Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/365

Rh mountain—clad as in tatters of ice—into the dazzling sunshine beneath the black, forbidding cloud. Masses of water were hurled down from the neighboring glaciers with thundering din. There is danger here from avalanches during spring and autumn, and for that reason strong stone galleries are built on many parts of road, to serve as a shelter for people and for carriages. Avalanches and torrents are hurled down over the arched roofs, and down into the abyss on the other side. Even now, masses of ice hang threatningly upon the heights to the left, along the road, but these will dissolve in foaming rivers which will find their outlet in deep clefts of the mountain, over which the road is carried, or they are conveyed away by means of strongly conducted gutters over the roofs of the stone galleries. One of these streams is hurled down with a force and a din which is deafening. The whole of this scene was so wild and so magnificent that it thrilled me at once with terror and joy. The sun gleamed through all as with lightning flashes, and as if in combat with the demons of nature.

I wandered along the Napoleonic road in security nevertheless, between precipices and the raging sport of waters. Many maisons de refuge are erected at short distances along this part of the road, to afford asylums to the traveler in case of misfortunes or snowstorms.

The wind became still colder, and the sky still more cloudy as we began to descend through the dark mountain pass. The road along its whole extent, is laid down, or rather constructed with most admirable