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stands, to its summit, which is peaked with a triangular pyramid of snow, the entire height of this stupendous mountain is seen. St. Foi is only two hours from St. Maurice, and offers little accommodation to the traveller, at least when compared with the comforts of the inn at St. Maurice.

From St. Foi the descent by a paved road is very steep to the banks of the Isère. Before reaching the river a torrent is crossed, which forms, a little way up the valley, a fine cataract. It is difficult to get a view of it. This is the stream which from above descends between the villages of Massure and Muraille.

From the bridge the path lies across meadows for some way, and on the banks of the Isère. Soon after, rising, it leads to the village of Scez, at the foot of the Little St. Bernard, and thence, across cultivated ground, to a new bridge thrown over the torrent of the Reclus. Here there is abundant evidence of the destructive character of the torrent after storms, in the sand, rocks, and stones, which mark its course at such times. Soon after the road passes by some coarse woollen cloth-works, and some usines for making small iron ware. Then across the winter bed of the furious Versoi, which descends from Bonnaval, and below an old round tower belonging to the village of Châtelard. From this place the road to St. Maurice is wide and excellent, and ere long, it is to be hoped, a road of the same width and excellence will lead from this valley to the Val d'Aosta by the pass of the Little St. Bernard. [St. Maurice inn, Ebez Mayet, excellent.]

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Cormayeur, it is necessary to return by the great road to Aosta (Route 107.), about a league, to where the branch from it leads to St. Didier ; or a shorter course may be found by scrambling down the slopes which lead to the Doire, and crossing it higher up the river, than by the bridge which forms part of the high road.

St. Didier is a tolerably large village, having the importance of a post aux lettres. It has two inns l'Ours is decently appointed. Like that at Cormayeur (though very inferior to it), its chief support is from the pensionnaires, who stay to take the waters of its mineral springs: these at St. Didier are hot, having a temperature of 92° of Fahrenheit in the baths, but 95° at the source.

Between the village and the springs there are some beautiful meadows, the source of its common name, Pré St. Didier; these are sheltered by the base of the Crammont, and by the enormous precipices of bare rock which overhang the source of the mineral waters, and form one side of a deep inaccessible gulf, through which the torrent from the glaciers of the Ruitor and the Little St. Bernard forces its way.

The hot spring lies up this gulf almost as far as it is accessible; from this spot it is led through tubes to a building niched in beneath the precipices. Within ten years, however, this has been deserted for baths, to which the water is now conducted, in the meadow, where a rather elegant structure has been raised Pavillon, as it is here called. It has been built at the expense of the province of Aosta, as a decoy to the royal family to make it a place of their frequent resort. To this a wing has been lately added, which contains new baths for the public, which are more convenient than the old; and there are several houses in the village where, for very moderate charges, bed and board may be obtained.

Route 114.

The view of Mont Blanc from the meadows is a glorious scene; and, from beneath the precipices near the source, magnificent foregrounds may be obtained.

The road which leads by the valley above the gorge at the springs of St. Didier, and to the Little St. Bernard, is a steep zigzag, presenting at each turn new and striking scenes of the valley below, and of Mont Blanc. On reaching the level ground above, that overhangs the deep rift in the mountain, through which the branch of the Doire from La Tuille bursts through into the plain of St. Didier, the scene is fine. It borders a pine forest, of which some vast old trunks hang over the precipices, and help to conceal the deep torrent which roars in its course beneath.

Up through this forest a steep path leads to the Crammont, an excursion which no visitor to St. Didier or Cor mayeur should fail to make, if the weather be favourable, for no spot in the Alps will afford him so fine a view of Mont Blanc, or a more glorious panorama.

The ascent up the forest to reach the Crammont lies for an hour amidst the pines, then, emerging into fine pasturages, the path leads up through several clusters of châlets; at the last of these it is usual to leave the mules, if any have been employed, to await the return of the traveller. The opening scenes of the valley below, as he rises, excite and encourage his efforts to attain the summit, which is usually accomplished in four hours from St. Didier; the chief difficulties lie in the extreme -smoothness of the sward, and the steepness of the slope, which make the footing insecure; and much time is lost by slipping back, particularly over some of the rounded knolls, where the effect of looking back is enough to make the unpractised traveller shudder, for the ground is seen to cut abruptly against some objects in the

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valley thousands of feet below, with as impressive an effect as if it were the ledge of a precipice of that depth, over which a slip would precipitate the shrinking observer. Nearer the top, however, the footing is more secure; thousands of marmots have burrowed and loosened the soil, and traces of these animals are found even to the summit.

The highest point of the Crammont is the outward edge of a large flat mass of rock, dipping towards the Crammont about 20°; the upper end of this mass actually overhangs the rocks below, so that a stone dropped from it would fall perpendicularly hundreds of feet, and then striking the precipitous sides of the mountain would bound into the abyss beneath, broken into thousands of fragThis experiment is generally practised by visiters, who witness the motion given to the stones in the channels below, and hear with astonishment the roar which ascends from the commotion and disturbance. this savage hollow, chamois are generally seen.

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Here the whole of the enormous mass of Mont Blanc is open to the observer, midway of its height (for the height of the Crammont is about 9200, and that of Mont Blanc 6500 English feet above the peak of the Crammont), from the peaks which bound the Col de la Seigne to those of the Grand Jorasse, every aiguille and glacier through this vast line of nearly 40 miles is seen, within an angle of 150 degrees, lying like a picture before the observer from the Crammont. The depths of the Allée Blanche are concealed by some low intervening mountains, which may be considered the western bases of the Crammont.

Towards the N.E. and E. the Val d'Aosta presents a beautiful portion of the panorama. The mountains which bound it sweep down to the Doire, and leave between them the channels which are the courses of its

affluents. In the valley, the Doire appears like a thread of silver. Looking S.E., directly down the line of ascent to the Crammont, the Camp of Prince Thomas, and the table land above the precipices of the valley of La Tuille, appear to be immediately beneath. Above and beyond it lies the enormous glacier of the Ruitor, one of the finest objects within the view: this is connected with the glaciers at the head of the valleys of Cogne, the Savaranche, and the Grisanche.

Towards the south is the pass and plain of the Little St. Bernard, guarded by the Belvidere, the Vallaisan, and the other mountains which bound that pass.

Towards the Great St. Bernard, the course may be traced of the path which leads by the pass of the Serena from the head of the valley of Aosta to St. Remy. The hospice cannot be seen, but the Mont Velan and the Combin are seen beyond it.

All visiters to the Crammont, who have seen it in favourable weather, speak of it with rapture; and Saussure thus records his second visit there:"Nous pâssames trois heures sur cette sommet ; j'y en avois aussi passé trois dans mon premier voyage, et ces six heures sont certainement celles de ma vie dans lesquelles j'ai goûté les plus grands plaisirs qui puissent don. ner la contemplation et l'étude de la nature."

The descent requires more care than the ascent, at least to guard against slipping: the guides usually sit down, and slide with great speed over the dry grass.

The traveller who proposes to make a visit to the Crammont a part of his day's journey to St. Maurice, should start very early, and direct that the mules, if he take any, should, from where he left them, be sent across the pasturages, to châlets which lie in his way to the village of La Balme. He will thus gain time in ascending the valley, though the descent to the hamlet of Evolina, down a steep and

rugged path over loose stones, is very fatiguing.

La Balme is in the valley, about an hour's walk above where the path up through the forest leads to the Crammont; and there is no object of interest missed between the two places.

A little above La Balme the torrent is crossed, and a path winds steeply up on the mountain side; it being im practicable in the depth of the valley, which is here a ravine, to form a road, This is carried on the right bank to a great height above the bed of the torrent. There are occasional peeps offered of the river, and there is one of particular interest it is where the avalanches which descend from the Crammont fall into the ravine, sometimes in such quantity that the snow remains, under the shadow of the mountain, unmelted for the year. This is the spot, in

the opinion of those who have most carefully examined into the subject, where Hannibal and his army, in their descent from the Alps, found the road, by which they could have descended into the valley, destroyed. The road formerly lay on the left bank of the river. Within these 60 years, the present road, to avoid this liability, has been made on the other side, high above all risk from such an accident.

Not far from this spot the road turns abruptly to the left, and the Alpine bridge and village of La Tuille, and the glacier of the Ruitor, open upon the traveller. The bridge is crossed, and wine and refreshment may be found in the little auberge of La Tuille.

A short way above La Tuille the stream from the glacier of the Ruitor may be crossed, and a path taken to descend into the valley of Aosta, by some beautiful pasturages, and through a forest that overhangs the precipices above St. Didier, whence the view of Mont Blanc is inferior only to that from the Crammont; after crossing

the Camp of Prince Thomas, the path descends down the steep mountain side on the right bank of the Doire. It is nearly in this course that the Sardinian government contemplates the formation of a good road over the Little St. Bernard, to connect the Pays d'Aosta with the Tarentaise.

From La Tuille the road ascends rapidly to Pont Serrant-the last village towards the Little St. Bernard,and after crossing a very deep ravine over a wooden bridge, a striking scene, and passing the village, the road becomes more steep, but presents little interest except to the geologist. About two hours above Pont Serrant the col is reached -a fine pasturage on a plain about a league long, and half a league wide, bounded on the left by the Belvidere and the Vallaisan, and on the right by the Belle-face, at the foot of which mountain lies a little lake the Vernai, which is left in its deep basin on the right, in ascending to the Col of the Little St. Bernard.

After passing the ruins of some mural defences thrown up during the war of the Revolution, when France and Sardinia struggled for possession of these summits, the road enters upon the plain, and the traveller sees before him, at the opposite extremity of the plain, the hospice lately rebuilt.

On the plain, however, there are objects of high antiquity. A circle of stones on the highest point of the plain bears still the name of the Cirque d'Annibal. The stones are rude masses, varying in size, none very large; they are about 10 feet apart, and the circle measures nearly 260 yards round. The tradition is, that Hannibal here held a council of

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Near to the circle there is a column standing, the Colonne de Joux, supposed to be of Celtic origin. It is nearly 20 feet high, and 3 feet in diameter. It is composed of Cipolino, a variety of marble which abounds in the Crammont. About a mile and a half from the Colonne de Joux is the hospice, situated at the south-western extremity of the plain. Here formerly a peasant, appointed by the government, used to administer hospitality; but since it has been rebuilt, some brethren of the Hospice of the Great St. Bernard have taken this duty upon themselves, but at present only one ecclesiastic resides there. The expenses of the hospice, which affords very tolerable accommodation, are defrayed by the commune of Aosta.

If the traveller determine to visit the Belvidere, and has already visited the Crammont, it will be too much for one day, and he will do well to sleep at the hospice, and either ascend the Belvidere in the evening, or on the following morning. It is of easy accomplishment: the ascent may be made in an hour. Mont Blanc, which is also seen from every part of the Col of the Little St. Bernard, is from the Belvidere a more magnificent object. The view is of great extent, commanding the mountains far south of the Tarentaise, and looking down upon enormous glaciers streaming into the valleys east of the Belvidere; but the scenes are very inferior to those discovered from the Crammont.

The Hospice was founded by St. Bernard, but nothing of its history is preserved. The Great St. Bernard has absorbed all the interest, though, if the veil of the obscure history of the Little St. Bernard could be removed, it would perhaps surpass in early importance that of its great rival, for Celtic remains still exist there, and the foundations of a temple constructed of Roman brick are traced on the col, near the column.