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172 G A L L E R Y O F
reverberation through the long archway on
each side.
The rock is so firm that the archway
appears to be in no danger of injury from
any natural cause, less powerful than an
earthquake: it will long remain a monument
of the genius of Napoleon. Travellers
who visit the passage of les Echelles
for the scenery, should approach it from
Chamberry, and not from the western or
Lyons side. On the one side you emerge
from the earth to behold a sudden vision
of glory ; on the other you leave a splendid
valley to plunge into a cave, that opens
only on barren rocks. I have mentioned
that the rock through which the
perforation is made, appears to bar all
farther access, and the inhabitants of this
valley and the adjoining parts of Dauphiny
had, in early ages, no direct natural communication
with the other parts of Savoy.
On the left, or south side of the ravine,
just before you arrive at the gallery, there
is a deep fissure between the rocks, which
extends for half a league, and turns round
towards the valley. Formerly persons on
foot were accustomed to pass along this
fissure, till they came to a natural cavern,
L E S E C H E L L E S . 173
or scries of caverns, which lead to an aperture
looking into the valley, and a communication
was formed with it by steps
and ladders, made for the purpose of descending
from this opening down the perpendicular
face of rock into the valley;
hence the road obtained its name, le Passage
de la Grotte, and les Echelles. A zigzag
road for mules was afterwards cut in
the rocks, so as to join the natural fissure,
and this remained till 1670, when Charles
Emanuel the Second, undertook to make
a wider road along the bottom of the fissure,
and by a series of terraces, rising
from the valley, a practicable descent was
formed for all kinds of wheel-carriasOes.
This road, till the time of Napoleon, was
considered a miracle of art, though it was
far from affording an easy communication
between Chamberry and France, for a voi-
ture with four horses was obliged to hire
eight oxen, from the village below, to ascend.
This village, situated in the valley,
at the bottom of the road, is called le Village
de la Roche. The pompous inscription
placed upon the rock, and written by
the Abbé Real, on the completion of the
old road, would have some truth, if applied
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