mountains that divide Savoy from the Haut
Vallois, passes along the valley of Chamouny,
and then turning northward,escapes
through a vast chasm to Pont Pelissier, and
pursues its course in a north-westerly direction,
till it joins the Rhone, nearly under
the walls of Geneva. The whole
length of the Arve, from its rise to its
junction with the Rhone, is little more
than seventy-five miles. It is along the
valley of the Arve that the road to Chamouny
from Geneva is carried. As far as
the town of Sallenches, a distance of nearly
forty miles, the road is perfectly safe for
carriages of every description, and is much
travelled in summer, not only by tourists
to Chamouny, but by company going to
the baths of St. Gervaise, three miles
beyond Sallenches. On leaving Geneva,
Mont Blanc and some of the Aguilles of
Chamouny are seen towering over the intervening
mountains ; but they soon disappear
in advancing, and are not seen again
till the traveller arrives at St. Martin, a
distance of forty miles, when having passed
a range of mountains that overhang the
road on the left, Mont Blanc once more
presents itself as a shapeless and enormous
mass of
Snows piled on snow’s, amazing to the skies.”
T h o m s o n .
We did not commence oiir tour from
Geneva, but from Annecy, along a new
and very fine road, which is making from
Annecy to Bonneville.
The country is rich and beautiful, but
presents few striking objects, except the
mountains we had left on the Lake of Annecy,
which are here seen in profile. The
Lake of Annecy has evidently extended
much farther in this direction. A bed of
gravel of vast thickness, which is cut
through by a river on the south of the road,
was once, in all probability, covered by
the waters of the lake. We continued to
ascend gradually for several hours, until
we had reached the summit of a pass
through the mountains, that form the
western boundary of the valley of the
Arve, whence we began to descend towards
Bonneville. The road passes through a
considerable mountain-town, called La
Boche, which overlooks the valley, from