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however, fortunately recovered, and joy as instantaneously succeeded. As for myself,
who had with scrutinising eyes watched the whole process, and longed to find Juliana
deserving the affection of a man who had encountered such hardships to obtain her, I
was delighted to perceive, that, with a most interesting figure, which might be styled
pleasing rather than handsome, an animated countenance, tall, well made, and just
nineteen, she appeared to possess sentiments so congenial to his own, as could not fail
to make him the happiest of mankind.
Her dress was singularly pretty, simple, and quite in the Vallaisan style, so exactly
corresponding with the description given by Rousseau of her countrywomen, that I was
quite charmed with her. Two days did they insist on my lengthening my stay; and on the
third I departed from this mansion of peace, the whole party accompanying me as far
as St. Pierre, where the nuptials were performed, and where, with heart-felt gratitude, I
expressed my acknowledgements for their hospitality and attention 5—then left them to
return to their habitation, and quietly proceeded on my journey. But, before continuing
it, I shall return to the description of the summit of the pass, this being a
digression I was not willing to omit.
At the eastern part of the valley of St. Prou, before mentioned, stands the extensive
glacier of Menone, which stretches nearly as fer as the high road, and which, like the
rest of the glaciers in the Alps, pushes before it heaps of stones and sand, forming a
mound that extends over the pastures. Those masses of rock, which are fragments
of the stupendous peaks that crown the glaciers, are mostly composed of a kind of
micaceous quartzose stone, with strata of different thicknesses, similar to the mountains
that lie contiguous to the road; for no granite whatever did I perceive from the village
of Lides; and even there that species of stone is only found in blocks, as before mentioned.
Some few of the peaks of the glaciers are nevertheless formed of a kind of
lamellated argil, streaked with quartz, containing various sorts of roundish, or kidneylike
stones. These stones are of different colours, and vary singularly with regard
to the direction of their strata; though the major part may be deemed nearly vertical,
intermixed with veins of copperas pyrites. From the summit of the Prou, the road
continues through another narrow valley, called La Combe, much more contracted than
the former, and where, in many places, the snow is permanent. Contiguous to the
high road, two small buildings have been erected, which are vaulted, and called the
hospital. One of them serves as a refuge for travelers of every description, there being
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at all times fire, bread, wine, and cheese, regularly brought by a brother monkj who,
during tempestuous weather, regularly visits this building, which is distant three
miles from the hospice or convent, built on the summit of the mountain, where the
traveler of the Alps is at all times received, and where the monks, by affording a comfortable
shelter from the inclemency of their frozen regions, have preserved the lives
of many.
These monks, who are in general called Maronnier, or Ilospiialier, in fact a kind of
Augustine friars, are mostly strong and robust, perfectly well acquainted with every
part of the mountain, for which reason they are chosen to protect travelers during
the great falls of snow and the avalanches, when they arc oftentimes under the necessity
of digging them out, at the depth of even twenty feet. For this purpose a large dog,
not unlike the Newfoundland, is kept at the convent, who regularly accompanies tliese
charitable beings, and by means of his scent discovers the poor wretches who are apparently
lost J then the friars (even the superiors, for in time of danger none are exempt)
dig till they succeed in extricating the unfortunate person, who, if not too late,
has every assistance administered, and is conveyed to the convent, where the greatest
care is taken of him til! perfectly recovered. Should it be necessary to amputate, the
operation is performed with the greatest humanity, and the utmost tendemess is shown
while in the hospice ; but if, on the contrary, the patients be past recovery, they arc
removed to the second building, noticed above, called the traveler's cimetière, or buryingplace,
where each individual is placed in his clothes, that he may be the easier known ;
and so intense is the cold in this frozen region the whole year round, and of course so
very unfavourable to putrefaction, that, the last time I crossed the Great St. Bernard,
there were bodies which had been remaining two years, without the least appearance of
being disfigured. At half a league from this melancholy abode, the road crosses the
Drance, which takes its source at no great distance from the bridge there thrown
across 5 for the summit of the pass is the point of separation between the waters which
fall into the Adriatic sea, and those which throw themselves into llie Mediterranean.
Previous to reaching the convent, the ascent is so extremely steep, that one may
almost call it abrupt, and nearly covered with immense pieces of rock ; but what must
appear singular, though a circumstance on record in the convent, is, that a woman,
sixty years of age, returning from some of the neighbouring hamlets, having been overtaken
by a storm, sought refuge under one of those rocks, wliich in an instant, by a