158
gratis, as long as necessity obliges them to stay. A large comfortable apartment is
allotted for the poorj while those who make a more decent appearance remain with
the community, and eat at their table during their residence. Surely, then, too much
praise cannot be given to the founder of such an institution, as well as to the zeal,
indefatigable care, and extreme humanity, of those respectable men, from whom I have
not only experienced the kindest attention, but have witnessed the dangers they run in
rescuing from the snow the unfortunate traveler. I cannot but express a hope, that,
whatever changes the religious and political systems of Europe may undergo, this instititution,
as to its great object, will not be abolished. Yet, with all these precautions,
scarcely a year passes without some, and indeed I may add many, individuals perishing
while crossing this passage, which may certainly be regarded as one of the highest of
the Alps ; and many, though they may not be totally given up to death's cold embrace,
are frequendy found with their limbs so frozen, as to acquire amputation,—a circumstance
which, to those who are unacquainted with the country, and the number of persons
who annually pass, must naturally appear dreadful, and create melancholy reflexions
; but when it is considered that, one year with the other, no less than five-andtwenty
thousand travelers, mostly Italian and German, actually cross this mountain, the
astonishment ceases, and it in fact becomes wonderful that the lives of so many are
preserved, as appears by the account of the friars.
Having staid two days in the convent,, and examined most of the adjacent spiry
peaks, I quitted this hospitable mansion early in the morning of the third, in order to
proceed to the city of Aiista j and though it was the commencement of July, the cold
was extreme on the top of the mountain, Farenheit's thermometer being mostly at
thirty-five degrees; but at half past nine, on the eve of my departure, it was as low as
twenty-eight, consequently below the freezing point.
The road descends immediately from the convent, having on one side the lake (on
the edge of which that building stands), whose water, from its extreme depth, appears
of a deep blue colour, with a blackish tint; and on the other, the basis of the peak
Drossa, which is, as ¡t were, crossed by the small canal, constructed at the friars'
expense, on the eastern part of the mountain, as previously mentioned, in order to convey
water to the convent. I then soon left the Vallaisan states, and entered the territories
of his Sardinian majesty, of which a small column indicates the boundary, as
represented in N° XXI I . which likewise gives an idea of the convent, with the lake
159
and surrounding spiry needles. From hence the road passes along the bottom of another
valley, which may be considered as a continuation of the former. This valley ¡s
called Jupiter's Plain, from there having originally been a temple on the spot dedicated
to that divinity; and indeed some historians go further, and suppose it to have been the
place where, even in the time of the Romans, there existed an hospilium, or kind of
hospital, on nearly the same principle as the present, and that St. Bernard was only
the restorer of that humane establishment. Be this as it may, the deed remains equally
meritorious, whether he be considered as the founder or the restorer. It is also an
incontrovertible truth, that this passage was, before the erection of the convent, styled
Joux, or Jovis, and that on its summit stood a temple dedicated to Jupi ter Penninus,—•
a circumstance which doubtless gave the appellation of Pennine to that part of the Alps,
pen, ox pennims, being of Celtic etymology, and meaning lofty or high,
These conjectures seem to be strongly confirmed by a number of medals and inscriptions
found in the environs of the temple, of which several vestiges are still extant,
besides some ex-volos in copper, iron, and even wood, which clearly show that this
mountain was frequented by the Romans, who deemed the passage so dangerous, that,
before undertaking it, they sometimes devoted themselves to this divinity; for on one
of the ex^otos are the following words:
JOVI P^NINO
Q. SILVIUS PEF.ENNIS
TABELL. COLON.
SEQUANON.
V. S. L. M.
i t likewise appears that this same Jupiter had the reputation of being deemed
an oracle by the people of the surrounding countries: while others, again, have been
of opinion (among whom is Pliny the historian), that this temple might probably be the
work of the Carthaginians, at the time that Hannibal passed the Alps, and that Jupiter
Penninus may have been one of their divinities. This opinion, however, of Hannibal
having crossed the Pennine Alps, little agrees with the account given by Polybius and
Livy in their histories of Hannibal's march ; and has been refuted by so many learned
and scientific modern writers, who have well examined the geography of the country,
as well as the historical details of the wonderful invasion of Italy by the Carthaginian
general, that the supposition of his having passed in this place must be abandoned as
erroneous. Besides, by the many facts and data collected on that subject, it seems that