[1] The Livigno district has been touched on in two works, A Summer Tour in the Grisons, by Mrs. H. Freshfield, and Here and There in the Alps, by the Hon. F. Plunket, but the route here described was not previously known. There is a pleasant description of Val di Sole, in On Foot through Tyrol, by Walter White. Chapman and Hall, 1856.

[2] See Appendix F on 'Tyrol v. Tirol.'

[3] See Appendix E for further details on this subject.

[4] I have not succeeded in discovering any connection between the word, Maggia and Maggiore.

[5] Bignasco is only 1,400 feet above the sea.

[6] The falls of Krimml in Tyrol are probably on the whole the Alpine cataract in which height of fall, force of water, and picturesque surroundings are most thoroughly united. There are many falls in the Adamello group which a painter would prefer to the cascade of the Tosa.

[7] Between the years 1850-56, one-eighth of the whole population, and one-fourth of the male population, left their homes. Amongst the emigrants were 324 married men, only two of whom took their wives with them!

[8] The herdsmen of these chÂlets have a way to the Val Formazza without crossing the Basodine. The 'Bocchetta di Val Maggia,' a gap in the rocky ridge at the north-eastern corner of the Cavergno glacier, brings them on to the pasturages near the San Giacomo Pass, whence either Airolo or the Tosa Falls can be gained without further ascent.

[9] Domenico Macaneo, in his Verbani lacus locorumque adjacentium chorographica descriptio, quoted by Studer, Physische Geographie der Schweiz. These notices suggest that the Val Verzascans may be a relic of some primitive tribe, but I have no authority for imputing to them ethnological importance.

[10] Between the two valleys mentioned above is Val Onsernone (see Alpine Guide, p. 315, and Appendix) penetrated for some distance by a carriage-road. In a lively article in the fifth Jahrbuch of the Swiss Alpine Club, Herr Hoffmann Burkhardt describes the scenery as most varied and charming, and the road 'as a magnificent example of a mountain-road, and a most striking evidence of the talent of the Tessiners in this department of human industry.'

[11] The carriage-road was expected to be finished throughout in 1875.

[12] This and the following chapter were originally written as a paper to be read before the Alpine Club.

[13] See Vignette.

[14] Herr Theobald states that the villagers of Bondo give the name of Trubinesca to the Cima di Tschingel of the Federal map. Herr Ziegler, the author of a new and very beautifully executed map of this portion of the Alps, confirms this statement, adding that 'Turbinesca' is the correct spelling, and he has accordingly changed the names of the two peaks. As a rule, local usage should, no doubt, be followed. But in the present instance, the mistake is of such long standing, that an endeavour to correct it would only lead to confusion, and I have adhered to the nomenclature of the Federal map. It is much to be regretted that Herr Ziegler's map is wholly inaccurate with regard to the glaciers of Val Masino, and the position of many of the ridges dividing its lateral glens.

[15] Naturbilder aus den RhÄtischen Alpen: Chur, 1861.

[16] The junction of this spur, the Cima Sciascia, with the principal ridge, has been placed too far east in all maps previous to the Alpine Club Map of Switzerland.

[17] I am disposed to doubt whether a direct pass from the Bondasca Glacier to the western branch of Val Masino was ever effected before 1865. It is true there is a tradition embodied in the Swiss Federal map of such a pass. It is possible, however, that smugglers may have gone up to the Passo di Ferro, and then scrambled westward over the rocks into the basin of the Porcellizza Alp.

[18] The pass was at first named the Disgrazia Joch; but Passo di Mello, suggested by Mr. Ball, seems the most appropriate title.

[19] So named by Messrs. Stephen and Kennedy, who apparently considered the gloominess of the surrounding names required some relief. The Monte della Disgrazia is supported on the other side by the Monte della Cassandra.

[20] Judging from the map appended to Mr. Kennedy's paper in the first vol. of the Alpine Journal, he crossed the spur at a much lower point than we did.

[21] This gap is probably the Passo della Preda Rossa of an Italian party who in 1874 ascended the Disgrazia from the Alp Rali in Val Torreggio.

[22] According to Herr Ziegler's map of the Lower Engadine, the principal glacier of Val Lavinuoz is the Vadret Chama, and the Vadret Tiatscha is a tributary ice-stream flowing into it from the west. On the Federal map the Verstankla Glacier is marked WinterthÄli.

[23] The information is somewhat contradictory. Tschudi speaks of a 'new path;' a writer in the last year's publication of the German Alpine Club talks of the climb as decidedly difficult.

[24] The summits of Piz Pisoc and Piz St. Jon are, as the crow flies, 3,250 mÈtres apart; the bottom of the Scarl Thal is 1,600 mÈtres, or about 5,400 ft. below them. The average of the slopes on both sides the valley would be 45°.

[25] One of the sources of the Rhine is in Italy. The pasturages of Val di Lei, a lateral glen of the Aversthal, are pastured by Italian shepherds, and included within the Italian frontier.

[26] See The Grisons, by Mrs. H. Freshfield. Longmans & Co.

[27] I ascended Piz Quatervals some years later from Val Tantermuoza, a glen opening above Zernetz, and returned to the Engadine by the way indicated above. The head of Val Trupchum is very wild, but the walk as a whole is disappointing.

[28] Herr Ziegler's map of S.E. Switzerland includes this country. The scale is large, and the execution beautiful, but the corrections introduced on the very inaccurate Lombard map are but slight.

[29] Travellers often forget that all locked luggage coming from Switzerland is stopped at the Italian custom-house. In the present instance the portmanteau had been directed Porlezza, in ignorance that, by an absurd postal law, which it is worth while to call notice to, everything is sent from Lugano to Porlezza vi Como!

[30] See Mr. J. A. Symonds' charming description of the Italian foothills in spring, in Sketches from Italy and Greece.

[31] In this statement Coryat is supported by the best Swiss authorities of the time. The belief in the pre-eminence of this part of the chain was probably grounded on the plausible argument that, as the two greatest rivers of the Alps rise in this group, and all rivers flow down hill, the region containing their sources must be the most elevated.

[32] On the rocky knoll in the centre of the delta of the Adda, I find printed on the Lombard map the Spanish word 'Fuentes.' This was doubtless the site of the castle.

[33] Unless indeed we take him to task for a passage found, of all odd places, in an answer to a Chancery Bill filed by a certain 'vilipendious linendraper,' to restrain him from common law proceedings for the recovery of a debt. His 'versute adversarie,' amongst other impertinent matters, seems to have inserted allegations as to the 'smallnesse and commonnesse' of Coryat's voyage. The enraged traveller retorts, with an eloquence seldom reached by modern pleaders, 'has he not walked above the clouds over hils that are at least 7 miles high? For indeed so high is the mountaine Cenys, the danger of which is such, that if in some places the traveller should but trip aside in certaine narrow wayes that are scarcely a yard broade, he is precipitated into a very Stygian barathrum, or Tartarean lake, six times deeper than Paul's tower is high.' Has he not 'continually stood in feare of the Alpine cut-throats called the Bandits?'

[34] Since writing the above, I have been favoured by Signor Curo, President of the Bergamasque Section of the Italian Alpine Club, with a list of some of the most remarkable works of art in this region. It is printed as Appendix B.

[36] The height may be roughly estimated at 9,300 feet.

[37] See Appendix A. for mention of the passes they offer.

[38] The suggestions made here at haphazard are, I see, seriously supported by Dr. Julius Morstadt in a long article Ueber die Terraingestaltung in SÜdwestlichen Tirol in the last publication of the German Alpine Club, Zeitschrift des Deutschen Alpenvereins, Band V. Heft 1, 1874.

[39] A change seems, however, imminent. In 1873 some of the leading inhabitants of Trent and Arco formed themselves into an Alpine Society. Its object is at once to excite in the youth of the Trentino the taste for healthful exercise, and to increase the material prosperity of the mountain valleys by drawing to them some of the abundance of foreign gold which flows so freely into Eastern Switzerland. One of the first consequences of this step has been the establishment of Alpine Inns at Campiglio and San Martino di Castrozza.

[40] See Appendix C for two routes from Santa Catarina to Val di Sole.

[41] Vermiglio, like Primiero, is the name of a group of villages, of which the highest is Pizzano.

[42] From an article, Die grosseren Expeditionen in den Oesterreichischen Alpen aus dem Jahre 1864, von Dr. Anton von Ruthner, published in Petermann's Mittheilungen for 1865.

[43] This refers to eleven years ago. Proofs of nationality are no longer asked for anywhere in the Alps unless, perhaps, in France, where even a Republican Government finds itself forced to gratify the peculiar passion of the nation for restrictions on liberty of travel by retaining passports for Frenchmen only. So long as this distinction is maintained, members of other nations are liable to be occasionally required to prove their disqualification for the privilege of carrying about one of the minute descriptions of their own persons, which seem to give our neighbours so much pleasure.

[44] Lieut. Payer's pamphlet Die Adamello-Presanella Alpen, Petermann's Mittheilungen, Erganzungsheft, No. 17, Gotha, J. Perthes, 1865, is a very valuable contribution to the orography of the group he describes.

[45] I follow Lieutenant Payer's nomenclature, as it has been adopted in the Alpine Club map. Mr. Ball prefers the name of Bedole Glacier for the Mandron Glacier, and of Matarotto Glacier for the Lobbia Glacier.

[46] I ought, perhaps, to say 'stretched.' The axe has laid low much of it during the past ten years.

[47] The widest range of vision I have ever gained was from the Pizzo della Mare in the Orteler group, from which the Ankogel above Wildbad Gastein, and Monte Viso, distant from each other over 400 miles, the Apennines above Bologna, and the hills of the Vorarlberg were visible at the same time.

[48] There is an opinion current, based only on the habitual hurry of some mountaineers and the slowness of others, that it is impossible to spend hours on a great peak. On a calm, fine day no pleasanter resting-place can be found, and the time you can pass on the top depends only on the time of day you reach it. I have spent three hours on the Aletschhorn and Monte Rosa with the greatest enjoyment, less than an hour rarely, in decent weather on any peak of over 10,000 feet.

[49] 'J. S. Mill und Tochter,' is a frequent entry in the strangers' books of Tyrolean inns.

[50] Messrs. Taylor and Montgomery passed two nights in these huts later in the same year, and, weather forbidding an ascent of the Adamello, crossed into Val Saviore by a wild but easy Pass.

[51] Payer's account of the answers given to his enquiries about this summit, furnishes a good illustration of the difficulty of naming a peak:—'Botteri declared the mountain was nameless; from others I got the names Monte Mulat, Monte Folletto, Monte Marmotta (from Marmot), Monte Calotta (from cap). I chose finally the name Folletto (from mountain-spirit, Kobold).'

[52] A good view of the Bedole Glacier from this point, the Passo del Mandron, appeared in the publications for 1874 of the German Alpine Club. There are some serious mistakes, however, in the identification of various points. The Lobbia Bassa should be the Lobbia Alta, the Lobbia Alta the Dosson di Genova, and the Passo della Lobbia Alta the Passo d'Adame.

[53] In Southern Tyrol campaniles are generally built by the communes which have realised their wealth by cutting down their forests, and the great sawmills at the mouth of Val di Genova have undoubtedly had a large share in the execution of this pious work. It is most distressing to see from year to year how greed of immediate gain is leading the peasantry to treat their mountains like convicts. Ample as the locks were, they have been terribly thinned even in the last few years. Val di Genova, within my recollection, has lost much of its ancient and primeval wealth of verdure. The comparative barrenness of its lower portion was painful on my last visit. Good forest-laws may retrieve in the future the waste of the last few years, but no traveller in this century will ever see the valley clothed in the same full-folded mantle which, eleven years ago, made our long walk from the Presanella to Val Rendena one continuous delight.

[54] See Appendix D, where this inscription is given in full, together with a description of the frescoes of San Vigilio.

[55] In the Vita Caroli of Eginhardt is the following tantalising passage: 'Italiam intranti quam difficilis Alpium transitus fuerit quantoque Francorum labore invia montium juga et eminentes in cÆlum scopuli atque asperÆ cautes superatÆ sint hoc loco describerem, nisi,' &c. The words italicised apply singularly well to dolomitic landscapes, but it was probably the St. Bernard and Mt. Cenis that the chronicler had in mind.

[56] There are several dolomitic groups in Swiss territory. One of the most considerable has already been described (Ch. V.). Another is the cluster of bold peaks standing between the Julier and Albula roads, of which the highest summits are the Piz d'Aela, Tinzenhorn, and Piz St. Michel. There is also dolomite between the Via Mala and the Savien Thal, and in other parts of Switzerland. But none of these masses—probably owing to some slight difference in the composition of their crags—show the peculiar characteristics of the rock in a sufficiently marked manner to attract attention except on close approach.

[57] It would be unfair to dwell on the shortcomings of an inn but just opened in a remote and, until the completion of the new road, somewhat inaccessible situation, without adding that great improvements were promised for this year (1875). As these pages are passing through the press, I learn from a new advertisement in Le Touriste, that the owner of the house and land has taken the management of the hotel into his own hands. I shall let him speak for himself.

'Campiglio. Tyrol. Le grandiose Établissement Alpin de Campiglio, dans une position enchanteresse, À plus de 1600 mÈtres de hauteur, est honorÉ par le concours de nombreux visiteurs, qui trouvent la santÉ et le repos dans son air des plus salubres, ses laitages exquis, ses bains et boissons ferrugineuses, ses douches, ses cures de lait et petit lait, son service mÉdical, ses eaux ferrugineuses, apportÉes journellement de Pejo et Rabbi aux prix de 6 soldi autrichiens la bouteille de 2 livres, dans sa cuisine choisie, dans son service bien organisÉ, dans les nombreux amusements qu'offre l'endroit, dans les belles excursions aux environs, dans les conforts intÉrieurs de l'Établissement, ses vastes salons avec pianos, les cavalcades, etc. etc.

'Le PropriÉtaire soussignÉ en ayant pris lui-mÊme la direction, pour Éviter tout inconvÉnient, offre des pensions À 5 frs. pour ceux qui y feront un sÉjour d'au moins 10 jours, comprenant le logement, dÉjeuner, dÎner et souper, vin À part, et sans aucune obligation pour le service.

'Il n'a pas regardÉ À la dÉpense pour mettre l'Établissement en communication avec la route postale, et une nouvelle route carrossable le rÉunit À Pinzolo. Il tient aussi des voitures de Campiglio À Pinzolo À des prix trÈs modÉrÉs, et, en recevant l'avis À temps, aussi de Campiglio À Trento et Riva, et vice-versa, au prix de 50 frs. pour 5 personnes, pour ceux qui prennent la pension.

'L'Établissement s'ouvre le 1 Juin prochain.

'Le PropriÉtaire, G. Battista Righi.

'Campiglio, 1 Mars 1875.'

[58] See Appendix E on the nomenclature of this group.

[59] We may possibly have mistaken the Dosson di Genova or Corno Bianco for this peak.

[60] See Appendix C.

[61] This view is engraved as the frontispiece to the Jahrbuch for '69-70 of the Swiss Club; but the artist, fancying himself to have before him the snow-fields of the Lobbia Glacier, has gone hopelessly wrong in his identification of the peaks. His Crozzon di Lares is the CarÈ Alto, his Crozzon di Fargorida the Corno Alto, his Lobbia Alta the Corno di Cavento, and his Lobbia Bassa the Crozzon di Lares.

[62] Six Englishmen visited it in 1873; of these my own party supplied three, a fourth was a friend whom I directed thither.

[63] Alpine Journal, vol. v. p. 111.

[64] This part of the road was being remade in September 1874.

[65] Canale is a frequent synonym for 'Valle' in the Venetian Alps, and travellers have been led to suppose that a fanciful analogy between the glens of the mountain provinces and the water-streets of the capital led to the use of the word. But 'canale' was used in the sense of valley before the period of Venetian rule, and it is found at the present day in mountain districts of the Apennines near Spezzia, far removed from any Venetian influences. See Du Cange's 'Glossarium' for some curious details and quotations as to this word.

[66] An inn will probably be established before long at Gares. The ascent of the Cima di Vezzana from that side is a fine expedition, free from the slightest difficulty.

[67] Not the hamlet of the same name subsequently mentioned.

[68] The assurance given by the San Vito landlord to Messrs. Gilbert and Churchill, that 'only the final ice-portion was difficult' (The Dolomite Mountains, p. 399), was, I need scarcely say, wholly misleading and contrary to fact.

[69] Mr. Bryce tells me that among the upper rocks of the Pelmo, above the ice and somewhat E. of the highest point he found a strong iron spring.

[70] We had been absent 10½ hours. The ascent occupied five hours of quick walking; the return, made on the whole much more leisurely, about four; halts accounted for the remaining hour and a half.

[71] See Appendix A.

[72] Prose Idylls.

[73] Contrast this comparison with Mr. Browning's, quoted p. 28.

[74] A distinction must be made between the scenery of the Engadine itself, and of the Bernina. In the side-glens behind Pontresina, the lover of peak-form and the student of snow and ice will find abundant and singularly accessible subjects.

[75] I do not forget the somewhat spasmodic efforts in Alpine painting which have been made in late years by one or two of our landscape-painters. But so far as I know, despite one or two fairly successful beginnings, none of them (except an amateur, Sir Robert Collier) have persevered in the endeavour to represent mountains. Of all men, Mr. Edward Whymper has effected most in this field. His wood engravings show how much may be done even on a very small scale and without colour. A volume of portraits of the great peaks by his hand, an English edition of Herr Studer's, The Highest Summits of Switzerland, and the Story of their Ascent, would be welcomed both by lovers of the arts and of the Alps. Mr. Elijah Walton, with much feeling for colour, and occasionally for mountain form, seems to lack the force and perseverance necessary for the production of complete work. He seldom reaches the standard of rock-drawing held up in his own book, Peaks in Pen and Pencil. His sketches are too often scamped, and it is impossible to repress impatience of their mannerism, and of the perpetual blot of mist which he is ever ready to throw in. Nor can I recognise as worthy of such frequent reproduction the surely somewhat ignoble, and in nature rare, form of hillside found where, through the friable character of the rock, isolated, pine-tufted blocks are left standing amidst deep trenches. But he can, when he pleases, paint truly and beautifully a dolomite pinnacle, a wall of ice, or a bank of pines. I still hope he may be able to forget some of his favourite effects, and to give us a series of simple transcripts of fresh impressions from nature, embodied in drawings studied throughout with equal care.

Other water-colour painters have, during the last few seasons, tried their hands on the snowy Alps. We owe gratitude to everyone who aids to raise mountain-drawing from the bathos of such works as those of Collingwood Smith. But I could wish this young school showed less facility and more signs of a progress which is only to be won by thoughtful observation, patience, and refinement. At present their works are seen more often in the rooms of climbers than of connoisseurs.

[76] The references in this Appendix from the first to the eleventh chapter are to vol. ii. of the 3-volume edition of the Alpine Guide, which has not been repaged for the 10-section edition.

[77] This is the spelling of Dufour's map. A second 's' was wrongly inserted in the text after it had left my hands.

[78] In the 'Karte der Centralen Ortlergruppe,' published under the authority of the German Alpine Club and to be seen at Santa Catarina, the route can be followed with sufficient accuracy. Ball's Hohenferner Joch is there FÜrkel Scharte, and his second more easterly pass, the Hohenferner Joch. The Vedretta della Venezia becomes the Vedretta Careser. The small glacier falling towards Val di Rabbi is well shown, but the ground below it is left vague. In this map the whole southwest limb of the Orteler group is most inaccurately represented, and might better have been left a blank.

[79] This word would, perhaps, point to a late date for the inscription, but an error of one letter would make it read 'de Francis.'

[80] and [84] BrixiÆ (?), if so Brescia.

[81] Calepio (?).

[82] This name of the valley survives in the Oglio (Ollius) its river. The modern name Val Camonica is generally derived from the Camuni, the tribe who formerly inhabited it.

[83] Esine.

[85] visulus = a vine.

[86] Braone.

[87] The name is preserved in the Val Mortirolo above Edolo. Close by is the Motto Pagano.

[88] Monno.

[89] Davena.

[90] See ante.

[91] See last page.

[92] The Tonale.

[93] Pelizzano.

[94] Val di Sole.

[95] Moschera is said to be the name given in some old chronicles to Campiglio, which gained its present name from Charles' encampment on the broad meadows of the Ginevrie Alp. The 'Trento' of Mariani is quoted as an authority for these statements. It is worth noting that we find elsewhere the names 'Campo' and 'Spinale' in close conjunction in Charles' history. Einhardi Annales edidit Pertz, p. 52: 'in Vosego silv ad patrem venit in loco qui dicitur Camp.' To which the editor adds, 'Champ in Lotharingi villa parva prope Bruyere ad rivum Velogne a septentrione Romarici montis et ab oriente Spinalii (Epinal).'

[96] Val Rendena.

[97] Pelugo.

[98] Brixiam (?).

[99] Sono.

[100] Morire.

[101] Anche.

[102] Bisogna.

[103] Lettera.

[104] Non puoi.

[105] Appendix A is not indexed here.