Geneva, Aug. 19Dear Jessee:-
Our days in Switzerland and the mountains are almost over and I am so sorry! I wonder if you are back in Nashua or whether you are still in Phillips. I hope you are there, for it is so lovely - and I hope your feet are progressing so that walking is easier all the time. And I wonder what is happening out in Cleveland! My mail has been irregular this summer - I had one letter from you written along in July after you had gotten to Maine - but of late I've had almost no mail from anybody. I strongly suspect our failure to go to Cortina meant that a lot has been lost! That was a real disappointment, but we had a fine time in Stubai-tal near Innsbruck - and probably really it was just as well.
If Miss Smith has been sending my letters to you, do keep them for I've not even written in my Line-a-day book. I want to make that up from the letters after I get home. It is so hard to write when one is moving about, no matter how much you want to. Just once I'd like to stay somewhere long enough to feel acquainted with it! And we are going so much more slowly than most travellers, too.
We came yesterday down from Zermatt where we had had wonderful weather for seeing the Matterhorn. It had not rained for seven weeks until the day we arrived. As a result the snow is much less than usual on all the mountains - very little on the steep upper part of the Matterhorn. So the climbing has been wonderful. All around were men with such awfully heavy hob-nailed shoes, with ropes and ice-axes. The guides looked very serious and competent. Once when I looked at the top of the Matterhorn through a telescope, three men were silhouetted against the sky, and in a moment they started to come down. A relief expedition went out one night because eleven men who had gone up from the Italian side, 'twas said without a guide, were seen just starting down at dusk, and not on the trail. The next morning seven of them were seen going up early as if to go over the top toward Italy, but the relief party had gone long before. We left - 'twas yesterday morning - and so I don't know any more. At least 5 have been killed this year.
We have had such a good time with the flowers. Sometime I'd like to come here right from the steamer, so as to get them at their best at the end of June. Now they are mostly gone by, but yet they are fascinating. When I went up to Riffelberg, 8000+, the main thing was a little mauve gentian, not more than 4 inches, often only 2 inches high, with often 8-12 flowers. It's very inconspicuous, but quite lovely. The brilliant blue little gentians we found at the Stelvio. Here the trees are much more varied than anywhere we've been. It is quite warm and sheltered and the hillsides are vine-covered. I'd try the wine if I knew what kinds to order - but I don't.
The water of all the glacial streams is grey and cloudy, but here the lake is the most wonderful clear blue I ever saw. We followed the Rhone down from its source and know how grey it went into the lake 45 miles away, but all its sediment has settled, and it surely is wonderful here where the Rhone leaves again. Last night from the train as we came in we saw Mont Blanc as lovely and white and majestic as could be, quite far away across the lake beyond the other mountains.
We're going to drive around the town now, so I'll be saying good-bye to you. And love to the folks - Mittie - and Frank and Louise and Elizabeth - or to Lottie & Jessie - but I hope you're in Phillips -
Much, much love, Jessee dear -
AbbyNovember 19, 1929