344 rentaise derives its present name from vast mass of limestone, in the deep an old monastery, which was built at ravine of the Doron, about a mile a little distance from the ancient Da- above its junction with the Isère. rentasia, which was destroyed many The water rises with force from its centuries since. The ancient city was source, and emits carbonic gas and a the seat of the bishops of Darentasia; little sulphuretted hydrogen. The and it is highly probable that in this springs are warm, and that of the city, which gave its name to the strongest 99° Fahrenheit. During bishopric as early as the year 420, and the great earthquake of Lisbon, the to the province of the Tarentaise - salines of Moutiers ceased to flow for having been destroyed at an unre- 48 hours: when the reflux took place corded period its bishops built at a the quantity was increased, but the little distance, another church, and a saline impregnation was weaker. The monastery for the clergy, who came to salt-works at Bex (Route 56.) are fix their residence in the present conducted in a similar way, but with Moutiers; and preserved the pri- a vast difference in the saline strength mitive title of their seat, which has of the water. At Moutiers it has not varied for thirteen centuries. That scarcely half the strength of that of no vestiges of the ancient city should sea-water; yet it is worked to some have been found, is not very extraor-profit by the simplicity of the process, dinary, when it is considered that the and the use of water as the motive Ostrogoths, and the Lombards in the power for the pumps. seventh century, and the Saracens twice in the ninth century, having penetrated into the valleys of the Maritime, Cottian, and Grecian Alps, destroyed the habitations, and ruined the towns and villages. It is often afterwards mentioned in local archives connected with the church, and in the wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in 1630, when it was almost depopulated by the plague. The history of its church is perfect from its first archbishopric in 420 to its last in 1793, a period of 1373 years. The city now contains an hospital for the poor, which was founded in the tenth century, and an Ecole des Mines, with a laboratory for practical examination of the productions of the mines of Pesey. The surrounding country is one of especial interest to the geologist. But its salines are now the distinguishing feature of Moutiers. They are admirably conducted, and produce nearly fifteen hundred tons of salt yearly, extracted from a saline source which is only impregnated to the amount of 1.83 per cent., even in the strongest of its three springs. These springs rise at the base of a Besides common salt, the water contains, in small proportions, sulphate of lime, sulphate of soda, sulphate and muriate of magnesia, and oxide of iron. There are four great evaporatinghouses filled with faggots of black thorn. The water from the mines is pumped to the top of the first and second of these, which are uncovered, and then allowed to pass through perforated canals, slowly dropping and spreading over the extensive surface of the branches. By this process the sulphate of lime attaches itself to the wood, and the water loses so much by evaporation, that the proportion of salt, after the operation, is increased nearly one half: i. e. to about 3 percent. It is then pumped above the third house, constructed in the same way, except that it is covered, to prevent the saline solution from being again weakened by rain. In this, the evaporation leaves the solution of the strength of 12 per cent. A fourth house now receives it, and in favourable. weather it there acquires a strength of 22 degrees. The process of pumping, after percolation and evaporation, is carried on by the force of a canal of Route 122. Salines of Moutiers - Aime. water, detached from the Doron, and the machinery scarcely ever requires interference. When the brine has acquired the strength of 20 per cent. it is conducted into a large building, where there are boiling pans, and the salt is crystallised in the usual manner. So much fuel is saved by this system of evaporation by the air, that only one sixteenth of the fuel is consumed which would be required for evaporating the brine as it comes from the springs. The faggots are changed once in about 5 or 6 years: they decay soonest in the first evaporating-houses, where the solution is weakest; those in 3d and 4th are more durable, from the coating of selenite they acquire, which, when broken off, resembles the stems and branches of encrinites. There is another mode of evaporating from cords, invented by an ingenious Savoyard, of the name of Buttel. It consists in suspending cords from the roof, and fixing them tight at the bottom: they are about 16 feet long. These cords are placed as thickly as possible, consistent with free ventilation; and the upper ends are so fastened, that the water pumped over them trickles down, only by these cords, very slowly. By repeatedly allowing the brine thus to descend, the greater part of the water is evaporated, and the cords left incrusted with a cylinder of crystallized gypsum, which is detached by a particular instrument. This practice of completing the process, by evaporation in the air, is discontinued now, though the cords are used for getting a higher concentration of the brine than heretofore this strong solution is sent, like the rest, to the boiling pans. The weak solution used to rot the cords; but by only using them after 5 per cent. had been obtained in the solution, they have been known to remain 30 years in use, without being changed; some of these, originally an inch in 345 diameter, are coated with gypsum 2 or 3 inches thick. These works belong to the government, though they yield an annual profit of only 50,000 francs 20007. From Moutiers to Bourg St. Maurice the road again takes a N. E. direction; and, on leaving the little basin of Moutiers to ascend the Isère, it passes through a gorge which continues a short way, and then opens at the village of St. Marcel. The scenery around is very fine and picturesque. The road, which formerly passed on the left bank of the Isère, now rises high on the right bank, and is carried over a neck of rock at a great height above the torrent. The view looking down and back upon St. Marcel from the rock is very fine. This road was made by Victor Emanuel, Duke of Savoy, in 1766. The defile at the base of this rock is only wide enough for the torrent of the Isère. The valley opens above this defile; and immediately beyond it, below the road, is seen the village of Centron, still preserving the name of the Centrones, an Alpine people who inhabited this valley. About 10 miles from Moutiers is Aime (Axuma), one of the chief towns of the Centrones, and, according to inscriptions found there, was evidently called Forum Claudii before the name of Axuma was given to it. On a hill above it, there are the remains of Roman fortifications: some round towers of great antiquity, both in the town and on the site of the ancient fort are still standing, the masonry having been strong enough to hold the masses together through so many ages. There is also a subterraneous communication which traverses the town, from some ruins, supposed to have been a temple, to the fortress; the vault of this passage is supported by columns of stone, each shaft of a single piece. Here some inscriptions have been found, particularly one in honour of Trajan: Upper Tarentaise. An ancient communication between the town and the fort may also be traced in steps cut out of the rock upon which the latter stands. That the former extent of Aime greatly exceeded its present boundaries, was shown by some discoveries of subterraneous structures opened in forming a new road into the Upper Tarentaise in 1760. Above Aime the formation of a new carriage road is in rapid progress, and the inhabitants hope that their Government will soon open it across the Little St. Bernard, and make this a high road to Turin. The beauty and interest of such a route, cannot fail to lead to a great influx of strangers, besides the benefit of communication between different communities of the same state. Generally, the valley of the Isère, from Aime to Bourg St. Maurice, is wild and dreary, and not picturesque. The vine grows as far as the village of Bellentres, which is nearly opposite to the village and valley of Landri, that lead to the mines of Pesey, the most celebrated in Savoy. They are situated near the foot of the glacier of the Chaffe-Quarre, and more than 5000 feet above the level of the sea: the ore is a fine-grained sulphuret of lead; it contains about 60 ounces of silver per ton. These mines in 1785 yielded annually about 4000 marks of silver, and 40,000 quintals of lead: they are now less productive. The height of the mines is a serious obstacle to their being worked to great advantage. As the valley is ascended, the pass of the Little St. Bernard opens to the observer a more obvious course than that of the road up the Isère, which turns again from St. Maurice to the E. and S. S. E., and continues in this direction to its source in the Iseran. Bourg St. Maurice (Berigentrum). Good Inn: Hôtel de Voyageurs, chez Mayat. (Route 114.) Thus far up the Val Isère there is a good char or carriage road, but beyond St. Maurice it is necessary, in order to go further up the valley, to go on horseback or on foot; it requires one day to go from Bourg St. Maurice to La Val, and another across the Col d'Iseran to Lanslebourg and the Mont Cenis. From Bourg St. Maurice to St. Foi (Route 113.) The approach to St. Foi from the meadows below it offers one of the most beautiful scenes in the valleys of the Alps. Having climbed the tortuous and difficult chaussée which leads to the village, the route continues for a long way by a wild and lofty path on the mountain side high above the torrent, through the village of La Tuille to Brennieres. Nothing can exceed the savage grandeur of this route; the deep ravine is too narrow for the structure of a path lower down towards the torrent. On the opposite side the enormous glaciers that stretch from the Chaffe-Quarre along the crest of the mountains, offer the grandest scene of its class to be found anywhere in the Alps. A most magnificent view thus presented is opposite to the village of La Gure, of which the spire seems to touch the glaciers. More than once this village has been destroyed by the fall of ice and rocks; but the danger is defied for the sake of the little land which its terrace above the Isère affords. From the melting glaciers above, the white lines of a hundred cataracts seem to stream down upon the village. Soon after passing La Gure the road yet ascends to a ridge, which being crossed, the path leads steeply Here the Isère is down to the Isère in the depth of the ravine. Here Alpine horrors await the traveller. The overhanging rocks darken the pass, and a fragile bridge only, in a wild situation over a lateral stream, enables the traveller to ascend the valley. A little beyond this bridge the defile opens into the plain and village of Brennieres. crossed, and the path ascends on the other side through a rugged pine forest, where the path is carried very high to avoid a ravine. The eye cannot penetrate to its depth, though the roar of the torrent is heard in these solitudes. In passing over this ridge, there is one spot where a cleft in the mountain side can only be passed upon the trees, rocks, and stones, which the peasants have jammed into it, to form a path, which thence descending almost to the river side, continues a short way only, before another expansion of the valley forms a little well-cultivated plain, in which lies the chief village of the valley, Tignes. The approach to it, issuing from the defile below, is very striking. The inhabitants are robust and independent, and are great breeders of mules and cattle. Directly opposite to Tignes is a valley, where one may pass by the Col de Large to Entre-deux-Eaux. (Route 123.) The On leaving the plain of Tignes a steep rugged path leads up the mountain side, to pass another of those ravines, which in this valley so singularly alternate with the little plains. This, the last, separates the plain of Tignes from that of La Val. forest trees, from their greater elevation, are more stunted, the rocks more denuded, and the whole passage between the two villages is unmatched in apparent danger from falling rocks, and in savage wildness, In the midst, a fragile bridge crosses the torrent, and soon after the traveller finds himself in the plain of La Val; where barley is raised, and where irrigation A miserable hovel called an inn is the only place of reception at La Val. Professor Forbes says that "at Tignes, three hours' walk from St. Foi, and five from Bourg St. Maurice, there is a humble and clean Inn, Chez Bock, where the traveller is advised strongly to stay and pass the night instead of encountering the dirt and discomfort of the filthy Inn of La Val. From Tignes to Lanslebourg is not a very long day's journey." If, however, the traveller intend to cross the Galese to the Val d'Orca or the Val de Forno in Piedmont he cannot sleep too near the glaciers, in order to pass them at an early hour. La Val should in this case be his resting place. To cross the Col d'Iseran the path ascends gradually from the valley, by a stunted pine forest. There is a hamlet called Forno, further up the valley on the route to the Galese, but this is avoided, and by the time the traveller arrives opposite to it he has attained a great elevation. The path to the Col requires a guide from La Val, as the course is confused by sheep tracks leading to different pas turages, and the true path is only known by bearings: the ascent is easy. Some crosses mark the loss of life in these solitudes; in one instance by murder, in another a poor soldier was found dead from cold and exhaustion. Near the summit, the soil produces myriads of flowers, and of great variety. On looking back upon the ridge of the great chain the view is exceedingly grand, but not so fine as from the Col d'Iseran, and during the descent on the other side. Here the traveller looks over a thou 348 Route 123.- Moutiers - Tarentaise to Lanslebourg. sand peaks, whose black and scathed precipices appear to spring out of the sea of glaciers which extends from the Levanna (Route 112.) to the Roche Melon (Route 127.). From the col, the course lies down the denuded slopes to an elevated pasturage, which narrows to a valley terminating in a defile above deep precipices, where a cataract falls across the path. From this ravine. the descent is very difficult and fatiguing down to the plain below, where the pasturages and châlets of St. Barthelemi, belonging to the inhabitants of Bonneval, offer abundant summer resources to the herds and flocks of the proprietors. From these pasturages the descent is steep and wearying. The valley of the Arc is seen below, and on the left, looking up to the head of the valley, the glaciers of the Levanna seem to fill it; across these a path leads in 5 hours to Gros Cavallo in the Val Forno, and thence in ten hours to Lanzo, in Piedmont. The first village reached in the valley of the Arc is Bonneval: here the inn is detestable; so, in fact, are all in the valley, until the traveller reach Lanslebourg, distant four hours down the valley from Bonneval. From La Val to Bonneval, by the Col d'Iseran, is a walk of 4 or 5 hours. After crossing the Arc, the road descends to Bessans, passing on the left the valley of Averole, by which the Col de Lautaret and the valleys of Viu and Lanzo on the side of Piedmont may be reached, one of the wildest passes in the Alps. At Bessans the Arc is again crossed, and a high ridge is passed which divides the commune of Bessans from that of Lans le Villiard, a village about a league above Lanslebourg. From Lans le Villiard a path leads into the great route of the Mont Cenis. If the traveller have started early, he may reach the posthouse on the mountain on the day of his departure from La Val; if he be late, MOUTIERS- TARENTAISE TO LANSLEBOURG, BY THE COL DE VANOISE. A char may be taken as far as Bozel for this journey, but beyond, it is necessary to take a horse or proceed on foot. It requires two days, and the place of rest is Pralorgnan. The road passes by the salines of Moutiers (Route 122.), and ascending on the right bank of the Doron, reaches in a quarter of an hour the Rock of Salins, situated opposite to the confluence of the valley of Bozel, or the Doron, with that of St. Jean Belleville. cending the latter, there are two mountain passes, one leads to St. Jean Maurienne, the other to St. Michael, both in the valley of the Arc-either an easy day's journey. As The Château de Salins was anciently the residence of the archbishop of the Tarentaise; its ruins are situated immediately above the salt springs, in the valley below. These are guarded with great care, to prevent the people of the country stealing any of the water and making their own salt. Salins is conjectured to have been the site of the ancient Darentasia. Of the castle of Salins some ruins exist, There are records of its importance in 1082, when the tyrant Aymeric, of Aigueblanche, was defeated by Humbert II., whose succour had been solicited by the oppressed subjects of Aymeric. Humbert retained, at their request, the government in his own hands, and established at the town and the Château de Salins the tribunals of his new province; and documents bearing date 1358, show that these still existed, though it is known that the town was destroyed about the end of the 14th century, by a fall from the mountains on the west. This fall |