158 MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 



victor is entitled to wear the largest wreath and bear the most sonoious bell 

 attached to his neck by an ornamented belt. He shows by his steady gait 

 that he is fully aware of the dignity. From time to time he gazes round to 

 observe that none break the rank; and should some heedless bull-calf ven- 

 ture to press forward out of his place, he is speedily reminded of his proper 

 position by a poke in the side from the horns of the indignant leader. The 

 rest of the herd are ])rovided, according to their pretensions, with trappings 

 and bells ; and the din and uproar which prevail in a town, caused by a clat- 

 ter of metal intermingled with the shouts of herdsmen and the lowing cattle, 

 when the herds of different proprietors enter at the same time, produce a 

 scene nut unlike one of those unmusical concerts which the French call a 

 Charivari. Such tinklings are anything but drowsy. Behind the cattle walks 

 the herdsman, or senner, decked out in his best, with a bunch of gay flowers 

 and a sprig of rosemary in his hat. He drags after him a thick thong of lea- 

 ther, fifteen or twenty feet long, which ever and anon, bj' a strong exertion 

 of muscular force, he wields above his head and cracks like a whip, but with 

 a report as loud as a pistol, much to the edification of the spectators and to 

 the terror of all stragglers and loiterers in the herd. The farmer, or propri- 

 etor, brings up the rear, riding in a neat small cart laden with rich butter 



and cheese Idem. 



Pass of the Stelvio This very remarkable road, the highest in Eu- 

 rope practicable for carriages, being 2,300 feet, or nearly half a mile, perpen- 

 dicular above the Simplon, and 1,000 feet above the Great St. Bernard, was 

 constructed by the Austrian Government in order to open an additional line 

 of communication from Inspruck to Milan, between "Vienna and the centre of 

 Liorabardy. It was completed in 1824. Whether we consider the boldness 

 of the design, the difficulties of its execution from the great height and ex- 

 posure to storms and avalanches, or the grandure of the scenery through 

 which it passes, the rout of the Stelvio is the most extraordinary in Europe. 

 The galleries cut for miles through the solid rock, along the margin of the 

 lake of Como; those higher up built of massive masonry strong enough to 

 resist the fall of avalanches ; the long causeways carried over morasses ; the 

 bridges thrown across torrents; the long succession of zig-zag terraces carried 

 up with so gradual a slope that an English mail-coach might trot up on one 

 side, and scarce require to lock a wheel on the other, which nevertheless scale 

 and surmount one of the highest ridges in the Alps; these are works which, 

 without exaggeration, deserve to be called stupendous. But the works and 

 agencies of Nature with which they come in contrast reduce them to compa- 

 rative insignificance. This road, upon which so much labour and treasure 

 has been expended, is seldom passable for more than four months in the 

 year, from June to October. Every spring, when the snow disappears, the 

 ravages of the winter's storm and avalanche are disclosed to view; wooden 

 galleries broken throug'i, large tracts of the road swept away, others over- 

 whelmed with rubbish and fragments of rock. These injuries, annually oc- 

 curring, are to be repaired only at the vast expense of 11,000 florins a-year, 

 and after a lapse of considerable time. From June to the beginning of Oc- 

 tober, the passage is generally secure from all risk, except immediately after 

 a fall of snow. Under such circumstances it is prudent to wait twenty -four 

 hours. The most interesting scenes on the rout are the shores of the Como 

 lake and its excavated galleries, the gorge of Spondalunga, the splendid view 



