ALPS. 



207 



exposed." Yet this bridge has more than once 

 been the scene of conflicts between the French anc 

 Imperialists, in the campaign of 1799; and once 

 during the heat of an engagement, while the French 

 under Lecourbe were in the act of charging the 

 Austrians, thirty feet of the bridge separated and 

 fell from the parapets, precipitating all who were 

 upon it into the gulf below. 



The fame of the rout of the Simplon has reached 

 all persons, who have interested themselves about 

 the Alps, or Napoleon Bonaparte. It has been 

 customary for most travellers to take this road 

 either in going into Italy, or in returning from it, 

 thus gaining a direct conveyance between Geneva 

 and Milan. Considered as a work of art, the Sim- 

 plon road probably exceeds all the others, in the 

 neatness and architectural finish of its parapets and 

 bridges ; and it is exceeded by none in the magni- 

 tude of the difficulties overcome by the French and 

 Italian engineers employed in its construction. 

 The great gallery near Gondo is 596 feet long, and 

 is cut through solid granite. Its southern extre- 

 mity, where a bridge crosses the waterfall of Fras- 

 sinone, at the entrance of an impassable gorge, is 

 -almost unequalled in picturesque and imposing 

 effect. The Gallery has lateral openings to admit 

 the light, opposite to one of which, the following 

 inscription is cut in the rock, JERE IT ALO 1805. 

 The part of the road which is on the Swiss side of 

 the Simplon, was completed by French engineers ; 

 but the southern half, which is by far the most 

 difficult, was executed by Italian artificers, under 

 the Chevalier Fabbroni, at the expense of the Italian 

 states. 



The valley through which this road passes, ex- 

 tending through the Canton of Valais to the Pays 

 cle Vaud, is enclosed by a rampart of the highest 

 mountains in Europe, having the peaks of Piedmont 

 on one side, and the Bernese Alps on the other, 

 some of which rise more than 10,000 feet above it. 

 It has been considered as the deepest valley in the 

 known world. Aware of this circumstance, the 

 traveller receives, from the scenery around him, 

 impressions of sublimity, such as belong only to the 

 presence of natural objects, which are known to be 

 unequalled in their kind. They are emotions like 

 those which may be inspired by the river Missis- 

 sippi, lake Superior, or the cataract of Niagara. 

 Beyond the immediate effect on the senses, there 

 is a deep and commanding interest, a pervading 

 solemnity, which call on us to pay homage, to what 

 has never been out done. But in this valley the 

 beautiful also mingles with the sublime, and the 

 solitudes which shelter in its infant growth, one 

 of the most rapid and turbulent of rivers, have 

 gathered round it the elements of fitness, which 

 convey to the mind ideas of a recess and sanctuary 

 of nature. 



" "Tis lone. 



And wonderful and deep, and hath a sound 

 And sense and siijht of MTMtaMK Mi-n- the Rhone 

 Hath spread himself a couch, the Alps have reared a throne." 



The pass of Mount Cenis, already mentioned, 

 and that of Mount Genevere, made by Napoleon 

 between Grenoble and Turin, are carriage roads, 

 possessing features of the same general kind with 

 those which have been described. But the Cornice, 

 or Mediterranean road, is essentially different from 

 the rest, being not so much a pass of the Alps, as 

 it is a passage by which the Alps are avoided. It 

 is true that the Maritime Alps here come down to 

 the sea so abruptly, as to leave no room for a levtl 



passage between the mountains and the water. 

 Nevertheless an excellent road is now constructed, 

 which no where rises to a great height, and by which 

 invalids travel to Nice and to Italy, at all seasons 

 of the year. The Mediterranean way was known 

 to the ancients, and it was by this pass, says Mr 

 Brockedon, that Julius Csesar penetrated into Italy 

 when about to engage in his contest with Pompey. 

 This road presents, from many of its eminences, 

 splendid views of the sea beneath, while, on the 

 other hand, it is distinctly seen along the coast, 

 from the steamboats, which ply between Marseilles 

 and Genoa. 



It will be observed that the roads which have been 

 made practicable for carriages, are principally large 

 thoroughfares, by which intercourse is carried on 

 between Italy' and the adjacent states. But a vast 

 number of mountain passes, in less frequented direc- 

 tions, are still traversed only by pedestrians and 

 mules ; or in some cases by a low, narrow carriage, 

 called a char a bane. Of this kind are the various 

 avenues to the vale of Chamouni, the fearful pass 

 of Gemmi near the baths of Lenk, the defiles of 

 the Grimsel and Gries, which approach the sources 

 of the Rhone, the various paths by which the Ober- 

 land is traversed, numerous tracks which lead up 

 the sides of mountains, among which should not be 

 forgotten the Wingernalp, beautifully described by 

 Simond, from which the traveller at midsummer, 

 witnesses in safety the hourly fall of avalanches from 

 the opposite side of the Jungfrau. 



The passes of the Great and the Little St Ber- 

 nard are interesting from their proximity to Mont 

 Blanc, lying on opposite sides of it ; also from their 

 scenery and historical associations. The former is 

 well known for the Hospice, situated near its sum- 

 mit, inhabited by a benevolent order of monks, 

 whose business is to rescue and relieve distressed 

 travellers. It may seem singular that neither of 

 these long and well known passages, has yet been 

 made the site of a carriage road. But the king of 

 Sardinia has shown himself less fond of public im- 

 provements of this kind, than his more communica- 

 tive neighbours. 



A controversy has been agitated with some zeal, 

 in regard to the particular pass by which Hannibal 

 crossed the Alps with his Carthaginian army. Dif- 

 ferent speculators, who have endeavoured to trace 

 his track, by the histories of Livy and Polybius, 

 have assigned the Monte Viso, the Genevre, and 

 the Mont Cenis, as corresponding in their situation 

 and character to the route he is said to have pui- 

 sued. In a work entitled " a Dissertation on the 

 Passage of Hannibal over the Alps, by a member 

 of the University of Oxford," the author, after an 

 elaborate investigation of the subject, decides on 

 the Little St Bernard, as the true route of the 

 Carthaginian army. Mr Brockedon adopts the same 

 opinion, having carefully examined the features of 

 this pass, in reference to the historical data which 

 have reached us. Hannibal, it seems, on his arrival 

 from Spain, crossed the Rhone, probably somewhere 

 near Avignon, and ascended that river above its 

 confluence with the Isaure. He afterwards passed 

 eastwardly towards the mountains, encountering 

 the Allobroges and other warlike tribes on his way. 

 It is to be regretted that the names of places are 

 not marked with sufficient distinctness by Poly- 

 i)ius, the historian who is chiefly relied on in this 

 matter. 



ALTAR (a) ; a place on which offerings or 

 ntrifices were made. It was called bomos by th 



