road, another monument of the genius of the imperial road-maker, Napoleon, was commenced by his orders in 1803, and finished in 1810, at an expense of 300,000l. The engineer was the Chevalier Fabbroni. It is one of the safest roads over the Alps, and the most practicable in winter time.

About half a mile beyond the Post, is the Hospice, originally founded by Charlemagne, who crossed the Mont Cenis with an army in the 9th century. The existing edifice, built by Napoleon, is now occupied, half by a corps of carbineers who examine the passports of all travellers crossing the mountain; the other half by monks of the Benedictine order, who exercise gratuitous hospitality towards poor travellers. The house contains

two or three neat bed-rooms for guests of the higher class.

At Grande Croix, an inn at the lower extremity of the plain, is a group of taverns occupied by carters and muleteers; there the descent begins.

The road, as originally constructed, skirted along the sides of the mountain; but owing to its fearful exposure to avalanches, this portion of it has been abandoned, and a new line, supported on a lofty causeway, and reached by winding tourniquets, descends directly through the midst of the plain of St. Nicolas, quite out of the reach of avalanches, except between the 3d and 4th Re. fuges, where they still sometimes fall in spring. A gallery cut in the rock where the old road passed, is now abandoned: it exhibits a most singular scene of confusion, the roof having partly fallen in.

The barrier of Piedmont stands in the midst of the little plain of St. Nicolas. On issuing from this plain, a magnificent mountain on the left is seen the Rochemelon : on its summit is the chapel of Nôtre Dame des Neiges, formerly visited by pilgrims, but of late abandoned on account of the risk and difficulty of the ascent. From

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its top a view may be obtained of a part of the plains of Italy. These are not visible from any part of the Mont Cenis road above Molaret. The new road no longer passes through Ferrière and Novalèse, but proceeds directly to

3 Molaret, the first Piedmontese village, near which there is a small inn. A new gallery has been cut in the rock between this and

2 Susa. Inn: La Posta, dirty and dear, 1841. This little town of 2000 inhabitants, planted at the point of junction of the roads over the Mont Genèvre (Route 130.) and the Mont Cenis, is chiefly remarkable on account of its antiquity, having been founded by a Roman colony in the reign of Augustus, under the name of Segusio. The only thing worth notice is the Arch of Triumph, of the Corinthian order, erected about eight years B. C., in honour of Augustus: it is outside the town, in the governor's garden. Susa and the rest of the route to Turin are described in the HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELLERS IN NORTH Italy.

12 Bruzzolo.

13 Sant Ambrogio. 13 Rivoli.

21 (including a post of favour) TURIN. The Hôtel Feder has the deserved reputation of being one of the best hotels in the world. The Hôtel de l'Europe, chez Mottura, and the Pension Suisse, are also excellent ho tels.

For TURIN, see the HANDBOOK FOR NORTHERN ITALY.

The passage of the Mont Cenis, on the whole, is perhaps one of the least interesting of the great passes of the Alps, though the most frequented; there are, however, some striking points of view; looking back upon Lanslebourg from the ascent on the side of Savoy, and on the descent into Piedmont, the vast mountain of the Rochemelon on the opposite side of the valley of Novalese, and the views of the Combe of Susa and plains of

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Route 128.. Piedmont seen on the approach to Susa are very fine. The ascent on the Italian side is long and tedious, requiring 5 or 6 hours. There are some interesting excursions to be made in the mountains which surround the plain of the Mont Cenis, and a day or two may be spent there agreeably; there is an excellent guide, Etienne Mastrallet, to be obtained upon application to the Hospice on the Cenis.

ROUTE 128.

DE

MONT CENIS TO SUSA, BY THE LITTLE MONT CENIS AND THE COL CLAIREE.

(Ten or twelve Hours.)

Those who would make an excursion by the Little Mont Cenis, a singularly wild route, instead of quietly descending by the high road from the Mont Cenis to Susa, may accomplish it easily in twelve hours.

The posthouse of the Mont Cenis (Route 127.) is left by a path which descends directly to the lake, then skirting its upper border and across the meadows, it soon ascends rapidly towards the pasturages which lead to the châlets of the Little Mont Cenis, which are distant from the posthouse two hours. The mountain slopes around the plain of the Mont Cenis offer some of the richest pasturages in the Alps; those which lead to the Little Mont Cenis are of great ex

tent.

A very little way beyond the châlets of the Little Mont Cenis, the col is attained, and the valley which descends to Bramante in the valley of the Arc, and which lies at right angles with the path across the col, is seen through a great part of its length. On the opposite side of this valley rises the peak of the Grand Vallon; and a little on the left, from a deep turn in the valley below, called the Combe d'Ambin, rises one of the finest peaks in the Alps, the Mont d'Ambin: on it, though its accessi

bility seems a miracle, is the station used in the triangulation and measure of an arc of the meridian across the great chain. The entire crest of the Ambin is covered with glaciers, and every crue is traced by a white bed of snow that rests within it. At the lower extremity of the valley of Bramante the mountains of the Vanoise close the view.

To ascend this valley it is necessary to mount from the col of the Little Mont Cenis directly up some rocks, and continue for a short time on that side of the mountain; the path afterwards descends among vast rocks which strew this sterile-looking valley; and, after leaving on the right the turn in the ravine below, which forms the Combe d'Ambin, through which a stream, like a thread of silver flows, the path ascends up a rugged and broken course until it reaches the châlets of Savines. Here there is a rich little spot of meadow land, and a scanty herbage on the slopes of the valley.

On the left, a rugged path leads across from the posthouse on the Cenis by some little lakes in the mountains of Bard, to this valley, above the châlets of Savines: it is rather shorter, but more fatiguing. Wolves are so common in the forest of Bramante, lower down the valley, that the dogs kept at the châlets of Savines are of great power, having their necks armed with spiked collars. The wolves here are probably the successors of those ravenous rascals that gobbled up Walpole's poor little dog Toby, as his master passed with the poet Gray at the foot of this forest on his way into Italy. The herdsman, who always has his rifle ready, is prepared, when he hears the alarm from his dogs, to go and destroy the marauder.

Having ascended above the meadows of Savines, the path rises amidst rocks and stones, and at length reaches a little lake in an elevated plain, in which all seems desolate, solitary, and sterile. The black precipices of the

Route 128.

mountain of Bard on the left hand, and those of the Mont d'Ambin on the right, bound its sides; from the Ambin enormous glaciers sweep down to the lake, and small cataracts, from the melting of the ice on either side, mark their courses by light lines of foam that steam down the precipices, and make their dark masses still blacker. Amidst this apparent sterility thousands of gentianellas, ranunculus glacialis, violets of the richest fragrance, and a hundred other Alpine flowers, grow and bloom unseen, in every swampy spot, and between the stones with which the plain and col are covered.

This lake is filled by the meltings of the glaciers of the Mont d'Ambin. It is called the Lac Blanc, or Lac de Savines: it is about a mile long. At its upper extremity is a low ridge, certainly not a hundred feet above the level of the lake; this is a crest of the great chain, the Col de Clairée : across it two paths lie that on the right by a wild and difficult course, leads over the Col de Touilles, to Salabertrand in the Val d'Exilles.

The route to Susa lies on the left; by it the descent from the Col de Clairée is down a steep and rocky hollow, which terminates at the crossing of a bright stream near a pasturage. This spot, where wine may be cooled in the stream, is a delicious place of rest, and where the refreshment, which it is necessary for the traveller to take with him from the inn on the Mont Cenis, will be fully enjoyed. From this place of rest a steep slope leads down to the pasturage seen from the resting-place. It is a flat, surmounting enormous precipices, which seem to forbid any attempt to descend from them. And there will be little disposition immediately to seek a path, for from this spot one of the most glorious views in the Alps is presented. Imme

diately below is the deep basin and narrow valley of the Clairée, which is almost always filled with vapour that Switz.

seems to boil as in a caldron; when the clouds from it rise high enough to catch the current of air, they disperse.

Beyond this valley, the mountain above Chaumont, in the Val d'Exilles, bounds the view; but, turning towards the left, the Combe of Susa is seen over the intervening mountains, even to its termination in the plains of Piedmont, stretching away to the horizon far beyond the hill of the Superga.

On the right, are the precipices which must be climbed, though they seem to be utterly impracticable, by those who would go from the Col de Clairée to the Col de Touilles.

So abrupt are the edges of the precipices that divide the lower valley from this pasturage, that descent seems hopeless. "We stood," says one who has travelled much in these unfrequented passes of the Alps, " on the brink of enormous precipices, their outlines at our feet cut abruptly against the clouds, into which, through occasional openings made by the wind, we could see the black, deep, and shadowed valley. The scene was most impressive. Our guide was puzzled for a short time by the clouds which obscured the point, for which we should make. At length he led us down the precipice by a most extraordinary path, which it was difficult to discover: it was like winding steps which had been rudely cut in a crevice: it seemed like a descent through a chimney. Below this rift, a steep, difficult, stony, and most fatiguing path brought us to some Piedmontese châlets.

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Though the clouds seemed to sink as we descended, they sometimes in their changes enveloped us; and we were glad to hear the voice of a boy, who, having heard us, shouted to us from the châlets, to tell us what direction we should take.

"A still more difficult path led us further down to some other châlets, below which there were extensive

R

pasturages on a steep slope. Having crossed these, we entered a wood, down through which the most abrupt and fatiguing part of our route lay, which would scarcely have been practicable but for the entangled roots. From the wood we emerged upon a rocky slope, and, after a march of eight or nine hours, reached a few scattered stone huts at the head of the Val de Clairée. On looking back, we appeared to have descended the face of a precipice, down which the numerous streams of the Clairée ran from the summit, as if they issued from the sky, to the torrent by which we rested; the white lines were traceable through three or four thousand feet of their descent.

"The pass of the Clairée is, on the Italian side, the steepest that I have ever traversed. This was one of the many difficult passes by which the Vaudois, in 1687, under their pastor and captain, Henri Arnaud, returned to their valleys. They had, after entering Savoy, wandered by a course rather difficult to trace, until they had crossed the Col de Bonhomme, whence they descended into the Tarentaise, traversed the Mont Iseran into the valley of the Arc; thence by the Mont Cenis, the Little Mont Cenis, and the Col de Clairée, into the valley of the Clairée. Here they encountered the troops of the Grand Duke of Savoy, who prevented their entry into the valley of Exilles by the Clairée, and they were compelled to return and cross the Col de Touilles, from which the southern branch of the Clairée, called the Ciauri, flows.

The account of their sufferings, before they cleared these mountain passes, and so signally defeated their enemies at the bridge of Salbertrand, forms a part of one of the most interesting narratives ever published; it was written by Henry Arnaud himself, their colonel and pastor, and translated not long since by the late Hugh Dyke Acland, from a rare copy, under the title of

"The Glorious Recovery by the Vaudois of their Valleys." An account of these interesting people, and of this their most remarkable adventure, has been lately given to the world by Dr. Wm. Beattie, in his History of the Waldenses, recently published by Virtue, and which contains engraved views of the eventful scenes through which they passed.

"The recollection of their perilous adventures," says the author of " Excursions in the Alps," "" was vividly recalled whilst sitting on a spot which they also had visited, resting ourselves from a fatiguing descent which they had encountered, and in sight of the savage mountain of Les Touilles, by which they were compelled to retreat, and encounter yet further dangers. The few miserable huts near us were uninhabited, and neither afforded shelter nor food. Continuing our route, we kept close to the torrent, from which a large stream was separated for irrigation. By the side of the channel of this stream we continued some way: then the road sank below it; afterwards we ascended rapidly by a steep path cut out at the foot of precipices, which rose in unbroken grandeur directly over us.

"Along the face of these rocks the channel for the watercourse was cut; and though at our greatest elevation above the valley of Clairée, we were at least a thousand feet higher than the natural bed of the torrent, we were still below the head of the artificial channel whence its waters flowed rapidly towards us. It was difficult to believe the fact before our eyes; and, as we looked back into the short, deep narrow valley that we had left, and whilst we saw the Clairée foaming down its course, the aqueduct seemed to ascend steeply from the valley. This water is led round the brow of the mountain to irrigate the meadows above Jaillon. From the highest point of our passage the view up the valley of the Doire to Exilles was very fine; and immediately after

passing this point, the Combe of Susa opened to us from between the Roche Melon and the Col de Fenêtre, to the plains beyond Turin. We soon fell into the high road from the Mont Cenis (Route 127.); and about seven o'clock reached the Hôtel de la Poste at Susa."

ROUTE 129.

GRENOBLE TO BRIANÇON BY BOURG D'OYSANS, AND THE COL DE LAUTA

RET.

(Two Days.)

Grenoble (Gratianopolis), the chief city in the department of the Isère, an important place, beautifully situated, and having a population of 25,000, is described in the HANDBOOK FOR FRANCE. It is here only mentioned as the starting point for an excursion across the Col de Lautaret to the pass of the Mont Genèvre.

There is a good road from Gre. noble by Vizille, Gap and Embrun to Briançon, and a diligence goes to the latter town daily from Grenoble; but it is 50 miles further, and through a country that is generally uninteresting, whilst that by the Col de Lautaret abounds with some of the finest scenes in the Alps.

To save this distance, Napoleon commenced the construction of a new road by this pass, and many magnificent works were completed upon it, but since his abdication it has been abandoned. The new line was called "Route d'Espagne en Italie."

The road to Vizille formerly crossed the plain of Grenoble, then ascending the heights by a course parallel to the river Drac descended to the town of Vizille. But within a few years, a perfectly level communication has been made by the road to Marseilles, up the plain, through fine avenues, to the village of la Claix, where there is a remarkable bridge over the Drac. The road to Vizille thence continues

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up the banks of the Romanche by a course nearly level.

Vizille, 3 leagues, has about 2000 inhabitants. Its inns are wretched. It is considered as the cradle of the first French revolution, for here the parliament of Dauphiny first made a declaration fatal to the power of the Bourbons.

Here was the château of the celebrated constable of the seventeenth century, Lesdiguières. It had, since the revolution, become the property of M. Pérrier, the brother of the minister, who had established cotton or flax works here; but it was partly destroyed by fire in 1825.

A char may be used on the road to the Col de Lautaret as far as Bourg d'Oysans, to which town there is also a diligence from Grenoble. The road ascends by the right bank of the Romanche through a narrow, but beautiful and well-wooded valley, which runs with nearly the same wild character into the heart of the mountains for 6 or 7 leagues.

In some places the

valley widens enough for the establishment of a village or a hamlet: of these, Chichilane, Gavet, and La Clavet are the principal. Near Gavet there are some iron works. This remarkable ravine or Combe, which is also an English, or rather, Celtic name for a defile, bears the name of the Combe de Gavet, and extends from the plain of Vizille to the plain of the Bourg d'Oysans, a fertile valley, surrounded by lofty mountains. It is within record that a large lake was formed in the eleventh century by the falling of the neighbouring mountains at the entrance of the Combe de Gavet: this dammed the river, and the waters accumulated in the plain above, and formed a large lake, of which the surface was three leagues long, and one wide, and its depth from 60 to 80 feet. This lake existed for about 200 years. At length, in September, 1229, it burst its barrier, rushed into the Combe of Gavet, swept away in