ix.] ALPINE TRAVELS, 1842. 287 



ink will enjoy a sinecure. It has been a project of a 

 year's standing, this tour with Studer, and I have no 

 doubt that it will prove most interesting, as he is a most 

 desirable companion from his local knowledge, his scien- 

 tific attainments, and his pleasant, simple manners. He 

 has, very generously, taken my part firmly and strongly 

 in the recent disputes, notwithstanding his older friend- 

 ship with Agassiz. . . . We spent last night at the Great 

 St. Bernard, which was fixed on as our rendezvous, and 

 whither we punctually arrived from opposite sides of the 

 Alps. We are to ascend the Val de Bagnes, cross the 

 Col de Fenetre into Piedmont, returning back to the 

 Swiss valley of Evolena, by the Col d'Aosta. I shall 

 then, perhaps, attempt a glacier pass of vaguely myste- 

 rious difficulty from Evolena to Zermatt, then cross the 

 St. Theodule, and work round the southern slopes of the 

 chain of Monte Rosa. . . .' 



To the Same. 

 'ZERMATT, NEAR FOOT OF MONTE ROSA, Aug. 25th. 



( Here I am locked in by a sore foot, which has 

 detained me already three or four days. There seems to 

 be some fatality against my passing the St. Theodule, for 

 last year I was in like manner at its foot, but my sore 

 eyes kept me there. Now, you must take a very good 

 map or rather the least bad there is and trace our 

 progress from Orsieres, where I wrote you a hurried line 

 ten days ago. 



' We ascended the valley of Bagnes, celebrated for the 

 terrible debacle of 1818, and saw the mischief-making 

 glacier, after which we passed our first night in a chalet. 

 Next day we crossed the Col de Fenetre, and descended 

 to the entrance of the valley of Yalpellina, which we 

 followed up its whole length, and having again slept in 

 a hayloft, crossed a pass which has never yet got into 

 the way of tourists, and has a fabulous sort of existence 

 in some books: it is called the Col de Collon, ;m<l 

 brought us to the Val d'Krin, the capital <>f which is 

 Evolena. 



