310 JOURNEY OVER MOUNT GOTTHARI* 



JOURNEY OVER MOUNT GOTTHARD TO LUCERN. 

 FROM THE JOURNAL OF A LITERARY TRAVELLER, 



O N the third of June I performed the moft 

 difficult and perilous of the many days' journies 

 I had hitherto made ; and I fhall long remember it. 

 The whole way from Airol to the top of mount GotU 

 hard is generally very fteep. About half after five in 

 the morning I fet oat on my expedition ; continually 

 afcen cling as if I was going up a ftair-cafe. During 

 the firft five miles all is woody, fine larch and fir trees, 

 which gradually become lower, and at length are quite 

 loft. The remaining part of the afcent is then bare 

 rock ; here and there, where it is not too fteep, there 

 is a covering of grafs and herbs. 



About feven o'clock I arrived at the fnow. I had 

 now five or fix miles to afcend, or fomewhat more, 

 and faw nothing round me but a wide waftc of deep 

 fnow covering the ground from twenty to fifty feet in 

 height. The part of the mountain thus covered with 

 fnow is all along a kind of valley, but as fteep as the 

 roof of a houfe ; for on both fides arife mountains of 

 bald rock. Through this fteep rocky vale, bedecked 

 with fnow, nifties the Ticino, in a narrow but deep 

 channel hollowed out of the rock, and with great noife 

 purfues its way in fo many turnings that one is obliged 

 ' to crofs it feveral times, At prefent the ftream, with 



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