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The German physician at Briegg told us
that the cretins are not so numerous as
before the occupation of the country by
the French. Many tales are related of the
French having destroyed a great number of
them, on the plea, that they were useless
to themselves and to society. One fact is
certain, that the French would not permit
any persons affected with cretinism to
marry, a regulation which was certainly
wise and humane.
October 13. 1820, we left Briegg, at nine
o’clock, to ascend the Semplon, taking two
additional horses to the chariot we had
hired at Lausanne. The morning was very
fine, without a single cloud in the horison.
About twelve o’clock the horses rested one
hour, at an inn by the road side, and we
did not reach the barrier, near the summit
till half past three. Full five hours after we
had left Briegg, a turn in the road presented
it again below us, and so near that we
could distinguish the houses very plainly.
The old road up the Semplon is carried
along a ravine, on the right, below the
present ro a d ; and I believe a stout man
would ascend the old road on foot in half
the time required for a carriage to ascend
the new road. The highest part of the
new road is 6560 Fnglish feet above the
level of the sea. This route has been
already so frequently described by others,
that I shall merely notice one or two circumstances
which have been omitted, or
misstated, by preceding travellers. Among
these it is truly remarkable, that the most
striking object which is seen in ascending
the Semplon has not hitherto been noticed,
that I know of, by any to u rist: this is the
view o f the southern side of the Swiss
range of Alps, that divide the Valíais from
the canton of Berne. Fvery one who has
been at Berne knows the conspicuous figure
these mountains make from thence, but on
ascending the Semplon, you are almost four
times nearer them than at Berne, and all
the most lofty summits of the Swiss range,
with a host of snowy pinnacles on this side
of them, and the glaciers from whence
they rise, are immediately before the eye
of the traveller, if he will turn back to look
at them : a jnore sublime spectacle cannot
be imagined. It is true that these mountains
are seen under very different forms
from what they present on the northern
side, and their bases are hidden bv the
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