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683 HannibaVs Passage over the Alps. 683 themselves for three days from the plunder of the town (c. 33), and afterwards received a fresh supply from the natives (c. 34). The motive for quitting the Isere at Montmeillan is sufficiently indicated by the map, which shews that the road from hence to Turin, compared with that by the Little St Bernard, is the chord of a great curve. The combat with the mountaineers would take place in the defile between Aiguebelle and Argentil ; the army encamped in the plain by Argentil, and hereabouts lay the captured town. On the fifth day it would encamp near St Jean de Maurienne, in a fruitful valley. But as our object is not to describe the march, but to explain the nature of the arguments by which Uckert supports his hypothesis, we need not enter into any further details on this part of the subject, and will only add one or two remarks on IV. The Passage of the Alps. The XevKOTrerpov^ which General Melville believed he had discovered on the road of the Little St Bernard, appears to be still more strikingly repre- sented on that of the Mont Cenis, or rather according to one of the latest travellers who has visited the country with a view to this question (Laranza), it is no where else to be found. Saussure had remarked it as one of the most singular features in this passage : Le Mont Cenis presente quelques singularites que je ne dois pas omettre de faire remarquer. Cabord ce grand amas de gypse du cote de la Savoie, &c. It is known by the name of Rocher blanc, or le plan de roche blanche. Its form and its position, for it overhangs the Arc on the right, while on the left the road passes by the foot of the pre- cipices down which the natives may have rolled great stones on the Carthaginian army, exactly correspond to the histo- riaifs description. The plateau of the Mont Cenis, where Hannibal would arrive between the 25th and 30th of October, and where if he passed over it he remained two days, is excellently suited for an encampment : it is sheltered by the surrounding ridges, and affords good pasture on the margin of its little lake. Snow had by this time fallen for some weeks, and having been turned into ice by the heat of the sun and the frost of the nights, might be taken for the remains of the former winter. (Polyb. in. 55. Liv. XXI. 36.) From the top of the ridge which Vol. 11. No. 6. 4 S