Alps.* The highest summits, as the
Aguille Vert, Le Géant, Mont Blanc, and
Mont Iseran, are situated along this part
* As modern writers on the continent, as well as ancient
historians, use the Roman appellations to designate
certain parts of the Alps, it may be proper to state that
the Romans, who made military roads to pass over these
mountains into Gaul and Germany, denominated different
portions of this range from the people who inhabited
the country near these roads, or from the heroes,
by whom, according to tradition, the Alps had been
first crossed. See Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. iii. cap. 23.
Tiie L i g u r i a n , or M a r i t i im e A l p s , and the C o t t ia n
A l p s , separate France from Italy on the south-east. The
ancient nation of the Ligurians inhabited the Italian side
of the Alps. The Cottian Alps, so called from Cottius, the
friend of Augustus, extended to Mont Cenis, comprising
also the lateral valleys that branch from that mountain.
The G r e c i a n A l p s extended from the east of Mont
Cenis to the Col de Bon Homme, beyond the little St.
Bernard : Pliny says they were so called from Hercules,
who first passed over them.
The P e n n i n e A l p s , or S uxMm æ A l p e s , comprised the
mountains and valleys from the Col de Bon Homme
to the Great St. Bernard, and eastward to the mountains
of the Haut Vallois. On the Great St. Bernard,
the inhabitants of the country are said to have adored
the god Pen, under the form of a young man. The
Romans afterwards converted this god into Jupiter
Penninus. The word Pen, or Ben, was the name of a
high mountain among many of the northern nations
of Europe : thus we have, in England, Pennygent,
Pendle-hill, Pengaen, &c. ; and in Scotland, B e n \o -
mond, Ben Nevis, &c. &c.
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 5
of the central range within the limits of
the dutchj, rising several thousand feet
above the lower line of eternal snow.
Ih e lateral valleys that branch into Savoy
from the central chain ofthe Alps,are bounded
by mountains that decrease in elevation
as they recede from the south. Thus, while
the mountains in or near the central range
rise from ten to fourteen thousand feet
above the level of the sea, those near the
northern boundary, or the basin of the Lake
of Geneva, scarcely rise higher than from
three to five thousand feet. The whole of
Savoy may be said to be covered with mountains,
intersected by deep valleys ; no part
of it can properly be called a level country;
but on the western side, some ofthe valleys
open out to the breadth of several miles.
There are other valleys, so entirely bounded
and closed in by mountains, as to be insulated
by nature from the world, having no
outlet except a deep gorge or chasm, from
The L e p o n t i n e A l p s extended from St. Plomb to
St. Gothard, along the Haut Vallois.
The R h a :t i a n A l p s comprised the country of the
Grisons, the Tyrol, and Trient.
The J u l i e n n e , or N o r i c A l p s , comprised the chain
of mountains extending through Friuli, the lower Austria,
and Istria.
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