out infringing on the impetuous
torrent that tumbled and foamed by our side; and even where little
valleys or glens still existed it was clear that Nature no longer
responded with alacrity and abundance to the summons of human industry.
The Vine no longer clung to the steep acclivities; the summer foliage of
the lower valleys had given place to dark evergreens where shrubbery
could still find foot-hold and sustenance. The snow no longer skulked
timorously behind the peaks of distant mountains, showing itself only on
their northern declivities, but stood out boldly, unblenchingly on all
sides, and seemed within a musket-shot of our path. From slight
depressions in the brows of the overhanging cliffs, streamlets leaped
hundreds of feet in silvery recklessness, falling in feathery foam by
our side. I think I saw half a dozen of these cascades within a distance
of three miles.

At length, near ten o'clock, we reached the foot of Mount Cenis, where
sinuosity of course could avail us no further. We must now face the
music. Our five tired horses were exchanged for eight fresh ones, and we
commenced the slow, laborious ascent of some six or eight miles. Human
habitations had already become scattered and infrequent; but we passed
three or four in ascending the mountain. Their inmates of course live
upon the travel, in one way or another, for Sterility is here the
inexorable law. Yet our ascent was not so steep as might be expected,
being modified, when necessary, by zig-zags from one direction or one
side of the chasm we followed to the other. The horses were stopped to
breathe but once only; elsewhere for three hours or more they pursued
their firm, deliberate, decided, though slow advance. The shrubbery
dwindled as we ascended and at length disappeared, save in the sheltered
gorges; the snow came nearer and spread over still larger spaces; at
length, it lay in heavy beds or masses, half melted into ice, just by
the side of the road and on its edge, though I think there was none
actually under the wheels. Finally, a little before one o'clock, we
reached the summit, and the moon from behind the neighboring cliff burst
upon us fully two hours high. Two or three houses stood here for the use
of travelers; around them nothing but snow and the naked planet. Before
us lay the valley of the Po, the great plain of Upper Italy.

Six of our horses were here detached and sent back to the Savoy base of
the mountain, while with the two rem