§ 15. ALPINE PASSES.

No part of the Alps is more interesting, either in a picturesque or in an historical point of view, than the passable gaps or notches in the ridge of the great chain, and the minor mountain buttresses branching from it, whereby alone this colossal wall of mountains may be scaled, and a direct

passage and communication maintained between northern and southern Europe, as well as between one valley and another. It has been through these depressions that the great tide of population has poured since the earliest times; from these outlets have issued the barbarian swarms which so often desolated, and at last annihilated, the Roman Empire.

There are more than 50 passes over the Swiss portion of the Alpine chain alone, or immediately communicating with the Swiss frontier. The following are the most remarkable :*-The Simplon, St. Gothard, Bernardine, Splügen, Saanen-moser, am Stoss, Wildhaus, all traversed by excellent highroads, most skilfully constructed, and passable for heavy carriages. To these may now be added the Julier and Maloya. The Albula, Bernina, Buffalora, practicable for light chars :- and the Col de Trient, Col de Ferret, Grand St. Bernard, Col de Fenêtre, Cervin (Matterhorn), Moro, Gries, Nüfanen, Furca, Grimsel, Great and Little Scheideck, Gemmi, Rawyl, Sanetsch, Cheville, Susten, Surenen, Brünig, Septimer, Engstelen, Jochli, Klausen, Oberalp, Lukmanier, Kistengrat, Panix, Segnes, La Foppa, Lenzerheide, Stutz, Greina, Vago, Casanna, Monte del Oro, Druser and Schweitzer-Thor, Schlapiner Joch, &c. &c., which are either bridle-paths or mere footpaths, and more or less difficult and dangerous.

In seeking a passage over the Alps, the most obvious course was to find out the valleys which penetrate farthest into the great chain, following the course of the rivers to their sources, and then to take the lowest traversable part in order to descend the opposite side. The variety and sudden transition presented by such a route are highly interesting. In the course of one day's journey the traveller passes from the climate of summer to winter, through spring. The alteration in the productions keeps pace with that of the temperature. Leaving behind him stubble-fields, whence the corn has been removed and housed, he comes to fields yet yellow and waving in the ear; a few miles farther and the crop is still green; yet higher, and corn refuses to grow. Before quitting the region of corn he enters one of dark, apparently interminable forests of pine and larch, clothing the mountain-sides in a sober vestment. Above this the haymakers are collecting the short grass, the only produce which the ground will yield. Yet the stranger must not suppose that all is barrenness even at this elevation. It seems as though nature were determined to make one last effort at the confines of the region of vegetation. From beneath the snow-bed, and on the very verge of the glacier, the profusion of flowers, their great variety, and surpassing beauty, are exceedingly surprising. Some of the greatest ornaments of our gardens, here born to blush unseen,-gentians and lilies, hyacinths and blue-bells, intermixed with bushes of the red rhododendron, the loveliest production of the Alps, scattered over the velvet turf, give it the appearance of a carpet of richest pattern. The insect world is not less abundant and varied,—thousands of winged creatures are seen hovering over the flowers, enjoying their short existence, for the summer at these elevations lasts but for 3 or 4 weeks: the rapid progress of vegetation to maturity is equalled by the rapidity of its decay, and in 8 or 10 days flowers and butterflies have passed away. Above this region of spring, with its gush of springs, its young herbage and vivid greensward, its hum of insects just burst forth, and its natural flower-beds glittering with rain-drops, that of winter in Lapland or Siberia

*Mr. Brockedon has admirably illustrated them, both with his pencil and pen, in his beautiful work entitled 'The Passes of the Alps,' 2 vols. 4to.

succeeds. All around the summit of a pass over the high Alps is either snow, glacier, or bare rock. The only plants that grow are dry lichens, which seem intended but to keep up the semblance of vegetation, and to perpetuate Nature's cheerful hues of green. The rarefied air is icy cold, and exercise and quick motion are necessary to keep up the circulation of the blood. The agreeable murmur of falling water, which has accompanied the traveller hitherto incessantly, here ceases,--all is solitude and silence, interrupted only by the shrill whistle of the marmot, or the hoarse cawing of an ill-omened raven. The ptarmigan starts up from among heaps of unmelted snow at the traveller's approach, and the lämmergeyer (the condor of the Alps), disturbed in his repast on the carcass of a sheep or cow, is seen soaring upwards in a succession of corkscrew sweeps till he gains the ridge of the Alps, and then disappears.

Such are the remarkable gradations which the stranger encounters in the course of a few hours, on a single pass of the Alps; but the most striking change of all is that from the region of snow and ice on the top of the mountain, to the sunny clime and rich vegetation of Italy, which await the traveller at the S. foot of the Alps. (See Rte. 59.)

The works of Nature, however, will not entirely occupy the attention and wonder of the wanderer in such a pass; at least a share will be demanded for admiration of the works of man. The great highways, passable for carriages, over the high Alps, are, indeed, most surprising monuments of human skill and enterprise in surmounting what would appear, at first sight, to be intended by Nature as insurmountable. These proud constructions of art thread the valleys, cross the débris of rivers on long causeways, skirt the edge of the precipice, with walls of rock tottering over them, and torrents thundering below. Where the steep and hard surface of the cliff has not left an inch of space for a goat to climb along, they are conducted upon high terraces of solid masonry, or through a notch blasted by gunpowder in the wall of rock. In many instances a projecting buttress of the mountain has blocked up all passage for ages, saying "thus far and no farther:" the skill of the modern engineer has pierced through this a tunnel or gallery; and the difficulty is vanquished, without the least change in the level of the road.

Sometimes an impediment of this nature is eluded by throwing bridges over the dizzy gorge, and shifting the road from side to side, frequently 2 or 3 times within the space of half a mile. Often the road reaches a spot down which the winter avalanches take their habitual course every year, sweeping everything before them, and which, even in summer, appears reeking and dripping with the lingering fragments of snow which it has left behind. Will not so irresistible an antagonist arrest the course of this frail undertaking of man? Not even the avalanche ;—in such a situation the road either buries itself in subterranean galleries, driven through the mountain, or is sheltered by massive arcades of masonry, sometimes half a mile or three-quarters of a mile long. Over these the avalanche glides harmlessly, and is turned into the depths below.

Every opportunity is seized of gaining, by easy ascents, a higher level for the road; at length comes the main ascent, the central ridge, to be surmounted only by hard climbing. This is overcome by a succession of zigzag terraces, called tourniquets or giravolte, connected together by wide curves, to allow carriages to turn easily and rapidly. So skilful is their con[Switz.]

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struction, with such easy bends and so gradual a slope, that in many Alpine roads the postilions, with horses accustomed to the road, trot down at a rapid pace. Sometimes as many as 50 of these zigzags succeed one another without interruption; and the traveller, as he passes backwards and forwards, hovering over the valley, is as though suspended to a pendulum, and swinging to and fro. The road itself has a most singular appearance, twisted about like an uncoiled rope or a riband unwound.

"O'er the Simplon, o'er the Splügen winds

A path of pleasure. Like a silver zone
Flung about carelessly, it shines afar,
Catching the eye in many a broken link,
In many a turn and traverse as it gides;
And oft above and oft below appears,
Seen o'er the wall by one who journeys up
As though it were another, through the wild,
Leading along, he knows not whence or whither.
Yet through its fairy course go where it will,
The torrent stops it not, the rugged rock
Opens and lets it in, and on it runs,

Winning its easy way from elime to clime,
Through glens lock'd up before."-Rogers.

The travelling-carriage descends sometimes rapidly and without interruption for an hour. A drag of tempered iron is quickly worn down, in that time, as thin as the blade of a knife, so great is the friction. It is advisable to substitute for the iron drag a wooden sabot, formed of the section of a fir-tree, with a groove cut in the centre to admit the wheel.

The winter's snow usually falls upon the Alpine passes more than 5000 ft. high about the second week in October (sometimes earlier), and continues till the first or second week in June. Yet even after this, the passage across the neck or Col, as it is called, is not stopped, except for a few days, until the snow can be cleared away. In some of the minor passes, indeed, traversed by a mere rough footpath or bridle-path, the traffic is much increased after the fall of the snow, which, by filling up depressions and smoothing the way, permits the transport of heavy merchandise on sledges, which move easily over the surface as soon as it is hardened.

Along the lines of the great carriage-roads strong houses are erected at intervals, called Maisons de Refuge, Case di Ricovero, occupied by persons called Cantonniers, who are employed in mending the road and keeping it free from snow in winter, and are also paid to assist travellers in danger during snow-storms.

As near as possible to the summit of the pass a Hospice is generally erected, usually occupied by a band of charitable monks, as in the case of the Great St. Bernard, the Simplon, Cenis, St. Gothard, &c. The direction of the road across the summit of the ridge is marked by a line of tall poles, which project above the snow, and, from being painted black, are easily recognised. Patrols are sent out from the hospice in tempestuous weather, when the tourmente is raging and the mist and falling snow hide the landmarks, to guide the travellers on their way and rescue those in danger. Bells are also rung at such times, that the sound may aid when the sight fails. The morning after a fall of snow labourers and peasants are assembled from all sides to shovel it off from the road. Where it is not very deep, it is cleared away by a snow-plough drawn by 6 or 8 oxen, As the winter