ART. V.-The Alps. 1. Illustrations of the Passes of the Alps, by which Italy communicates with France, Switzerland, and Germany. By WILLIAM BROCKEDON. 2 vols. 4to. London. 1828, 1829. 2. Journals of Excursions in the Alps. By WILLIAM BROCKEDON. 8vo. London. 1833. 3. Manuel du Voyageur en Suisse. Par M. L. G. EBEL. Nouvelle Edition. Paris. 1833. To the readers of history, and of poetry, the Alps are a familiar name. From the days of the Romans, down to the present century, their inaccessible heights, eternal snows, and difficult and precipitous defiles, have given them a celebrity, hardly possessed by any other features of continental Europe. Placed as a natural barrier between nations frequently dissimilar, or hostile to each other, they have stood, abrupt, and impenetrable, as they were left by the deluge; and the little that man could do, in opening their avenues, or smoothing their passes, remained almost unattempted until the nineteenth century. But within the times of the present generation, and especially within the last five or six years, the aspect of these mountains has become less solitary and forbidding. Over nearly all the important defiles, smooth and spacious roads have been constructed, rocks have been penetrated, abysses have been spanned, terraces upon terraces have scaled the loftiest passes, and the traveller who now rolls over them at his ease, secure of comfortable hotels, and regular relays of post-horses, troubles himself little about the difficulties, against which Hannibal urged his elephants, and Bonaparte dragged his artillery. The mountainous country, usually denominated the Alpine region, covers a great portion of the continental territory of the king of Sardinia, the republic of Switzerland, and the Tyrolese dominions of Austria, together with portions of the immediately adjacent states. But the great or principal chain may be considered as forming a half oval, or crescent, having the valley of the Po in its centre, and the Gulf of Venice at its base. This chain commences in northern Italy, where it is continuVOL. XXXVIII.-NO. 83. 52 ous with the Appennines, and, skirting closely upon the Mediterranean along the Gulf of Genoa, turns to the north through Piedmont and Savoy, in which countries it throws up its loftiest eminences. It then passes easterly through Switzerland and the districts of Tyrol and Carniola, until it is merged in the less elevated ranges of eastern Europe. The geographical effect of this distribution is to separate the waters of the Po, from those of the Rhone, the Rhine and the Danube. The most interesting features in the Alpine chain, are the depressions, or passable gaps, and the extreme elevations. The depressions, or notches in the summit of the ridge, furnish avenues, over which mankind, following the tracks of the chamois, have constructed mule paths, and afterwards roads practicable for carriages. These are seldom less than five thousand feet above the level of the ocean, and are mostly named from the mountains near which they pass, as the Simplon, the St. Gothard, and the Splugen. The great elevations are for the most part abrupt and towering peaks, many of which, from their sharpness and steep acclivities, have received the appellation of horns and needles. Among the most elevated peaks are Mont Blanc, Mont Cervin and Monte Rosa, situated in the chain which divides Piedmont from Savoy and Valais; the Finstraarhorn, the Schreckhorn (horn of terror), and the Jungfrau, in Switzerland; and the Ortler-spitz in the Tyrol. The distinction of being the highest mountain in Europe has been lately contested between Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa. Since the observations of De Saussure, no doubt had been entertained that Mont Blanc was entitled to this precedence. But in 1819 one of the inferior summits of Monte Rosa was ascended by Messrs. Zumstein and Vincent, who took trigonometrical observations of the higher peaks, and arrived at the conclusion that these inaccessible summits were more elevated than the top of Mont Blanc, by some hundreds of feet. Their account, published in the Memoirs of the Academy of Turin, immediately drew towards Monte Rosa the attention of the scientific and travelling public, new admeasurements were undertaken, and from an elaborate topographical account and survey of this mountain by Baron Welden, published at Vienna in 1824, it would appear that the altitude of the two eminences is nearly equal, Mont Blanc, however, having the precedence by about eighty-eight toises.* * The probable height of Mont Blanc is about 14,764 Paris feet. Mont Blanc derives its name, though not a distinctive one, from its mass of perpetual snows,-Monte Rosa from the circular distribution of its peaks,' which enclose a central valley or amphitheatre. Mont Blanc has been repeatedly ascended, though with great danger and difficulty, by adventurous travellers; but the upper summits of Monte Rosa, though often attempted, have never yet, we believe, been attained. On the tops of the loftiest mountains water rests like a mineral substance from age to age, fixed in the form of consolidated ice and snow. Immense masses, which gather upon these heights in winter, seek afterwards a lower level, in obedience to the laws of nature. This fluctuation, the result of necessary influences, gives birth to scenes of unequalled sublimity and beauty, and actuates, as it were, the moving scenery of the Alps. The cascade, the torrent, the progressive glacier, and the overwhelming avalanche, are but the shiftings, by which a disturbed element seeks to resume its wonted equilibrium. The traveller, passing in summer through the valleys of the Alpine regions, sees often before him what appears to be a white thread, suspended from the mountain side. This he knows to be a waterfall, but if he has seen Niagara, or even Terni, he will be struck with the great length of the cascade, perhaps five or six hundred feet, compared with the slender dimensions of the stream which constitutes it. These cascades generally reach the ground by successive leaps, but now and then a case occurs, in which the fall is unbroken, and the apparent slowness, the effect of distance, with which the air is traversed by the descending waves and volumes of spray, gives to the spectator the idea of something which floats, rather than falls. We recollect to have seen instances, in which a considerable stream jetting from the top of a precipice, was dissolved in spray, and wholly lost to the sight, before it had accomplished half its destined descent. A brook, starting from beneath and fed by the perpetual shower, gave evidence that the material of this beautiful illusion was not lost. A fall of this kind, singularly picturesque, is seen in the vale of Misocco, on the southern side of the Bernardino passage. The celebrated fall of Staubbach, in Lauterbrunnen, nine hundred feet in height, is of the same description. That of Monte Rosa 14,222. See an account of the latter mountain in Brewster's Edinburgh Journal of Science, Vols. I and II. As the upper stratum of these mountains consists of snow, it is very probable that their height varies in different scasons. The long valleys which separate the mountainous spurs, usually afford beds for torrents, constituting the head waters, from which are accumulated the great rivers of Europe. These frequently occupy the bottoms of deep ravines, and when swollen with rains, or melted snows, exhibit a scene of obstructed, yet irresistible violence, which impresses the spectator with the deepest awe. On the principal roads, these are crossed by bridges of substantial masonry, in constructing which, it seems often wonderful how the workmen could have found support. In some cases, we are told, it was found necessary to suspend stagings upon cords from precipices far above them. In the wilder and less frequented paths, frail wooden bridges, and sometimes trunks of fallen trees, constitute the means of passing. It has happened that, in cases of emergency, both men and animals have crossed these torrents, even without the aid of bridges, and in the face of difficulties seemingly insurmountable. In 1800, a detachment of French troops under General Bethencourt, was ordered to occupy the pass of Yéselles, and proceed upon Domo d' Ossola. Their march was interrupted by the destruction of a bridge which led round a precipice, and over an abyss sixty feet in width. A volunteer, at great hazard of his life, by supporting himself against the sides of the precipice, in the holes cut for the timbers, succeeded in carrying a rope to the opposite side. Upon this rope, suspended over the abyss, with their feet braced against the lateral wall, or such other objects as might present, the whole detachment passed, one by one, the commander setting the first example. The names of the officers are now engraved upon the rock. When the last man had left the bank, five dogs, which belonged to the party, threw themselves into the current. Three of them were carried down, while the others, by dint of greater strength, succeeded in gaining the opposite side, and crouched, half dead, at the feet of their masters. The Lavanges or Avalanches take place whenever the mass of snow accumulated on the heights, becomes, either from its own weight, or the insufficiency of its base, incapable of supporting itself. The avalanches of different seasons are not equally dangerous. Those of summer are confined to the highest mountains, and seldom reach the places frequented by mankind. Those of winter also, though sometimes terrible in their effects, yet being often composed of the light and new fallen snow, slide downwards in smaller masses, and with less violence, so that men and beasts have been dug out unharmed from beneath them. But the avalanches of spring, which take place after the sun has begun to loosen the hold by which projecting masses are detained on the brink of precipitous summits, are by far the most dangerous and destructive. Imagination can hardly conceive the fearful sublimity, and havoc, with which these descents are attended. Columns of consolidated snow, whose extent the eye can hardly span, sweeping downwards for mile after mile, bearing with them the loosened rocks and uprooted forests, and discharging themselves at length on the valleys below with a violence under which the earth trembles, are the common and yearly phenomena of these romantic regions. A fallen avalanche, says Ebel, sometimes covers more than a league of country. The concussion of the atmosphere is so great, that houses have been overthrown, and men prostrated, at a distance from the scene of devastation. At the season of avalanches, when the impending masses are just ready to loose their hold, the inhabitants believe that the smallest noise, or shock given to the atmosphere, may start them into motion. Hence, in many places, they take off the bells from their horses and cattle, and steal silently through the dangerous paths, choosing the early part of the day, before the sun has begun to act with power. It is also common to discharge a musket, by way of proof, before entering the suspected defiles. As in other mountainous countries, not only the snow, but sometimes the earth itself, is loosened, and slides downward, carrying desolation in its progress. A remarkable slide of this kind occurred at the village of Goldau, in 1806, and has been feelingly described by one of our own countrymen.* In September, after a long continuance of rain, one of the summits of the Rossberg, was detached from the mountain and fell into the valley and lake beneath, overwhelming the villages of Goldau, Boussingen, and Rothen. The houses, cattle and nearly five hundred of the inhabitants, were destroyed by this event. Some travellers from Berne, says Simond, arrived at Art, and set off on foot for the Rhigi, a few minutes before this catastrophe. A part, who were behind the rest, observed that some strange commotion was taking place on the summit of the *Rev. J. S. Buckminster. |
