204 



ALPS. 



Mont Blanc derives its name, though nut ;i dis- 

 tinctive one, from its mass of perpetual snows, 

 Monte Rosa from the circular distribution of its 

 peaks, which enclose a central valley or amphi- 

 theatre. Mont Blanc has been repeatedly ascended, 

 though with great danger and difficulty, by adven- 

 turous travellers ; but the upper summits of Monte 

 Rosa, though often attempted, have never yet, we 

 believe, been attained. 



On the tops of the loftiest mountains water rests 

 like a mineral substance from age to age, fixed iti 

 the form of consolidated ice and snow. Immense 

 masses, which gather upon these heights in winter, 

 seek afterwards a lower level, in obedience to the 

 laws of nature. This fluctuation, the result of 

 necessary influences, gives birth to scenes of un- 

 equalled sublimity and beauty, and actuates, as it 

 were, the moving scenery of the Alps. The cas- 

 cade, the torrent, the progressive glacier, and the 

 overwhelming avalanche, are but the shiftings, by 

 which a disturbed element seeks to resume its 

 wonted equilibrium. 



The traveller, passing in summer through the 

 valleys of the Alpine regions, sees often before him 

 what appears to be a white thread, suspended from 

 the mountain side. This he knows to be a water- 

 fall, but if he has seen Niagara, or even Terni, he 

 will be struck with the great length of the cascade, 

 perhaps five or six hundred feet, compared with the 

 slender dimensions of the stream which constitutes 

 it. These cascades generally reach the ground by 

 successive leaps, but now and then a case occurs, 

 in which the fall is unbroken, and the apparent 

 slowness, the effect of distance, with which the air 

 is traversed by the descending waves and volumes 

 of spray, gives to the spectator the idea of some- 

 thing which floats, rather than falls. We recollect 

 to have seen instances, in which a considerable 

 stream jetting from the top of a precipice, was dis- 

 solved in spray, and wholly lost to the sight, before 

 it had accomplished half its destined descent. A 

 brook, starting from beneath and fed by the per- 

 petual shower, gave evidence that the material of 

 this beautiful illusion was not lost. A fall of this 

 kind, singularly picturesque, is seen in the vale of 

 Misocco, on the southern side of the Bernardino 

 passage. The celebrated fall of Staubbach, in 

 Lauterbrunnen, nine hundred feet in height, is of 

 the same description. 



The long valleys which separate the mountainous 

 spurs, usually afford beds for torrents, constituting 

 the head waters, from which are accumulated the 

 great rivers of Europe. These frequently occupy 

 the bottoms of deep ravines, and when swollen 

 with rains, or melted snows, exhibit a scene of ob- 

 structed, yet irresistible violence, which impresses 

 the spectator with the deepest awe. On the prin- 

 cipal roads, these are crossed by bridges of substan- 

 tial masonry, in constructing which, it seems often 

 wonderful how the workmen could have found sup- 

 port. In some cases, we are told, it was found ne- 

 cessary to suspend stagings upon cords from preci- 

 pices far above them. In the wilder and less fre- 

 quented paths, frail wooden bridges, and sometimes 

 trunks of fallen trees, constitute the means of 

 passing. It has happened that, in cases of emer- 

 gency, both men and animals have crossed these 

 torrents, even without the aid of bridges, and in 

 the face of difficulties seemingly insurmountable. 

 In 1800, a detachment of French troops under 

 Generat Bethencourt, was ordered to occupy the 

 pass of Yeselles, and proceed upon Domo d'Ossols. 



Their march was interrupted by the destruction of 

 a bridge which led round u precipice, and over an 

 abyss sixty feet in width. A volunteer, at great 

 hazard of his life, by supporting himself against the 

 sides of the precipice, in the holes cut for the tim- 

 bers, succeeded in carrying a rope to the opposite 

 side. Upon this rope, suspended over the abyss, 

 with their feet braced against the lateral wall, or 

 such other objects as might present, the whole de- 

 tachment passed, one by one, the commander set- 

 ting the first example. The names of the officers 

 a: now engraved upon the rock. When the last 

 man had left the bank, five dogs which belonged 

 to the party, threw themselves into the current. 

 Three of them were carried down, while the others, 

 by dint of greater strength, succeeded in gaining the 

 opposite side, and crouched, half dead, at the feet 

 of their masters. 



The lavanyes or avalanches take place whenever 

 the mass of snow accumulated on the heights, lie- 

 comes, either from its own weight, or the iiisiilli- 

 ciency of its base, incapable of supporting itself. The 

 avalanches of different seasons are not equally 

 dangerous. Those of summer are confined to the 

 highest mountains, and seldom reach the places fre- 

 quented by mankind. Those of winter also, though 

 sometimes terrible in their effects, yet being often 

 composed of the light and new-fallen snow, slide 

 downwards in smaller masses, and with less violence, 

 so that men and beasts have been dug out unharmed 

 from beneath them. But the avalanches of spring, 

 which take place after the sun has begun to loosen 

 the hold by which projecting masses are detained 

 on the brink of precipitous summits, are by far the 

 most dangerous and destructive. Imagination can 

 hardly conceive the fearful sublimity, and havoc, 

 with which these descents are attended. Columns 

 of consolidated snow, whose extent the eye can 

 hardly span, sweeping downwards for mile after 

 mile, bearing with them the loosened rocks and 

 uprooted forests, and discharging themselves at 

 length on the valleys below with a violence under 

 which the earth trembles, are the common and 

 yearly phenomena of these romantic regions. A 

 fallen avalanche, says Ebel, sometimes covers more 

 than a league of country. The concussion of the 

 atmosphere is so great, that houses have been over- 

 thrown, and men prostrated, at a distance from the 

 scene of devastation. At the season of avalanches, 

 when the impending masses are just ready to loose 

 their hold, the inhabitants believe that the smallest 

 noise or shock given to the atmosphere, may start 

 them into motion. Hence, in many places, they 

 take off the bells from their horses and cattle, and 

 steal silently through the dangerous paths, choosing 

 the early part of the day, before the sun has begun 

 to act with power. It is also common to discharge 

 a musket, by way of proof, before entering the sus- 

 pected defiles. 



As in other mountainous countries, not only the 

 snow, but sometimes the earth itself, is loosened, 

 and slides downward, carrying desolation in its pro- 

 gress. A remarkable slide of this kind occurred at 

 the village of Goldau, in 1806. In September, 

 after a long continuance of rain, one of the summits 

 of the Rossberg, was detached from the mountain 

 and fell into the valley and lake beneath, over- 

 whelming the villages of Goldau, Boussingen, and 

 Rothen. The houses, cattle and nearly five 

 hundred of the inhabitants, were destroyed by this 

 event. Some travellers from Berne, says Simond, 

 arrived at Art, and set off on foot for the Rhigi, a 



