More Science from an Easy Chair

After four days of “misconduct,” Interlaken bursts into sunlight, and the Jungfrau shines through the mountain gap “absolutely brilliant and unearthly.” Sir E. Ray Lankester walks toward the ice-world—and finds wonders closer to hand, too.

In an early-September journey through Switzerland’s Oberland, Lankester follows a rushing glacier-torrent beneath pine forests and sheer cliffs. There he watches trout thrive in water so cold and turbulent it seems impossible for fish to live in it; farther on, humble-bees trigger the delicate mechanism by which yellow sage transfers pollen, while edelweiss looks almost cut from white flannel. With a naturalist’s precision and a traveller’s delight, he makes each encounter a small revelation. What hidden designs will the next turn in the valley disclose?

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