of the Rhine, reached the heights which rise directly above it, and then perceived below them the lake and beautiful pastures which adorn the bottom. As this spot had no name, they gave it that of Tavau, which in the Grison language signifies "behind there." Thence is derived the name of Davos. Baron de Vatz wishing to turn these pastures to account, built twelve châlets, and, as a reward to the huntsmen, allowed them to bring some of the members of their families from the mountains of the Haut Valais, of which they were natives, to take possession of these châlets. Thus the country was peopled. About the centre of the valley is still shown the remains of a hut, which pass for those of one of the first dwellings. But a more satisfactory monument of these primitive times is the language; for while in all the surrounding valleys Grison is spoken, that is to say, the old language of the Rhætians, in the whole of Davos the German dialect of the Haut Valais is spoken. The inhabitants also bear the name of Walser, an alteration of Waliser, which is the name of the inhabitants of the Haut Valais. Lastly, several family names are found in the country which also exist in the Valais. Besides, it appears that the population increased very quickly, probably through new migrations of Valaisans; for in 1436, only two centuries after its discovery, the country of Davos was united to a neighbouring valley, the Prätigau, and laid the foundation of the League of the Ten Jurisdictions, which afterwards uniting with the Grey League, and that of the Maison Dieu, formed the federal republic of the Grisons.

The verdure of the valley of Davos is the more agreeable, since it can only be reached by crossing rough and almost barren mountains. It is like an oasis in a desert of snow and rocks. The view is especially striking when the bold path through the Schalfikthal is followed. When the traveller has reached the Col, situate at the extremity of the valley of Stréla, he sees around him only black peaks, heaps of shattered rocks, beds of snow, a few blades of grass trying to grow and flourish, and on the horizon a dark line of ragged peaks, striped white and black; but he has hardly taken a step forward, when, between himself and those stern mountain tops, he suddenly beholds an abyss, and at the bottom of the abyss a little blue lake; a river issuing from the lake, gently flows through magnificent meadows, enriched on the right and left by the product of the torrents and cascades which tear down from the mountains; large forests of pines and larches from between the snow and naked rocks, which occupy the upper regions; and the fresh colour of the meadows, a girdle of dark green, broken here and there by Alpine pasturage. Such must have been the spectacle which met the eyes of the huntsmen of Baron de Vatz, when, after having climbed so many difficult passes, they first reached those desolate summits. But now this beautiful hollow is a complete nest of shepherds. The hand of man is seen everywhere. Churches, villages in long perspective, can be distinguished below; paths which intersect one another and furrow the verdure; bridges here and there breaking the line of water; châlets for storing up fodder scattered on all sides in the meadows, and rising from stage to stage above the forests. There are about 3,000 inhabitants and from 7,000 to 8,000 head of cattle, which constitute their chief wealth, since corn is not cultivated. The population are distinguished for their beauty, their vigour, and their kindly disposition. For three hundred years the country has furnished Europe with a considerable number of statesmen, generals, ecclesiastics, and other superior officers. At present the population is too large in proportion to the size of the valley, and hence they are compelled to emigrate extensively, as in the neighbouring valley of Engadine, a great number of young men go and seek their fortune by becoming lemonade makers and confectioners in large cities. Many afterwards return to their native valley; but their return, though profitable to the riches of the country, unhappily does not tend to preserve its pastoral simplicity.

The whole length of the valley is about fifteen miles, its breadth is hardly more than three-quarters of a mile at the bottom. At the upper end it divides into four lateral

valleys which run into the chain of the Alps at a very little distance from one another; they are the valleys of Fluela, Dischma, Sertig, and Montstein. Each of them ends in a Col, by which a descent may be made into the Upper Engadine. The other outlets are Col de Stréla leading to Coire, the Col de Statz leading to the Prätigau, and practicable for carriages, and the defile of Rugha.

The Col de Fluela, if not the most convenient, is at least the most interesting, of these outlets, because of its wild and majestic character. At the top is a little lake, supplied by the melting of the snows, of about three-quarters of a mile in extent; on its banks are a few flowers. The waters flow on the one side into the Inn, and thence into the Danube; on the other into the river of Davos, and thence into the Rhine. This is a very remarkable spot. The waters which flow into the Danube are those which descend towards the magnificent wall of rocks at the furthest part of the picture. These elevated mountain solitudes mountain solitudes are inhabited only by chamois, foxes, and marmots. The last-mentioned animals are very abundant; the passing traveller is continually saluted by their shrill cries, and he sees them scudding across the snow and hiding themselves in the hollow rocks which form their abodes. There are also some wolves and bears; but these ferocious animals have been very much hunted, and are decreasing in number every day. The huntsmen complain very much of this, but not so shepherds and travellers.

"Towards the extremity of the beautiful valley of Davos," says Coxe, "I came to a small lake, about four miles in circumference, which is remarkably deep and clear, and abounds with excellent trout. It lies at the foot of the mountains, and supplies a small stream, which being joined by one from the valley of Hola, and by another from that of Diesma, forms the murmuring brook that waters the valley of Davos, and falls into the Albula above the baths of Alveneu: it is considered by some writers as forming a source of the Rhine. From the banks of this lake I descended to another, about half a mile in circumference, that lies in a wild and romantic situation, and supplies a little torrent which is the source of the Lanquart. A little further we passed through a small pleasant plain strewed with cottages, which compose the village of Lower Lera, at the extremity of which the descent was so steep and rugged, that I dismounted until I reached the vale of Prätigau. I passed through Closter, Kublis, Jenalsch, and Schiers, following all the way the torrent Lanquart. The country is delightful, and greatly diversified with all · kinds of productions. It yields different species of grain, rich pastures, abundance of fruit trees, with large quantities of flax and hemp. The latter is much cultivated, and seems to be carried to great perfection. The peasants manufacture coarse but very strong linen from this hemp.

"The mountains on each side are in some parts covered with forests, and so great is the abundance of wood, that the fields are either studded or skirted with larch, pines, and beech. The hamlets are scattered through the plain, and along the declivities of the mountains, in a very pleasing manner. The houses are mostly of wood, in the Swiss mode of construction, and not less convenient. The road through this vale descends gently all the way. I have not for some time visited a more agreeable, fertile, and populous district.

"A little beyond Grusch, which lies under some bare rocks in a fertile plain, the valley of Prätigau contracts; and I went through a narrow pass, between impending rocks, just broad enough to admit the torrent and the road. The sudden change from the fertility of the country to the rugged barrenness of this spot, sufficiently striking of itself, was still further heightened by the gloom of the evening, which added to the horror of the scenery. The road was carried for some way in continual ascent and descent along the craggy precipices, sometimes above, and sometimes upon a level with the torrent. The path was so narrow and rugged, that I gave my horse to the guide,

and continued my way on foot. I soon emerged from this obscure pass, and, as far as I could judge by the dim light of the stars, came into a fine and rich country, and went through a series of vineyards to Malantz, in the district of Meyenfeld.

"The high jurisdiction of Meyenfeld is the most remarkable in the whole country of the Grisons, because the inhabitants are respectively sovereign and subjects. They are sovereign, because they form part of the league of the ten jurisdictions, send deputies to the general diet of the Grisons, and nominate to the government of the subject provinces. They are subject, because, like the subject provinces, they are governed by a bailiff sent from the Grisons, who is changed every two years, and in whom resides the supreme authority. This strange intermixture of privileges and subjection is derived from the following causes :—

"The lordship of Meyenfeld was, like the whole territory of this league, subject to the counts of Tockenburg, and, in 1436, joined the other communities to form a league. In 1509, the prerogatives enjoyed by the count of Tockenburg were sold by his heirs, for 20,000 florins, to the three leagues, which confirmed the privileges of the inhabitants. In 1537, Malantz and Jennins, the remaining part of this high jurisdiction, were also purchased by the three leagues for 10,000 florins. Thus, while the inhabitants of all the other jurisdictions who came under the dominion of the house of Austria have purchased their absolute independence, the people of Meyenfeld and Malantz, although making part of the sovereign power, have continued in the same state as at the first formation of the leagues. The bailiff or governor is appointed by the communities of the three leagues in rotation; and the inhabitants of this very high jurisdiction nominate the bailiff when it is their turn to present to the office.

"The prerogatives of the bailiff who resides at Meyenfeld are as follow:-he appoints the stadvogt, or chief magistrate of that town, with this condition-that he must be a member of the senate; upon a vacancy of the senate or little council, he nominates the new senator; he arrests criminals, examines them, and makes a cohesition if he chooses; he cannot order torture or pass sentence without the concurrence of the members of the criminal tribunal, and when they pass sentence can pardon; he can give a liberation in the same manner as the governor of the Valteline; he receives part of the fines for criminal offences, and a certain portion of the great tithes; at Malantz he appoints the chief magistrate from three candidates presented by the people, who choose all the other magistrates. Both Meyenfeld and Malantz have their civil courts; from that of the former there lies an appeal to the bailiff."

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE PASS OF THE SPLUGEN THE PASS OF BERNHARDINA THE VALLEY OF MISOCCO.

It was while "the snowy amphitheatre of the Alps" was the scene of the martial struggles which have already been partially traced, that an army of reserve, consisting of fifteen thousand men, was moved forward to the valley of the Rhine in the Grisons; and it was destined to menace the rear of the imperial army on the Mincio, while Brune attacked it in front. This auxiliary corps would probably have rendered more important service, if it had been directed to the grand army of Moreau, which was destined to operate in the valley of the Danube, the true avenue to the Austrian states; but such a disposition would have ill accorded with the views of the first consul, who was little anxious to put a preponderating force, so near their frontier, into the hands of a dreaded rival, and destined for himself the principal part in the campaign, with the troops which he was to lead from the Noric Alps to Vienna.

Independently of this secret feeling, Napoleon was misled by the great results of the Italian campaigns of 1796 and 1797, and the paralysing effect of the march of the army of reserve across the great St. Bernard. He imagined that Italy was the theatre where the decisive events were to take place, and had yet to learn the superior importance of the valley of the Danube, in which he himself, on future occasions, was destined to strike such redoubtable blows. "It is fortunate for the historian," says Alison, to whom we are indebted for these details, "that this destination of Macdonald's corps took place, as it brought to light the intrepidity and heroism of that gallant officer, of whose descent Scotland has so much reason to be proud; while it led to the interesting episode of the passage of the Splugen, perhaps the most wonderful achievement of modern times, and which has been portrayed by one of its ablest leaders, Count Mathieu Dumas, with the fidelity of Xenophon, and the power of Livy."

The army of Macdonald, which was announced to consist of forty thousand men, and was furnished with staff and other appointments adequate to that number, in reality amounted only to fifteen thousand troops. Macdonald no sooner discovered this great deficiency, than he made the most urgent representations to the first consul, and requested that the chosen reserve of ten thousand men, which Murat was leading from the camp at Amiens to the plains of Italy, should be put under his orders. But Napoleon, who intended this corps in the Alps to operate in the campaign more by the apprehensions it excited among the Imperialists than by its actual achievements in the field, refused to change the destination of Murat's division, and it continued its route for the banks of the Mincio. He still believed that the frontier of the Irun would sufficiently cover the Hereditary States on that side, and that it was by accumulating ninety thousand men in the Southern Tyrol and Italy that the decisive blow against the Austrian power was to be struck. The command of this great army, destined to dictate peace under the walls of Vienna, he ultimately designed for himself.

Of all the passes from Switzerland to Italy, there was none which presented more serious internal obstacles, and was more carefully guarded by the enemy, than that

which leads over the Splugen into the Italian Tyrol. It is first necessary to pass from the valley of the Rhine, near its source, over the Splugen into that of the Adda, which descends in a rapid course from the Julian Alps to the lake of Como; from thence, if an

advance to the eastward is required, the Col Apriga, a steep ridge entangled with wood and lofty chestnuts, must be surmounted, which brings the traveller into the valley of the