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ALPS. 



ALPS. 



216 



leads by the difficult pass of the Col-de-la-Rue to Modane in the 

 Savoyard province of Moriana. It is supposed to have been the pass 

 taken by Julius Caesar, when he crossed the Alps to attack the 

 Helvetii. The chief rivers which take their rise in the Cottian Alps 

 are the Dora Susina, on the side of Piedmont, and the Durance and 

 the Guil on the side of France. 



The Graian Alps. The Col of Mont-Cenis (6776 feet) is perhaps 

 the most frequented of all the passes across the great chain. There 

 is no evidence of its having been known to the Romans; it has 

 been frequently confounded by historians with the pass of Mont- 

 Genevre, as the two roads unite in the descent from their passes into 

 Italy at Susa. The earliest mention of it is by the historians of 

 Charlemagne, who record that Pepin passed this mountain with an 

 army to attack Astolphus, king of the Lombards. It continued a 

 difficult mule-road until, by order of Napoleon, the present route was 

 begun in 1803 and completed in 1810. This road leads from Lans-le- 

 bourg in the valley of the Arc, in Savoy, to Turin. A project for 

 cutting a tunnel under Mont-Cenis from Modane in the valley of the 

 Arc has been favourably entertained by the Sardinian government ; 

 the object being to connect the railroads of Piedmont with those of 

 Savoy and France. From the upper part of the valley of the Arc 

 above Laus-le-bourg two or three passes are found leading into the 

 valleys of the Viu and the Lanzo in Piedmont ; and from the upper 

 valley of the Isere mountain-passes lead into the Val-d'Aosta. The 

 principal of these is the pass of the Little St.-Bernard (7190 feet), 

 which was known to the Komans, and appears to have been made 

 practicable for cars by order of Augustus, but though described by 

 Kaunsure as the easiest of all the passes of the Alps, it is now only 

 practicable for mules. The evidence brought together by various 

 authors to show that by this pass the Carthaginians under Hannibal 

 entered Italy, is considered conclusive : so many essential points 

 confirm the account of Polybius, the nearest historian to the time of 

 the event. The Col is nearly a league in length and covered with fine 

 pasture. On it there is a column of great antiquity, supposed to be 

 ( Vltiu ; certainly ; t forms no part of a Roman temple which formerly 

 existed on the mountain, and of which the plan may be traced. 

 There is also .a large circle of stones on the plain, called by the 

 pix>ple of the country the Cirque d' Hannibal. The route of the pass 

 of the Little St. -Bernard connects the valley of the Isere in Savoy 

 with the Val-d'Aosta in Piedmont. The CoI-du-Bon-Homme is not 

 across the great chain. It leads, however, by the Savoy side to the 

 Col-de-la-Seigne, where commence the Pennine or High Alps. The 

 chief rivers which rise in the Graian Alps are the Northern Stura and 

 the Orca, both flowing across Piedmont into the Po ; towards Savoy 

 flow the Arc and the Isere, which rise in different parts of the lofty 

 Mont-Ixi : ran, but unite above Montinelian; and the united stream 

 joins the Rhone above Valence. 



Tht Pennine Alpt. This is the loftiest portion of the range, 

 including Mont-Blanc, Monte-Rosa, and Mont-Cervin, the three loftiest 

 peaks in Europe. On each side of Mont-Blanc ore Cols usually 

 -ed by pedestrians in their tours ; these are the Col-de-la-Seigne 

 feet), and the Col-de-Ferret (7613 feet.) From Mont-Blanc the 

 chain takes an east-north-east course, and the first great passage across 

 the Pennine Alps lies between Aosta in Piedmont and Mortigny in the 

 Vallais in Switzerland. This pass, which is by the Great St.-Bernard, 

 is of high antiquity, but it has never been practicable for cars : the 

 postage of Napoleon across this Col in 1800 has given it historical 

 celebrity. The Hospice, situated on the summit at an elevation of 

 8170 feet above the level of the sea, was until the late revolution in 

 Switzerland the most noted of these benevolent establishments 

 throughout the whole mountain-chain. It is now administered, we 

 believe, by officers appointed by the federal government, the property 

 of the monks having been sequestrated. Between the Great 

 St. -Bernard and the Simplon there are two other passes : the first is 

 the Col of Mont-Cervin, which is the loftiest pass in Euro]*, being 

 1 1 ,1 !5 feet above the sea-level. It is the path traversed in going from 

 < 'hitillon in the Val-d'Aosta to Visp, in the Vallais ; the second is the 

 Moro, the pass east of the former, which leads from Visp to the Val- 

 d'Oitsola : this appears to have been an ancient mule-road, but the 

 advance of the glaciers has destroyed it, and the route of the Simplon 

 superseded its use. The pass of the Simplon is the most eastward of 

 those in the Pennine division. This magnificent work, another of the 

 great benefits accomplished by Napoleon, leads from the Vallais to 

 Milan : its construction was completed amidst difficulties far sur- 

 passing those of any other route that has been made across the-Alps, 

 though its elevation is only 6576 feet. The principal rivers of this 

 division are the Dora Baltea, the Seaia, and the Dovedro, on the aide 

 of Piedmont ; and the Arve, and numerous other tributaries to the 

 Rhone, on the side of Savoy and Switzerland. 



The ffcltetic or Lepontian Alpe. East of the Simplon is the pass of 

 the Gries, which can be traversed by laden mules, though it lies 

 across the glaciers, it leads from tin- Upper Vallais to the Val-d'Ossola, 

 in Piedmont. But the chief pass of the Lepontian Alps is that 

 of St.-Gothard (6806 feet), which leads from Bellinzona, on the 

 southern side of the chain, through the Val-Levantina to Altorf and 

 Lake Luzern in Switzerland. This had long been a line of great 

 commercial intercourse, though only a mule-road; a carriage-road 

 now crosses it. In this division some of the largest Alpine rivers 



have their sources ; the Rhine and the Reuss on the north ; the Ticino 

 and the Maggia, which join the Po ; and the Rh6ne which enters the 

 Mediterranean. 



The Rhcetian Alps. Across this division of the chain there are 

 several good roads; first, by Mont-St.-Bernardin, at an elevation 

 of 6700 feet, leading from the Lago-Maggiore, Bellinzona, and the Val- 

 Misocco, to Coire. Another road leads from the Lake of Como and 

 Chiavenna, over the Splugen, a pass which was known to the Romans : 

 it falls into the route from St.-Bernardin to Coire, at the village of 

 Splugen, whence the road runs through the Via-Mala, and the finest 

 Alpine scenery of the Grisons. The route of the Splugen is lower 

 than that of St.-Bemardin ; it was constructed by the Austrian 

 government. A third carriage-road leads from Chiaveuna up the Val- 

 Bregaglia, and passes the great chain over the Maloya Pass into the 

 upper valley of the Inn, whence it follows the course of the Inn to 

 Innspruck ; this route was made by the Grisons to communicate with 

 a road over the Julier pass ( 8130 feet high), which, crossing the 

 northern boundary of the Inn, leads to Coire, the capital of the 

 Grisons. Another great road leads from the valley of the Inn across 

 the chain from Landeck to Glurns and the valley of the Adige ; its 

 greatest height does not exceed 4400 feet; it is the lowest of all the 

 passes across the great range. Descending a little way into the valley of 

 the Adige, it joins the new Austrian road, which crosses the buttress 

 ridge called Monte-Stelvio, and leads to Milan by the Valteliue ; the 

 elevation of the summit of this pass, though on a secondary range, is 

 9174 feet; it was constructed by the Austrian government, to obtain 

 an unbroken line of communication, through its own states, with 

 Lombardy ; it is the loftiest carriage-road in Europe. A fifth line is 

 the great road from Verona, by the Brenner pass, to Innspruck ; it 

 ascends by the valley of the Adige to Botzen, thence by that of the 

 Eigach to the Brenner pass, elevated 4657 feet above the level of the 

 wa : from the Brenner the road descends the valley of the Sill to 

 Innspruck. In the length of the Rhaetian chain, many minor passes 

 are found, and especially across the northern branch, communicating 

 with Coire; among these are the Septimer, the Julier, and the 

 Albula. 



The chief rivers that rise in the Rhxtian Alps are the Muesa, the 

 Maira, the Adda, the Oglio, the Eisach, and the Adige ; these all rise 

 on the south of the great chain and flow into Lombardy. On the 

 north is the Hinter-Rhein, which joins the Vorder-Rhein atReicheuau, 

 and afterwards collects all the streams on the northern side of the 

 Bernese Alps ; the Aar, the Linth, and the Reuss, bearing these and 

 a thousand minor tributary streams to the Rhine. Ea'st of these, but 

 flowing from the northern side, are the Inn, the Oetz, the Sill, and the 

 Ziller, which, united under the name of the Inn, flow on to the 

 Danube. From the southern chain of the Tyrol spring the Brenta, 

 the Piiive, and the Tagliameuto ; which, after watering the plains of 

 Friuli, flow into the Adriatic. 



Tht fioric Alps. These mountains form at their western extremity 

 a lofty range, especially the Gross-Glockuer, which divides the Moll, 

 a feeder of the Drave, from the Salzach, a feeder of the Inn. The 

 high road from Venice to Salzburg, crosses the great chain at the 

 Rastadter Taueru or Col at the height of 5113 feet, after having passed 

 over the Carnic branch at Tarvis, a little westwardly from Mont- 

 Terglou. Farther east, the road from Trieste to Vienna crosses the 

 Julian and Carnic chains, besides a branch connecting itself with the 

 None. Many carriage-roads, well constructed and well preserved, 

 traverse these Alps; and the scenery of these lower and eastern 

 ranges is nowhere surpassed in the whole extent of the mountainous 

 districts from the Rhone to the Danube. The great southern railroad 

 from Vienna to Trieste has already scaled the eastern ridges of the 

 Noric, the Styrian, and the Carnic Alps, and has reached the city of 

 Laybach, whence it is now (June, 1853) in course of completion to 

 Trieste, across the Julian Alps to the south-west of Laybach. 



Owing to the great elevation of the Alps many of their summits are 

 perpetually covered with snow. The line of perpetual snow lies 

 between 9000 to 9500 feet above the sea on the Italian slope ; on the 

 northern side it does not rise much above 8000 feet such is the 

 difference of climate on the two sides of the range. [SWITZERLAND.] 

 On thu summits of the mountains in some instances, but more 

 generally in the bottom of certain high transverse valleys, and coii- 

 siilurably below the line of perpetual snow, are vast masses of ice 

 called glaciers, some of them, as the Mer-de-Glace on the northern 

 slope of Mont-Blanc, being 12 miles long, nearly 5 miles wide, and 

 from 80 to 180 feet thick. The glaciers on the crest of the mountain!) 

 seem to be invariable in their extent, but those that occupy the 

 valleys vary according to the greater or less heat of the summer. 

 These icefields are found from the sources of the Durance and the Po 

 to the neighbourhood of Gmiind on the southern slope of the Styriau 

 Alps ; but the largest are those of Savoy, those of Switzerland, where 

 they ore frequently called Gletscher, and those of the Tyrol whero 

 they are called Firn or Ferner. These masses of snow and ice are 

 the sources of some of the largest rivers of Europe. One of the most 

 terrible calamities to which the inhabitants of the Alpine valleys are 

 exposed, is the sudden descent of masses of snow called avalanches, 

 sometimes lavanches and lauwineu. 



A remarkable feature in the Alps is the occurrence of lakes on or 

 near the crests of the passes. A pass is never over a summit of a 



