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mountain of the conic form, as Langdale pike, etc.] [Footnote Q: For most of the images in the next sixteen verses I am indebted to M. Raymond's interesting observations annexed to his translation of Coxe's 'Tour in Switzerland'.] [Footnote R: The rays of the sun drying the rocks frequently produce on their surface a dust so subtile and slippery, that the wretched chamois-chasers are obliged to bleed themselves in the legs and feet in order to secure a footing.] [Footnote S: The people of this Canton are supposed to be of a more melancholy disposition than the other inhabitants of the Alps: this, if true, may proceed from their living more secluded.] [Footnote T: These summer hamlets are most probably (as I have seen observed by a critic in the 'Gentleman's Magazine') what Virgil alludes to in the expression "Castella in tumulis."] [Footnote U: Sugh, a Scotch word expressive of the sound of the wind through the trees.] [Footnote V: This wind, which announces the spring to the Swiss, is called in their language Foen; and is according to M. Raymond the Syroco of the Italians.] [Footnote W: This tradition of the golden age of the Alps, as M. Raymond observes, is highly interesting, interesting not less to the philosopher than to the poet. Here I cannot help remarking, that the superstitions of the Alps appear to be far from possessing that poetical character which so eminently distinguishes those of Scotland and the other mountainous northern countries. The Devil with his horns, etc., seems to be in their idea, the principal agent that brings about the sublime natural revolutions that take place daily before their eyes.] [Footnote X: Alluding to several battles which the Swiss in very small numbers have gained over their oppressors the house of Austria; and in particular, to one fought at Naeffels near Glarus, where three hundred and thirty men defeated an army of between fifteen and twenty thousand Austrians. Scattered over the valley are to be found eleven stones, with this inscription, 1388, the year the battle was fought, marking out as I was told upon the spot, the several places where the Austrians attempting to make a stand were repulsed anew.] [Footnote Y: As Schreck-Horn, the pike of terror. Wetter-Horn, the pike of storms, etc. etc.] [Footnote Z: The effect of the famous air called in French Ranz des Vaches upon the Swiss troops removed from their native country is well
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