OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 465 



with nothing which affected me so deeply as this morn- 

 ing scene on the Lago Maggiore. 



From Baveno we crossed the lake to Luino and 

 went thence to Lugano. At Belaggio, which stands at 

 the junction of the two branches of the Lake of Como, 

 we halted a couple of days. Como itself we reached in 

 a small sailing-boat the sail being supplemented by 

 oars. There we saw the statue of Volta a prophet 

 justly honoured in his own country. From Como we 

 went to Milan. The object of greatest interest there is, 

 of course, the cathedral. A climber could not forego 

 the pleasure of getting up among the statues which 

 crowd its roof, and of looking thence towards Monte 

 Kosa. The distribution of the statues magnified the 

 apparent vastness of the pile ; still, the impression made 

 on me by this great edifice was one of disappointment. 

 Its front seemed to illustrate an attempt to cover 

 meagreness of conception by profusion of adornment. 

 The interior, however, notwithstanding the cheat of the 

 ceiling, is exceedingly grand. 



From Milan we went to Orta, where we had a plunge 

 into the lake. We crossed it subsequently and walked 

 on to Yarallo : thence by Fobello over a country of noble 

 beauty to Ponte Grande in the Val Ansasca. Thence 

 again by Macugnaga over the deep snow of the Monte 

 Moro, reaching Mattmark in drenching rain. The tem- 

 per of the northern slopes did not appear to have im- 

 proved during our absence. We returned to the Bel Alp, 

 fitful triumphs of the sun causing us to hope that wo 

 might still have fairplay upon the Aletschhorn. But 

 the day after our arrival snow fell so heavily as to cover 

 the pastures for 2.000 feet below the hotel, introducing 

 a partial famine among the herds. They had eventually 

 to be driven below the snow-line. Avalanches were not 

 unfrequent on slopes which a day or two previously 



