its
fall. The visible rents made in the road from time to time, and the
obstructions in the deep bed of the stream, show sufficient marks of
these formidable incursions. In one place the valley originally
afforded only a passage for the river, and the road has been cut and
blasted along the cheek of the rock: Close to this spot an inscription
on the stone informs you that this road was the work of the late king of
Sardinia; and he had in truth a right to be proud of such an
undertaking. The whole road from Nice to Turin is admirable, presenting
hardly a single mauvais pas. The natural difficulties which the
construction of the road presents have been surmounted in a manner which
might be a study to a civil engineer, and the whole is, perhaps, as fine
a specimen of labour and skill as Buonaparte's route over Mont Cenis or
the Simplon. The natural features of its wilder parts resemble those in
the pictures of Salvator Rosa, but on a larger scale than he ever
attempted to give an idea of.

Within a mile or two of Tende,[57] the chasm in the rocks (for it was no
more) widens into a small narrow valley of a peculiarly quiet character,
in which the monastery of St. Gervase occupies one of those retired
green spots which prove so well the good taste of the monks of old. A
turn which this valley takes to the left affords the view, first, of the
old castle of Tende, looking quite ghastly in the dusk of evening, and
next of the town of Tende itself, which stands piled like Saorgio,
against the shelving side of the valley. Tende is a large and
apparently flourishing town, affording two inns of very respectable
appearance. The Albergo Imperiale is high in its charges, but makes
amends for it by the liberality and comfort of its appointments. It
fronts one of the principal peaks which form the chain of the Col di
Tende, which we contemplated as it caught the last rays of the evening
sun, forming different guesses how we were to get up it.

[Footnote 57: Vide Cooke's Views.]

June 4.--From Tende to Limone 15 miles. We left Tende at a quarter
before four: after twisting and re-twisting for about an hour and a half
among narrow defiles, through which the first part of the rise is
gradually conducted, we reached a mountain valley at a high level above
the sea, closed at the opposite end by the main ridge of the Col di
Tende. Here the chief ascent commences, in a regular zigzag up a jutting
shoulder of the mountain. The road is wide