Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/336

352 a great undertaking for science. Even science has its heroes and noble martyrs.

But how any body can desire—for no other purpose than to be able to say, “I have done it”——but enough on this subject. ”

On the 4th of August, Louise and I set off, through the Tete Noire, to Martigny, one of the most beautiful journeys which any one can take on a summer's day. Good roads, magnificent scenery, both behind and before, and through the whole valley, bold forms of wooded rocks, fresh rushing waters, the purest mountain atmosphere;—I seemed to myself to be reading one of Sir Walter Scott's Highland novels. The moon rose above the beautiful chestnut woods as we reached Martigny, in the Rhone valley, where we found the air oppressively warm.

The following day, we took a little carriage, and proceeded to the Great St. Bernard. The road is good, but narrow, and the turns are everywhere so precipitous on the one side, that it is impossible to avoid feeling dizzy at the thought of being upset. And such misadventures do happen at times.

We are now in the Canton Valais. At one point of the road we met a procession of monks, together with men and women, who were murmuring prayers to the ringing of bells, dressed in white, and on their way to some shrine of the Virgin in the neighborhood, to pray for rain. The procession came from villages in the mountains where the drought was fearful, and harvests burned up in consequence.

As far as Cautine du Praz, the road is passable for