MONTE ROSA 281 



Cerentino in a side -glen of Val Maggia, at Minister in the Upper 

 Rhone Valley, at St. Remy on the St. Bernard, at Goschenen on 

 the St. Gotthard, he found fair inns. At Courmayeur there was a 

 hotel, and, as now, Italian bathing company. At Chamonix 

 after 1765 there were ' three large good inns.' Even at Zermatt 

 and Macugnaga there were rough cabarets with, it is true, land- 

 lords disposed to be churlish and shut the door on unexpected 

 guests. At Chapieu the lodging seems to have been much the 

 same as it was in the fifties of the last century. In short, wherever 

 the valley led to a pass there were wayfarers, though as a rule 

 not of a class to demand much from their hosts. In more remote 

 bye-corners the choice lay between the priest's house and a rough 

 drinking shop. It is all to de Saussure's credit that he took 

 cheerfully what he found in the way of accommodation, that he 

 made little of sleeping in a chalet, or even in his tent, when occasion 

 arose. But the hardships of such rough lodgings must have been 

 sensibly mitigated by the presence of the train of baggage mules 

 and domestics he was in the habit of taking about with him. 

 Moreover his tours were not protracted ; his longest journeys were 

 only of a few weeks. In short, he endured cheerfully a con- 

 siderable amount of discomfort, but little real hardship. The 

 investigation of the Swiss Alps in the eighteenth century was an 

 easy undertaking compared to the task that has faced later 

 explorers in the Himalaya, the Andes, or the Rocky Mountains. 



Yet, taking all things into account and his own uncertain 

 health and frequent indispositions are not to be overlooked the 

 amount accomplished was considerable. De Saussure probably 

 covered more ground than any other Alpine traveller of his time, 

 except, possibly, Placidus a Spescha. Besides the seven journeys 

 recorded in his book, he went to the Oberland in 1770 and over the 

 Spliigen and back by Chur and the Lake of Wallenstadt in 1777. 

 He visited many unfrequented localities in the Jura, Southern and 

 Central France, the Riviera and the Brisgau. If we are tempted 

 to wonder that he did not explore more thoroughly the valleys 

 of the Pennine Alps, we have to remember his family conditions 

 and his unwillingness to put too great a strain on the solicitude of 

 a circle of which he was the adored centre. Bonnet, who himself 

 played at times the part of an anxious uncle, summarises the 

 situation in one of his letters to Haller : ' My nephew has two 



