ee_
is another wonderful piece of work of Napoleon; a broad carriage road, wide
enough for three carriages to go abreast, and cut zig-zag with so gentle a
slope as to allow a heavy French diligence to pass, with the utmost ease,
across a mountain where it was formerly thought impossible a wheel could
ever run. This _chaussee_ is passable at all seasons of the year; the
mountain is not so high as that of the Simplon and is less liable to
impediments from the snow; the obstacles from nature are less, and you can
descend in a sledge from the _Hospice_ by gliding down the side of the
cone, and thus descending in nine or ten minutes, whereas the ascent
requires four hours' time. From Lans-le-Bourg to the _Hospice_ on
Mont-Cenis the road is on the flank of an immense mountain and you have no
ravines to cross; the road is cut zig-zag on the flank of the mountain and
forms a considerable number of very acute angles, as it is made with so
gentle a slope that you scarcely feel the difficulty of the ascent. These
repeated zig-zags and acute angles formed by the road, and the very slight
slope given to the ascent, make the different branches appear to be almost
parallel to each other, and it is a very curious and novel sight when a
number of carriages are travelling together on this road to see them with
their horses' heads turned different ways, yet all following the same
course, just like ships on different tacks beating against the wind to
arrive at the same port, a comparison that could not fail immediately to
occur to a sailor. There is scarcely ever any detention on this road from
the fall of snow, as there are a considerable number of persons employed to
_deblay_ it as soon as it falls; but here, as well as on the Simplon, there
are _maisons de refuge_ at a short distance from each other. We stopped for
two hours at the inn at Mont-Cenis, which is about one hundred yards from
the _Hospice_. It was a remarkable fine day, and I enjoyed my walk very
much. The mountain air was keen and bracing and particularly delightful
after being shut up for some many days in the close valley. We had some
excellent trout for dinner. 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 obstacl