Mont Cenis Pass

“ At Mont-Cenis, near the Hospice, is a large lake which is frozen during eight months of the year. Here reigns eternal winter and the mountains are covered with snows that never melt. From Mont-Cenis to Suza the descent is very grand and striking, and the scenery resembles that of the Simplon; there are more obstacles of nature than on the former part of the road, and here ravines are connected by the means of bridges, and there are subterraneous galleries to pass thro. ”

“ Mons' undertaking, we may, in the first place, state that in its progress the tunnel must pass under some of the most elevated crests of Mont Cenis,—one, in particular, where there will be 4,850 feet of mountain, capped with eternal glaciers, over head, at the middle of the tunnel, so that not only will the workmen and machinery in construction, and the passengers and trains in transit, be buried to that depth in the heart of the mountain, but all idea of shafts, either to facilitate excavation, or to promote ventilation, must be out of the question. ”

“ Scarcely less important than pass or gap is the avenue of approach to the same. This is furnished by lateral or transverse valleys of erosion. The deeper their reentrant angles cut back into the heart of the highlands, the more they facilitate intercourse and lend historical importance to the pass route. The Alpine passes which are approached by a single valley from each side are those crossed by railroads to-day,—Mont Cenis, Simplon, St. Gotthard and the Brenner. ”

“ Here commences a long chain of mountains, the highest of which is called Mount Cenis, which forms a dangerous pass for travellers in times of snow. The road is so difficult to find, that a traveller, unless he wish to lose it, must take one of the guides of the country, called Marrons. These people advise you not to make any sort of noise that may shake the atmosphere round the mountain, for in that case the snow is detached, and rolls with impetuosity to the ground. Mount Cenis separates Italy from France. ”

“ It is long, certainly, but it has a fair proportion of picturesque points, and it is not easy to see how it can be dull to those who have eyes. In the days when it was a rude mountain track, crossed by trains of mules, and when it was better known to smugglers than to tourists, it may have been dull; but when Napoleon’s road changed the rough path into one of the finest highways in Europe, mounting in grand curves and by uniform grades, and rendered the trot possible throughout its entire distance, the Mont Cenis became one of the most interesting passes in the Alps. ”

“ As a tunnel, Mont Cenis is of no very extraordinary length; but, being composed of almost solid rock, the boring operation for so great a distance must have proved exceedingly difficult, the width being twenty-six feet, and the height nineteen feet. Some 2000 men were constantly employed at each end for nearly nine years. The steep ascent, of some 8000 feet, is another marvellous feature. ”

“ We continued for a great length of way to wind along the borders of the lake, which sparkled like a diamond in the morning sun, and whose extensive surface was slightly rippled by a fresh and animating breeze from the mountains. With respect to the extraordinary exhilaration of mountain air, which first struck me in crossing Mont Cenis, and has been confirmed by subsequent experience, I had heard and read a thousand times of its effect; but a truth, when personally proved for the first time, always seems like a discovery, rather than a sober [275] confirmation of the words of other people. ”

“ To stop to complain would certainly have been to be frozen to death, and we rode fast over the plain of Mont Cenis, stopping to breathe our comrades before each refuge, as places where we could find aid, should aid become necessary. The lake was invisible through the mist, and we could distinguish only the mountain rivulet which for some way accompanied us, flowing along like a black line through the dull white of the snow. ”

“ I then remembered poor little Louis XVII.; to-day I think of Henry V.: what swiftness of downfall and misfortune!
Here one begins to ascend Mont Cenis and leave the little River Arc, which brings you to the foot of the mountain. On the other side of Mont Cenis, the Dora opens the entrance of Italy to you. Rivers are not only "moving high-roads," as Pascal calls them, but they also mark the road for men. ”

“ On p. 55 he endorses Bonney’s description of the Cenis passes. “Between the plateau of the Little Mont Cenis and La Grande Croix [on the Great Mont Cenis] a ridge can be gained by a few minutes’ walk, whence is seen the country to the east of the Po, and the south of the Tanaro, as far as the Apennines.” ”

“ I had an opportunity of verifying this fact, in company with Signor Gastaldi as my guide, by examining the erratics and boulder formation between Susa and Turin, on the banks of the Dora Riparia, which brings down the waters from Mont Cenis and from the Alps south-west of it. I there observed striated fragments of dolomite and gypsum, which had come down from Mont Cenis and had travelled as far as Avigliana; also masses of serpentine brought from less remote points, some of them apparently exceeding in dimensions the largest erratics of Switzerland. ”

“ One of the great difficulties of the work is shared with the Mont Cenis Tunnel, the other is peculiar to the present undertaking. The Alps above the one, and the sea above the other, necessarily prevent the use of shafts. The work must be carried on from each end; and all the débris excavated must be brought back the whole length of the boring, and all the air to be breathed by the workmen must be forced in. The provision of a fit atmosphere is a mere matter of detail. ”

“ So far the thaw had been rapid, for no snow lay in the road here, nor till we had passed the little inn of Mont Cenis. At 377 Molaret, where the church bells were tinkling sweetly in the quiet air, the route, turning suddenly, no longer hangs over Piedmont, but looks on a home view, which has its charm likewise, and the village built in the glen directly below, among the trees of the rich meadow. The first refuge is a little further, and by the time we had arrived there the half-melted snow began to ball in our horses’ feet so as to impede our progress ”

“ Equally remarkable and extensive were the labours connected with the preparatory works. New and solid roads, bridges, canals, magazines, workshops, forges, furnaces, and machinery had to be constructed; residences had to be built for the men, and offices for the engineers; in fact, at each extremity of the tunnel a complete establishment had to be formed. Those who153 have traversed Mont Cenis since the works began have been perplexed by the strange appearance and character of the machinery and establishments to be seen at Modane and Fourneau. ”

“ The Mount Cenis railway tunnel route, which pierces these mountains, carries the modern tourist from the Rhône to the cities of the upper Po Valley in a few hours. The French slopes of the Alps support only a scant population of mountaineers. Many of these migrate in winter to the plains in search of work, or, housed for long months in their frozen valleys, devote themselves to household industries or to reading and self-education. It is a matter of general remark in the towns of the Rhône Valley that the schoolmasters come from the mountains. ”

“ This is a pretty breathing hill, and may be called, the Alpes foul over, or the Alpes in a running hand and not in that fair Text hand which I found Mount Cenis to be in. It hath all the lineaments and shapes of the great Alpes, that is, much winding and turning; deep precipices, Marons, or Men with little open Cairs, to carry you up and down the Hill for a Crown; and much stumbling work. In fine this hill resembles Mount Cenis, as a proper man may do a Giant. ”

“ And each mile was a mile of gruelling toil with axe and shovel and tail-rope and brake-pole, for the snow lay deep upon the trail which twisted and doubled interminably, narrowing in places to a mere shelf high upon the side of a sheer rock wall. At such spots Connie and O'Brien took turns with axe and shovel, heaving the snow into the canyon; for to venture upon the drifts, high-piled upon the edge of the precipice, would have been to invite instant disaster. ”

“ At all these zig-zags, as we know in our experience of turns in hilly or mountain roads, the gradient is always steeper than at other parts; but the deviations of the Cenis, by taking sweeps carried through eight little tunnels in the mountain, the longest of which is 105 metres, the shortest 40, and by increasing the actual distance three to four times what it is by the roadway, curves of larger radius and lighter gradient are obtained. ”

“ The snow was not yet melted on the summit of Mount Cenis, over which the travellers passed; but Emily, as she looked upon its clear lake and extended plain, surrounded by broken cliffs, saw, in imagination, the verdant beauty it would exhibit when the snows should be gone, and the shepherds, leading up the midsummer flocks from Piedmont, to pasture on its flowery summit, should add Arcadian figures to Arcadian landscape. ”

“ Thence passing by the Chappel, of the Transis (that is, of those who are found dead of cold in the Snow, and are buried here) we came to the great Cross and Tavern, where we began to descend. This Hill of Mount Cenis is four miles in the going up, four miles upon the Plain, and two in its descent to Novalese. ”

“ There is as much difference between mountains as between people, as mountain-lovers know, and like people they present characters and individualities of their own. The noble lines of Mount Cheyenne are full of a strange dignity; but it is dignity mixed with an indefinable charm. The canyons nestle about its base, as children at a parent's knee; its cedar forests clothe it like drapery; it lifts its head to the dawn and the sunset; and the sun seems to love it best of all, and lies longer on it than on the other peaks. ”

“ Such is the strange, magnificent and colorful structure of the land.
Angels Landing, Zion National Park
Zion Canyon is a profound gorge with the colors of blood, fire and snow, a matchless carving by the greatest of all sculptors, erosion. Several of its mighty rock temples rank with the most majestic masses in the land. The variety of its endless etchings, the exquisite harmonies of its painted precipices, the sustained grandeur of its stupendous buttes and walls, its glorious cycle of color from dawn to sunset are sources of undimmed delight to the artistic instinct within everyone. ”

“ Scarcely had we become settled than a tornado broke over the canyon and we were enveloped in a blinding whirl of rain and sand. Each man clung to his blankets to prevent their departure and waited for the wind to pass, which it did in less than ten minutes. The storm-clouds were shattered and up the gorge, directly east from our position, from behind a thousand needle-like spires that serrated the top of the cliffs, the moon like a globe of dazzling silver rolled up with serene majesty, flooding the canyon with a bright radiance. No moon-rise could have been more dramatic. ”

“ Then she climbed the slope, and began picking out more of the right-size stones. These she dislodged, to send tumbling down near the body, one by one, where they landed and lay scattered, providing plenty of new material for the unfinished cairn.
Then, with the unintentional dislodging of an especially large boulder, she watched aghast as it rolled with a monumental grinding, banging, and crunching down the slope and quickly picked up speed and momentum. ”

“ Jean de Maurienne. The expedition we travelled with was too much for Mr. Lowther; and I expected, and was not disappointed, from the unusual backwardness of the season, to find the passage over Mount Cenis less agreeable than it usually is in the beginning of May.
The bishop of Nocera had offered to meet me any where on his side of the mountains. I wrote to him from Lyons, that I hoped to see him at Parma, on or about the very day that I was so fortunate as to reach the palace of the Count of Belvedere in that city; where I found, that he and Father Marescotti had arrived the evening before. ”

“ No falls, not even the river is visible, they are embedded in the canyon a mile beyond. The crashing roar of the water increased and turning an angle of the cliffs the steeds paused upon the brink of the Hvitá canyon. The full glory of the falls burst upon us radiant in its sheaf of rainbows. Leaving the ponies to graze upon the brink, we descended the crumbling wall to the level of the triangular area within the canyon. This grassy, mist-washed mass of rock is on a level with the top of the lower falls, the real plunge of the Hvitá into the lava abyss. ”

“ A stair-way has been built alongside of the falls, by which the visitor may mount to a height of two hundred feet, and then stand upon a platform and watch the play of leaping waterfall as it breaks into rainbows and mist below, and hear its ceaseless song of praise mingling with the echoes that sport between the cañon walls. They who can feel no inspiration under the moving power of Cheyenne Mountain are hopelessly prosaic, who close their ears against the most entrancing hymns of nature. ”