ALPS. 



205 



few minutes before this catastrophe. A part, who 

 were behind the rest, observed that some strange 

 commotion was taking place on the summit of the 

 Rossberg, and. immediately a flight of stones like 

 cannon balls, traversed the air above their heads ; a 

 clodd of dust obscured the valley; a frightful noise 

 was heard, and they fled. As soon as the obscurity 

 was so far dissipated, as to make objects discernible, 

 they sought their friends who had preceded them, 

 but the village of Goldau had disappeared under a 

 heap of stones and rubbish one hundred feet in 

 height, and the whole valley presented nothing but 

 a perfect chaos. Nothing is left of Goldau, but the 

 bell, which hung in its steeple, and which was 

 found about a mile off. About fourteen miserable 

 objects were dug out alive, from beneath the ruins. 

 The vestiges of catastrophes, similar to the 

 above, are seen in various parts of Switzerland. At 

 the entrance of the Val Blegno, not far above Be- 

 linzonna, may be seen the vast debris of a mountain, 

 which fell across this valley in the year 1512. The 

 fallen mass arrested the course of the river Blegno, 

 and formed a large lake, which continued above two 

 hundred years, but which, in 1714, burst a passage, 

 and swept its way, with great destruction of lives 

 and property, into the Lago Maggiore. 



The name of glaciers, in its broadest sense, has 

 been applied to all accumulations of ice and snow, 

 which remain through the year upon elevated 

 mountains. In its more limited meaning, it is re- 

 stricted to those masses of hardened snow, which 

 occupy the higher valleys and northern sides of 

 ridges, extending downward to the borders of ve- 

 getation. They are generally found in the valleys 

 and chasms, which run from east to west, in which 

 they are more protected from the rays of the sun. 

 Those of them, which have much inclination, ex- 

 hibit a diversified surface, which has been compared 

 to the waves of the sea during a storm. The 

 alternate thawing and freezing of a portion of the 

 snow, give to the remainder, among which it per- 

 colates, a degree of density approaching that of 

 solid ice. The depth of the glaciers is supposed 

 to be from one to six hundred feet and upwards. 

 Vast crevices and chasms intersect the entire mass, 

 opposing serious impediments in the way of adven- 

 turers who traverse them, and exhibiting the interior 

 ice of a dark blue appearance to the eye. It usually 

 happens, that in the lowest glaciers, the heat of the 

 earth, especially during summer, dissolves the ice 

 at the bottom, giving rise to extensive vaults, from 

 beneath which streams of water issue. A striking 

 instance of this kind is seen in the source of the 

 Arveiron, which takes its rise under the Mer de 

 Glace, in the neighbourhood of Chamouni. Some 

 of these vaults have been found a hundred feet in 

 height, and sufficiently extensive to undermine por- 

 tions of the glacier, which settle down upon them 

 with tremendous noise. Where there is sufficient 

 declivity the glacier advances, during these changes, 

 toward the subjacent valley, and thus appears to 

 extend itself by a sort of natural growth. When 

 Sir J. E. Smith visited the Montanvertin 1787, the 

 Arveiron derived its source from several cascades, 

 which fell from the top of the glacier, a sufficient 

 evidence that it had then settled so as to obliterate 

 the cavites underneath. Rocks of large size are 

 occasionally carried along on the surface of the 

 glacier, serving as landmarks, to measure the pro- 

 gress of the whole mass. Others are accumulated 

 in high ridges along the borders of the ice, consti- 

 tuting what are called moraines. Ebel computes 



! that from Mont Blanc to the Tyrol, the number of 

 glaciers is not less than 400, many of which are six 

 or seven leagues in length. It is not to be un- 

 derstood that the uniform tendency of these bodies 

 is to extend themselves. During warm seasons 

 they sometimes diminish in a very rapid manner, by 

 the melting of their lower extremity. 



Previously to the year 1800, and even at a later 

 period, most travellers who entered Italy from the 

 north, were obliged to cross the Alps by mule paths, 

 never convenient, and sometimes extremely difficult. 

 The transportation of merchandise, and especially 

 of warlike stores and artillery, was an undertaking 

 of the most arduous character, of which the passage 

 of the Grand St Bernard by the French invading 

 army in 1800, is a well known example. After the 

 conquest of the Italian states, the enterprise of 

 Napoleon Bonaparte planned and executed two 

 great military roads, practicable for carriages and 

 artillery, one extending from Geneva to Milan, 

 across the Simplon; and the other leading over the 

 pass of Mont Cenis, and opening a communication 

 from Lyons to Turin. These roads, it is but small 

 praise to say, impress every traveller with astonish- 

 ment, and are monuments of consummate skill in 

 the engineers, who seem to have brought Herculean 

 powers to subdue what nature had intended to be 

 insurmountable. In the Strada Sempione at Milan, 

 a triumphal arch was begun by Napoleon, at the 

 termination of the Simplon road, to commemorate 

 the completion of his stupendous enterprise. It is 

 of white marble, and is ornamented with has reliefs, 

 representing the victories and treaties of the Em- 

 peror. After his fall, this structure, one of the 

 largest and most beautiful of its kind, was suffered 

 to remain unfinished, and was even threatened with 

 dilapidation. Travellers who arrived from the 

 mountains, fresh in their admiration, were ac- 

 customed to vent their displeasure upon the penu- 

 rious jealousy of the Austrian government, which 

 neglected to complete this monument, covered as it 

 was with the testimonies of their own humiliation. 

 But Napoleon is now a dead lion, the Austriaris 

 have resumed the work, and now the structure 

 may be considered as nearly completed. Unfor- 

 tunately, however, for the objects of the founder, 

 they have not been content to complete the struc- 

 ture, but have likewise gone on to complete the his- 

 tory. The tablets beneath, which represent the 

 battle of Marengo and the humiliating treaties which 

 followed, are allowed to remain unharmed ; but they 

 are surmounted with others of equal execution, set- 

 ting forth the battle of Waterloo and the abdication 

 of Bonaparte. The triumphal chariot, and bronze 

 horses, which were to support the statue of Napoleon 

 upon the top, will be occupied by an allegorical figure 

 representing Peace. This is consonant to justice, 

 and historical truth. For every road which Napo- 

 leon made over the Alps, peace has since caused the 

 completion of three times the number, all equally 

 deserving the wonder and gratitude of the public. 

 The traveller, at his ease, may now ride into Italy 

 from any point between Marseilles and Vienna. 

 Broad highways are completed over the Cornice, 

 the Col de Tende, the Genevre, the Bernardino, 

 the Splugen, the Brenner and the Stelvio. Last 

 summer the St Gothard was opened for carriages, 

 and a road over the Maloya was nearly finished. 

 Upon most of these, the yearly influx of travellers 

 to Italy has justified the establishment of regular 

 post houses. 



To Napoleon is due the credit of having set the 



