il
that lies between the last^mentioncd town and its summit, it being, in some respects,
very like the Great St. Bernard, though less barren, and not so elevated.
This pass, called Simplón, or Simpelon, which, as just stated, is on one side easy of
access, by a good and pleasant road, may certainly be deemed the least formidable of
the Alps, next to that of the Brenner in the Tyrol ; though so far similar to the rest, that
it cannot be made passable for carriages, because of its extreme abruptness on the side
of Italy, an invariable circumstance in every part of the Alps, as before noticed. On
leaving the town of Brieg, which is situated at the entrance of a beautiful valley watered
by the Saltana, the road lies partly on the banks of the Rhone, keeping a southern direction,
and partly across thick forests or groves of larch and fir, intersected by rich and
smiling meadows, for the most part watered by a number of small rivulets, whose limpid
streams descend, with gentle murmur, from the summit of iofty mountains, wooded
to the very top, which serve as a basis to the pass of Simplón. The high road thus
continues, without much ascent, to the village of Tavernettes> nine miles from Brieg,
where every necessary refreshment may be procured, prior to encountering the steepest
part of the mountain, which is reckoned to take up an hour and a half from thence to
the summit. Just before reaching the above village, I suddenly heard a violent noise,
and at once saw, rushing from a forest, a vast concourse of people of every age and sex,
armed with forks, spades, clubs, guns, Sic. shouting with all their might, and running
as fast as their feet could carry them. In an instant they passed me, turned the angle
of a meadow, and vanished, like lightning, into another forest. Supposing they were in
pursuit of a wolf, yet desirous of knowing the particulars, I hastened towards an old
woman, who was standing close to the road, at the door of a cottage, who with grief
confirmed my suspicion ; telling me, that as her grand-daughter, a child of ten years of
age, was tending their little flock, she saw a wolf take one of them j but that, unable to
prevent him, she had only been able to run and give the customary alarm, which
had collected the people I had seen, who were chiefly composed of their own family
and the neighbouring cottagers, and who were in hopes, by their noise, to make him
quit his prey, as he had just been seen with it on his back. These animals, who are in
fact so formidable, and may at all times be said to annoy the inhabitants of the
Alps, become yet more so when the tops of the mountains are covered with snowj
for, being thus forced by hunger, they descend into the plains, and dare even make their
appearance in mid-day, enter the cottages most contiguous to the forests, force their
m
way into the stables, where the flocks are kept in winter, and thence forcibly carry ofif
the sheep.
But what is still more horrid to relate, yet a circumstance I perfectly recollect,
though at that time quite a child, when at the village of Vouaches in Savoy, where my
father had a house, a wolf, during public service on the Sunday, entered a cottage
through the window, the door being fast, and rati off" with a beautiful infant, that lay
asleep in Its cradle. Being, unfortunately, the only one who had witnessed this horrid
catastrophe, ere I had aroused the village, time elapsed, and the babe was seen Bo more.
Though many years have now passed since this melancholy event took place, never carl
the horror it occasioned, or the cruel idea of my insufficiency to preserve what might
have proved a blessing to its family, be erased from my memory. The inhabitants of
these mountains are therefore necessitated to be continually on the look-out during the
winter months, and keep themselves provided with fire-arms, &c. for the government,
by way of encouragement, give a stipulated price for every head of that animal, as
formerly in England, though unfortunately not with similar success, from the utter impossibility
of destroying them totally, owing to the situation and extent of the country.
But, to return to Simplón. This mountain is six thousand five hundred and seventynine
feet above the level of the sea, consequently about fourteen hundred and twenty
less elevated than the Great St. Bernard, and wooded nearly to the top. I found the
rocks from Brieg to Tavemettes, for the most part, formed of calcareous micaceous
stone, though, in many places, strata of a tender or soft schistus, of a bluish tinge, with
an inclined, direction, appear to be conspicuous: but from this last village to Dovredo,
situate nearly at the basis of Simplón, on the side of Italy, they are of lamellated rock,
containing quartz, mica, and feldspath. In descending the mountain, prior to reaching
Simpelendorf or Simpelin, I remarked, as I went along, several thick banks of granitell,
in which were schorl, quartz, mica, and steatites, of considerable consistency, whose
strata were nearly horizontal. It is however certain that this species of compound rock
does not resemble, by its spots, the genuine or true granite, the spots being infinitely
more regular, smaller, and closer to each other: hence I have been led to believe that
its crystallisation has been eff-ected at a time when the bodies, or molecules, of which
it is composed, were in a state of dissolution, and held, as it were, in equilibrio; for then
the most similar parts, attracting each other, united by the surfaces that were most
analogous to each other.