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242 VILI.AGE OE SEMPLON.
who is the cook, is not seen by the company.
Considering the distance from which
the provisions are brought, the accommodations
at this inn are good, and the
family are attentive and obliging. On
the south of the village there is a commune,
containing about thirty persons,
principally miners, who live in a deep
ravine, and wash the sands of the rivulet
to obtain particles of gold : there is also a
mine which yields a small quantity of that
metal. The descent from the Semplon,
on the Italian side, is far grander and more
striking than that on the side of the Valíais.
Precipices of granite, of amazing height,
hang immediately over the road, and dark
profound chasms open beneath it, on the
right, through which the torrents are roaring
and foaming, and rushing on to the
plains of Italy.
A few miles after leaving the Semplon,
the river Diverdo becomes a mighty stream,
and runs along a deep valley to the right of
the road. The mountains above it are clothed
with forests of fir: the trunks of many
thousand trees were scattered on its banks,
which had been cut down during the summer,
and projected into the valley, to sup-
UESCENT TO ITALY. 243
ply the villages and towns below with timber
and fuel.
On our return we saw these trees in
motion. Thirty-six hours of heavy rain
had so swelled the river, that it filled the
lower part of the valley, floating the timber
on its sides, and hurrying it down from
precipice to precipice, with a roar like that
of continued thunder, occasioned by the
trunks of such a multitude of trees, striking
against the rocks in their descent. A long
cloud hung midway across the opposite
mountain, and a torrent descending from
its summit appeared like a white line ; but
after it had passed through the cloud, and
re-appeared below, we saw that it was a
great cataract, throwing its waters into the
Diverdo. The timber which was floating
down the river is stopped at certain stations
below, and taken out for sale.
The Semplon road is forty-two miles
in length from Gliss to Domo d’Ossola,
and about nine yards wide ; it is every
where as safe and commodious as the roads
round London. A mail coach would cross
it in six hours. The ascent is nowhere
more than one foot in twenty-nine feet.
There are ten houses of refuge built by
R 2