s so
well constructed, so smooth, and the slope so gentle that when there are
fogs, which often happen here and prevent you from beholding the
surrounding scenery, you would suppose you were travelling on a plain the
whole time. Balustrades are affixed on the sides of the most abrupt
precipices and buttresses also in order to secure the exterior part of the
_chaussee_. On the whole length of the _chaussee_ on the exterior side are
conical stones of four feet in height at ten paces distant from each other,
in order to mark the road in case of its being covered with snow. There are
besides _maisons de refuge_ or cottages, at a distance of one league from
each other, wherein are stationed persons to give assistance and food to
travellers, or passengers who may be detained by the snow storms. There is
always in these cabins a plentiful supply of biscuit, cheese, salt and
smoked meats, wine, brandy and fire-wood. In those parts of the road where
the sides of the ravines are not sloping enough to admit of the road being
cut along them, subterraneous galleries have been pierced through the rock,
some of fifty, some of a hundred and more yards in length, and nearly as
broad as the rest of the road. In a word it appears to me the grandest work
imagined or made by man, and when combined with its extreme utility, far
surpasses what is related of the Seven Wonders of the world. There are
fifty-two bridges throughout the whole of this route, which begins at the
distance of three miles from Geneva, skirts the southern shore of the lake,
runs thro' the whole Valais, traverses the Simplon and issuing from the
gorges of the mountains at Domo d'Ossola terminates at Rho in the Milanese.
From Brieg to the toll-house, the highest part of the road, the distance is
about 18 miles. It made me dreadfully giddy to look down the various
precipices; and what adds to the vertigo one feels is the deafening noise
of the various waterfalls. As the road is cut zigzag, in many parts, you
appear to preserve nearly the same distance from Brieg after three hours'
march, as after half an hour only, since you have that village continually
under your eyes, nor do you lose sight of it till near the toll-house.
Brieg appears when viewed from various points of the road like the
card-houses of children, the Valais like a slip of green baize, and the
Rhone like a very narrow light blue ribband; and when at Brieg before you
ascend you look up at the toll-house, you wo