24 HIGHWAYS AND HORSES. 



and wide in proportion. This tunnel is of great but 

 unknown antiquity. Seneca, in his Fifty-seventh 

 Epistle, complains of its length, darkness, and dust ; it 

 is now well lighted both by night and day with lamps 

 on either side, and is also fairly well paved ; it was 

 enlarged in the year 1557. Seneca speaks of it as 

 follows : " Nihil illo carcere longius, nihil illis faucibus 

 obscurius etiam si locus haber et lucem pul vis aufer erret." 



Canals frequently pass through tunnels, but canal 

 traffic has almost been superseded by the railway, 

 proving that the enormous expense and labour in- 

 curred by the Duke of Bridgwater and others in the 

 construction of canals evinced considerable want of 

 foresight ; as although in the midland counties rail 

 and canal traverse the country side by side, many 

 canals through w^hich a large traffic once passed are 

 now disused and abandoned ; but into this condition 

 common roads can never fall, no matter what other 

 routes be provided by which passengers and goods 

 can be transported. 



It is to Maunder that I am indebted for the 

 following particulars : 



"The Pass of Mont Cervin exceeds 11,000 feet 

 in height, and surpasses in altitude any other pass 

 in Europe; it is not, however, practicable for carriages, 

 in fact it is only a bridle-path. The road over Mont 

 Stelvio, near the head of the valley of the Adige, 

 which leads from the Austrian province of the Tyrol 

 into Lombardy, exceeds 9000 feet, and is the 

 highest carriage-road in Europe. All those portions 

 of the Alps which exceed eight or nine thousand 

 feet in altitude fall within the limits of perpetual 

 snow, which everywhere covers the higher parts of 

 the mountain system. The height of the snow-line 



