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PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



sublime, or more picturesque ; that sublimity, and that picturesqueness, are the result of j 

 their shape and surface. I have never passed either Mount Cenis, or the Simplon ; I 



cannot therefore speak of them. The passes 

 with which I am acquainted are, St. Go- 

 thard; Mount Albula; the pass by the sources of the 

 Rhine ; the Rhetian Alps ; the Brenner ; the limb of the 

 Pic du Midi ; the pass of the Pyrenees from Perpignan to Cata- 

 lonia, and from Gavarnie by the Breche de Roland to Arragon ; 

 some of the mountain passes of Norway ; and the Spanish Sierras. Now it may seem 

 singular, that of these, the lowest passes should be the finest ; yet so it is in my esti- 

 mation. Mount Albula, and the Breche de Roland, are certainly lower than St. Gothard, 

 and yet their features are more striking ; and the truth is, that besides the causes I have 

 already mentioned, arising from diversity in conformation and surface, the very lowness 

 is itself the chief cause of superiority. Nor is that apparent paradox difficult to explain. 

 Where a road traverses the summit of a mountain, there cannot be precipices above ; 

 and the mere fact, that a road is necessarily led over the highest part of a mountain, 

 is itself a proof that it is not indented by those deep valleys, clefts, and ravines, which, 

 did they exist, would permit the road to be conducted across at a lower elevation. 

 Where a road traverses the summit of a mountain the views may be extensive ; but 

 they must yield in sublimity to those which are presented where the road conducts the 

 traveller through the heart of the mountain, among its deep recesses, its forests, and 

 cataracts." 



The ancients esteemed the passes of the mountains bounding their respective terri- 

 tories, or intersecting them, of great military importance, and added to their natural 

 strength to render them impregnable. Pliny thus describes the defiles of the Caucasus, 

 and the mode of maintaining them : " Each pass was closed by large beams of wood 

 pointed with iron. In the midst of the narrow valley flowed a river. The southern 

 extremity was protected by a castle built on a high rock. This defence was to prevent 

 incursions from the people of the north." Three great passes through the Caucasus are 

 spoken of by the classical writers, the Pyle Sarmatae, the Pyle Albania, and the Via 

 Caspia. The former, probably the Porta Caucasia of Strabo, is the particular one 



