of a certain lake that it draws to itself persons sleeping on its bank. A large amount of such conscientious note-taking, aided by a marvelous power of visualization, and supplemented also by what Goethe could tell from personal observation, resulted in a remarkably vivid and accurate local color. A letter of Schiller's written in December, 1803, tells of a purpose to go to Switzerland before he should print his play. The plan was not carried out, but if it had been there would have been little to change; for 'William Tell' reads throughout like the work of one thoroughly familiar with Swiss character, topography and folk-lore. There is not a slip of any importance in the entire play. Of course the conspiring farmers are idealized and their enemies are diabolized; but all this is so in the saga. Schiller had to deal with a patriotic myth, and he made no attempt to go behind the romantic veil of tradition; his purpose being simply to present the poetic essence of the saga as handed down by Tschudi. And he succeeded admirably. So far as the Swiss people are concerned, he well deserves the memorial they have placed in his honor upon the Mythenstein, near the legendary birth-place of their national independence.