The Alps in nature and history

Preface

THE following pages are not intended to be either an exhaustive description of the Alps or a series of impressions of travel amongst them. But they do claim to offer to the reader an account of the most interesting features presented by the Alps from several points of view, and an account that is based on the personal experiences of over forty years' wandering through almost every district of the great chain.

No attempt has been made to explain how the Alps came into being, or how in the course of long ages their outlines and valleys may have changed. They are taken as they exist in the early twentieth century, and treated as practically unchangeable. In the early chapters they are looked at from the physical side, — their extent, their pastures, their glaciers, their flowers, and their beasts and birds being successively described. Then we come to Man in the Alps, first man in himself as a human being actually inhabiting various districts of the chain, speaking divers languages, and professing several forms of belief, and next man as the subject of political vicissitudes of history, which naturally have affected his home as well as himself. In particular, an attempt has been made to trace out the political or territorial history of the chief summits of the Alps. In later chapters Man is convi THE ALPS IN NATURE AND HISTORY

sidered in his relation to the principal passes across the Alps, and as the explorer of the innermost recesses of the High or snowy Alps, this naturally entailing some notice of the Guides of the Alps, through whose efforts and loyalty the High Alps were gradually conquered. A short chapter sketches the impressions made at different seasons of the year on one who dwells among them, or who often visits them.

In the final chapter of the work the Alps, hitherto looked at as a whole, are considered in detail as forming twenty groups, with divers characteristic features. In the Appendix, Lists are given of the heights of the principal peaks and passes of the Alps, arranged in the twenty groups enumerated above, of the dates of the successive conquests of the more important summits, and of some of the books relating to the chain as a whole that can be recommended to readers desiring to examine the subject more closely.

I desire to lay special stress upon the fact that comparatively little has been said in these pages as to matters of Natural Science connected with the Alps. Such subjects are best studied in more special treatises, while the present work aims only at giving a general account of the Alps without trying to explain or to investigate the natural phenomena which are to be found therein. Thanks to two well-qualified friends, to whom I here offer my heartiest acknowledgments for their help, the Flowers of the Alps, as well as their Beasts and Birds, are treated of in a manner which should prove attractive to many readers. But here again things are described as they are at present, and not the evolution of things, however interesting such a subject may be.

I have also to thank Mr. D. C. Lathbury most sincerely

PREFACE vii

for the courtesy which has allowed me to make use of various articles contributed by me in 1901-1903 to the Pilot. A portion of their contents is included in Chapter XL, as well as in groups 1-8 and 11 of the special description of the Alps given in the final chapter of the work.

The Map that accompanies this work has been carefully prepared by Mr. Bartholomew, and is designed to afford a bird's-eye view of the Alpine chain, with its principal peaks, passes, and glaciers, the main idea being to mark the way in which the mountains rise gradually out of the plains till they culminate in lofty snow-clad summits.

The Illustrations are, for the most part, reproductions after admirable photographs of Signor Vittorio Sella, to whom I beg to express my hearty thanks for permitting me to adorn my book with some of his marvellous views of the High Alps. A few other Illustrations are due to the kindness of several friends, Mr. Alfred Holmes, Monsieur Victor de Cessole, and Signor Guido Rey, who have placed them at my disposition, and whom I beg to assure of my great appreciation of their readiness to oblige, for it is not easy to procure certain of these views.

In general I am immensely indebted to my friend, Dr. R. L. Poole (Member of the British Academy, and Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford) for much help and advice, particularly as regards the historical Chapters (VII. and VIII.). He suggested to me the idea of framing diagrams by which to make clear the relations of the Great Historical Passes of the Alps. Thanks to the skill of Mr. Darbishire, this excellent suggestion has been carried out in a manner that will be most acceptable to my readers.

viii THE ALPS IN NATURE AND HISTORY

I have also to acknowledge, most gratefully, help of various kinds, whether in the shape of reading proofs or of giving valuable hints, rendered by four other friends : Sir Martin Conway, Mr. Douglas W. Freshfield, Mr. W. M. Baker, and Herr H. Diibi.

Grindelwald, April 1908.

Contents

I. WHAT ARE 'THE ALPS'?

II. THE PASTURES OF THE ALPS,

III. THE SNOWY REGION OF THE ALPS, .

Chapter II The Pastures Of The Alps

IN any of the higher Alpine valleys we notice at once, above the belt of forest that shelters the scattered homesteads in and round the village, a succession of grassy slopes which mount towards the region of eternal snow. These slopes are named 1 Alps ' by the mountain dwellers, and are used as summer pastures by them for their cattle, which otherwise could not subsist on the fodder obtained on the lower meadows, this being quite insufficient for their needs during the long winter. Nowadays the lowest bit of these pastures has often passed into private ownership (each bit is called a 'Vorsass,' or 'Voralp,' or 'Mayen'), and is used for grazing the cattle of the owner in spring and autumn, while the hay mown there in summer is reserved for their winter needs. But the rest of these Alpine pastures is exclusively devoted to the pasturing of cattle in summer, the higher portions being specially given over to goats and sheep, while the cows, as the most important item, occupy the middle and most productive stretches. These bear different names in different portions of the chain of the Alps, in which they are found everywhere — in the German-speaking regions the term used is 'Alp' or 'Berg,' the form ' Aim ' being characteristic of the Tyrol ; in the French-speaking districts, 'alpe' and 'montagne' are the ordinary names, while ' alpe ' or ' monte ' are the names found in the Italian-speaking regions. Probably these summer pastures date back to the first settlements in the Alpine valleys. The earliest instances known to the present writer are the 'Alpes in Cenisio' (the pastures on the plain of the Mont Cenis Pass) mentioned in

THE PASTURES OF THE ALPS u

739 ; the Sambtiser Alp on the Santis, in Appenzell, heard of in 868 ; and the Macugnaga Alp, at the head of the Val Anzasca, which in 999 was the subject of an exchange between the Archbishop of Milan and the monks of Arona. Sometimes, as in the Dauphine and the Engadine, the sheep pastures are let out to shepherds from Provence or the Bergamasque valleys respectively. In other cases the pastures in a mountain valley have been alienated to far-distant villages (this is not unfrequent in some parts of the Tyrol, while in Switzerland the Oberaar Alp, near the Grimsel, belongs to the village of Torbel, above Stalden, on the Zermatt railway). A few are in the hands of great monasteries (e.g. Engelberg and Einsiedeln) or of the State, while others belong to private individuals or societies. But, speaking generally, we may say that, as a rule, the highland summer pastures in an Alpine valley belong to the inhabitants of that valley.

In certain cases the men of one valley have encroached on the pastures of their neighbours, and have appropriated them, though not included within the limits of their own proper district. This dislocation, no doubt, goes far back in point of date, and was in each case the result of a struggle between rival herdsmen. We can trace a struggle of this kind best in the valley of Engelberg, where the Blacken Alp, at the very head of the glen, has never belonged to the monastery, but to Attinghausen in Uri (opposite Altdorf) ; while the pastures of the Nieder Surenen Alp below it were also secured by the men of the same village after a long drawn-out contest with the monks that lasted from 1273 to 15 13. The Uri men, restless perhaps within the narrow limits to which Nature has confined them, still own other pastures that topographically lie in other regions — so the men of Spiringen, above Altdorf, enjoy the splendid pastures (said to be the finest in Switzerland) of the Urnerboden, on the Glarus side of the Klausen Pass, above Altdorf, though the men of Tessin have succeeded in keeping hold of the pastures on the N. slope of the St. Gotthard, those between the pass and Hospenthal. Other cases of a similar kind are the pastures on the Meiringen side of the Great

Scheidegg, which (nearly down to Rosenlaui) belong to Grindelwald, and those on the N. side of the Gemmi (including the Schwarenbach inn) are held by Leukerbad, in the Vallais, while the case of the Oberaar Alp has been mentioned above. So again the Fenga or Fimber Alp, on the proper Tyrolese side of the chain, is reckoned as Swiss, and has for ages belonged to Remus and Sent, both in the Lower Engadine; while the Gross Fermunt pastures at the head of the Vorarlberg glen of Montafon belong to Ardez, also in the Lower Engadine.

It is reckoned that in Switzerland (where special attention is paid to the subject) there are about 4478 'Alps' at present, of an estimated capital value of rather over ^3,000,000, and capable of supporting some 270,389 cattle in summer. There may, of course, be more than one ' Alp ' in any given valley ; e.g. in that of Grindelwald there are seven.

These summer pastures are only grazed for about three months annually, the cattle going up thither towards the middle or end of June, and coming down about the end of September. But during this time the beasts do not always remain on the same portion of the pasture. On every ' Alp ' there are generally two or three (or even four) sets of huts, situated respectively on the two, or three, or four horizontal strips of pasture (each called a ' Staffel ') into which that ' Alp ' is divided by a wooden hedge. The cattle start in June on the lowest strip, work gradually upwards to the highest (where they spend three weeks or so in July and August), halt for some time on the way down at the middle set of huts, and finish the summer at the lowest set of all. The milk given by each cow is (unless it is specially fetched by the owner of that cow) measured daily, and at the end of the season the owner of each cow has the right to receive an amount of cheese corresponding to the milk given by that cow, after deducting the allowance of cheese, milk, etc., which the cheesemaker (the ' Senn ' or 'fruitier') and his men are entitled to receive, as part of their wages. The cheeses are made daily, and are kept in small huts (called ' Speicher '), with short stone legs, which are easily to be distinguished on each ' Alp ' from those

THE PASTURES OF THE ALPS 13

wherein the herdsmen sleep (each of these is a ' chalet ' properly so called), or from the stables used in case of bad weather or on exceptional occasions.

There is an obvious danger, at any rate in the case of pastures not owned by private individuals, that more cows will be sent up annually than the particular pasture in question can support without permanent damage. Hence an official estimate is made, from time to time, sometimes at very long intervals, of the proper number of cows that should be sent up. The amount of pasture required to support a single cow for the summer is technically termed a ' Kuhstoss,' or ' cow's portion,' which is reckoned to suffice for two heifers, three calves or sheep, four pigs, or eight goats (the numbers vary on different ' Alps '), in case any one entitled to send up a cow prefers to graze in a particular summer any of the animals just named.

Speaking quite generally (for customs and regulations differ widely even in the same region), it may be said that the persons entitled to rights of pasture must be burghers of the village to which the particular pasture belongs. Sometimes they may let out their right (' Kuhrecht') for the summer, or may exchange it for rights on some other ' Alp,' so that the ' Besetzerschaft ' (occupiers) of an ' Alp ' in any given summer are not necessarily identical with the ' Besitzerschaft ' (the owners of the rights of pasture). These rights of pasture belong, as stated above, to the burghers of that particular village or 'commune,' but not necessarily to all burghers, for in some cases they are attached to the possession of a particular bit of land'(entered in an official Register), with which the right passes when the land is sold, though in other cases the rights belong to each male burgher of full age, as an individual, and not as a land-owner. In this way no burgher can keep more cattle in winter than he has a right to pasture on the ' Alp ' of his village in summer, unless (what such men are generally shy of doing, partly through limited means) he buys hay for the extra cattle, or owns meadow-land enough to support them, without needing to utilise the summer pastures, or leases ' cow-rights ' from others.

Thus it will be seen that as cattle form the main riches of every Alpine valley and village, the summer pastures are to that valley or village and its inhabitants the pivot on which the whole life of the people turns. No pastures, no cattle ; few pastures, few cattle.

Chapter III

GIBBON tells us in his Autobiography that about 1783 'the fashion of viewing the mountains and Glaciers ' had attracted to his loved retreat at Lausanne many foreign visitors on their way to wonder at these marvels. He was thinking, no doubt, more especially of the glaciers of the valley of Chamonix. But in any case his remark proves that the snowy region of the Alps no longer inspired dread and awe, but rather a fearful curiosity to see with one's own eyes the most extensive tract of eternal snow to be found in Europe, that which covered the loftiest summits of the Alps. This new fashion, among other results, helped to familiarise the dwellers in the plains with the wonders of the ice- world, and so to give them a juster idea of what this frozen world really was. Now this was a result much to be desired, for the older writers held some very quaint notions on the subject. Pliny, Seneca, St. Augustine of Hippo, and Claudian all believed that a crystal was simply very hard frozen ice. This strange view, combated already by Solinus, was still held by certain persons in the sixteenth century, says Josias Simler (1 530-1576), who is doubtful on the point, though his contemporaries, Sebastian Miinster (1489-1552) and Johannes Stumpf (1500-1566), were quite sure that crystals were really stones ; these (they held), though often found in the Alps, had nothing to do with ice, which, however, they resembled closely as to brilliance and purity. Another delusion on the part of the older writers was that the snowy region of the Alps constituted the one vast sea of ice, hardly, if ever, interrupted at any point whatsoever, Hence, when it was absolutely necessary to force a way across this frozen ocean, the point at which this was done was called simply 'the Glacier.' This name was especially applied to the St.

Theodule Pass (leading from Zermatt to the valley of Aosta), whether under the name ' Der Gletscher ' by Giles Tschudi (1505-1572), who himself actually crossed it about 1528, as well as by Minister and Stumpf, or under that of ' Rosa ' by Simler ; the last-named writer here translates the German term by a word borrowed from the patois of the valley of Aosta, meaning a 'glacier' and variously written 'roisa,' 'roesa,' 'ruise,'or 'reuse,' and undoubtedly the original of the name Monte Rosa, which is the culminating point of that great Sea of Ice. Now at first sight, if we look upwards from a valley, we are strongly inclined to believe in this Sea of Ice, not merely because of its superficial resemblance to the sea of water, but because from this frozen ocean, hidden in mysterious retreats, and lifted high above the workaday world, there flow down into the valley great streams of ice, which resemble rivers, though flowing from and not into the icy waste. It is only when we come to explore ourselves the snowy region that we grasp the fact that the Sea of Ice is by no means unbroken, but forms a series of minor seas, separated, now at any rate, from each other by extensive snowless tracts of ground. ■ Yet, from the historical, or rather prehistoric, point of view, this theory of a Sea of Ice has an element of truth in it, for do not scientific men now impress upon us the fact that once, in the Ice Age, the whole of Europe was really an unbroken Sea of Ice, though, owing to the retreat of the ice, this sea is now confined to the highest portions of the Alpine chain ?

Alpine glaciers form such a striking feature of the scenery of a high mountain valley that they could not possibly be overlooked, for they formed such immovable boundaries. It is possible that the 'rupes alba' of the charter of 1091 founding the Benedictine Priory of Chamonix refers to some real ' white rock,' and not (as the present writer firmly believes) to the glittering snows of Mont Blanc. But a little later, even if we put on one side two documents, said to be forged, and dated 1146'and 1 1 73, we have certain mention of the glaciers of Grindelwald in 1220, in 1246, in 1247, and in 1252, in each case as one of the limits of a piece of land. In 1353 we hear of the 'mountains called Glaciers, in German Gletscher,' which extend at the head of the Simmenthal. In the sixteenth century the three Swiss topographical writers already named, Miinster (1544), Stumpf (1548), and Simler (1574), as well as Ulrich Campell (about 1573), give long accounts of glaciers, but apparently always at second hand. Campell naturally dwells on those in the Lower Engadine (he was a native of Siis), but the others all base their descriptions on the two Grindelwald glaciers. These, in fact, were so well seen (alas, they have greatly shrunk since those days !) from a very accessible valley, that they are generally taken as the type of glaciers, as we see from the writings of Thomas Schopf (1577), H. R. Rebmann (1606), Matthew Merian (1642), J. J. Wagner (1680), J. H. Hottinger (1706), J. J. Scheuchzer (1723), and A. von Haller (1732), for it is not till the time of J. G. Altmann (1751) and of G. S. Gruner (1760) that we find detailed descriptions of glaciers elsewhere in the Alps. Merian first, as far as the present writer is aware, gives (1642) an engraving of these glaciers (probably the first ever to be so figured), and his plate long served as the typical representation of these marvellous natural phenomena. It was most likely the source of the quaint illustration that accompanies the second earliest (1673-4) account of glaciers (always those of Grindelwald) which was published in English. As those early English accounts are very little known, save to a few students, we venture to transcribe them for the benefit of our readers; all three appeared in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

Extract of a Letter, Written by Mr. Muraltus [Johannes von M., 1645-1733] of Zurich to M. Haak [Theodore Haak, 1605-1690, an original member of the Royal Society, 1663], a Fellow of the R. Society, concerning the Icy and Chrystallin Mountains of Helvetia, calPd the Gletscher. English' d out of Latin by the Publisher, as follows : — The highest Icy Mountains of Helvetia about Valesia and Augusta

[the Vallais and Aosta, here wrongly placed] in the canton of Bern ; about Taminium [Tamins in the Grisons] and Tavetsch [Sedrun], of the Rhaetians, are alwayes seen cover'd with Snow. The Snow, melted by the heat of the Summer, other Snow being fain within a little while after, is hardned into Ice, which by little and little in a long tract of time depurating it-self turns into a Stone, not yeilding in hardness & clearness to Chrystall. Such Stones closely Joyned and compacted together compose a whole Mountain, and that a very firm one ; though in Summer-time the Country-people have observed it to burst asunder with great cracking, Thunder-like ; which is also known to Hunters to their great cost, forasmuch as such cracks and openings, being by the Winds covered with Snow, are the death of those, that pass over them.

At the foot of these mountains are with great labour digg'd out Chrystals, which are found among other fossils, of two sorts and colors ; some of them are darkish and troubled, which by some are call'd the Chrystal-ore, to be plenteously found in the ascent of Mount Gotthard; others, transparent, very pure and clear as Veniceglass ; sexangular, great and small : as in the mountains about Valesia, and the town call'd Urselen [Andermatt in the Ursern valley, and near the foot of the ascent to the St. Gotthard Pass] at the foot of the Hill Schelenin [Schollenen gorge] they are digg'd out and sold at a good rate. Of this latter kind, my Parents, four years agoe, transmitted a very bigg and fair one to Milan for 80 pound sterling.

This is, what I have observed about these Hills ; What I shall farther learn of the people, inhabiting thereabout, to whom I have written a month since, I shall impart to you.

In September 1668.

A farther Description and Representation of the ley Mountain, called the Gletscher, in the canton of Berne in Helvetia ; which was formerly taken notice of in Numb. 49 of these Tracts. This account was imparted to us from Paris by that worthy and obliging person, Monsieur fustel [Henri Justel, 1620- 1693, Superintendent of the Royal Library, St. James' Palace, London], who had received it from a trusty hand living upon the place, as follows ; The Icy Mountain, of which I have sent you the Scheme (See Tab. 2) deserves to be view'd. The letter A signifies the Mountain it self [the Lower Grindelwald glacier], which is very high, and extends it self every year more and more over the neighbouring meadows, by increments that make a great noise and cracking. There are great holes and caverns, which are made when the Ice bursts ; which happens at all times, but especially in the Dog-days. Hunters do there hang up their game they take during the great heat, to make it keep sweet by that means. Very little of the surface melts in Summer, and all freezeth again in the night. When the Sun shineth, there is seen such a variety of colors as in a Prism.

B. is a rivolet [the Liitschine], issuing forth from under the Ice, which is pretty deep and extremely cold.

C. are the Hutts, that were built at the beginning, at a considerable distance from the Mountain ; but at present they are nigh to it by reason of the continued increase which this Ice maketh.

There is such an other Mountain near Geneva [the chain of Mont Blanc] and upon the Alpes [that is, the main ridge of the Alps]. A certain Capucin told me, he had been upon the highest of these mountains with a Trader in Crystal, who having driven his hammer into one of these Rocks, and found it hollow and resonant, made a hole into it, and thence drew out a substance like Talk ; which to him was a sign there was Crystal. After which he made a great hole with Gunpowder, and found Rock-crystal in it.

3. Phil. Trans., No. 320, pp. 316-17, March and April, 1709.

Part of a Letter from William Burnet, Esq. ; E.B.S. [son of the celebrated bishop, Gilbert Burnet], to Dr. Hans Sloane, R.S. Seer., concerning the Icy Mountains of Switzerland.

Geneva, October 12, 1708.

Sir, — After I had been at Zurich I resolved to go my self and see the Mountains of Ice in Switzerland. Accordingly I went to the Grindlewald, a Mountain two Days journey from Bern. There I saw, between two Mountains, like a River of Ice, which divides it self in two Branches, and in its way from the Top of the Mountains to the bottom swells in vast Heaps, some bigger than St. Paul's church. The Original of which seems to have been this. These Mountains are covered all the Year with Snow on their Tops ; this Snow has been melted in the Summer, and has fallen to the Bottom where the sun never reaches : There it has Frozen, which every Body knows happens more easily to melted Snow than ordinary Water. Thus every Year it has increased, till it has touched the very Top. The reason why the Water has always frozen, tho' the Sun in the middle of the Mountain, and higher, shines upon it some part of the Day, is that the melted Water goes under the Ice already formed and there Freezes, and so expanding it self raises the Ice above it, and sometimes makes Cracks in it, that frighten the whole Neighbourhood : The reason appears plainly, because the upper Surface being solid, cannot be dilated without making great Chinks, and that with a terrible noise. They told me, upon the Place, that every seven Years the Mountain increases, and the next seven decreases ; but I doubt their Observation is not exact, and I suspect that they say it, to seem to know something singular. Besides there are none there that have themselves observed it long enough, to affirm any thing of that kind certainly. If there is any ground in that Observation, it seems to be, that in the hottest Summers it increases, and the more moderate ones it decreases, there being then less melted Snow ; in which case it is at present, as we know of late the Summers have been moderate (see Philosoph. Transact., Numb. 49 and 100).

Half a century or so after these last words were written the exploration of glaciers and the snowy region of the Alps in general was taken in hand, as we shall see in Chapter ix. below. Still later their true nature and principal characteristics were ascertained by a long-continued series of personal investigations, carried out by a number of well-trained men, who personally studied the puzzling phenomena on the ice-fields themselves.

Let us therefore sum up briefly the chief well-established results which have been the consequence of these careful investigations.

The snowy region of the Alps naturally means that portion of the Alpine chain which is covered with ' perpetual snow.' But the line of distinction between the snowless and the snowy regions is not a hard-and-fast line. Ideally the ' snow-line ' is the point at which the amount of snow that melts annually exactly equals the amount that has fallen. But in any district of the Alps, even in any single Alpine valley, this ideal limit varies according to the exposure of a slope to the rays of the sun, to the various winds, to the geological nature of the mountain, etc., and is not determined once for all by the mere elevation above the sea-level. Such local variations can be well seen when the weather has cleared after a snow-fall in some Alpine valley in summer or early autumn. When the clouds lift, the line right round the valley is as even as if carved with a sharp knife. But as soon as the clouds vanish, the snow melts more rapidly in one spot than in another, and the line, before so even, becomes extraordinarily uneven and irregular, as if cut away by a huge jagged knife.

Abandoning therefore any attempt to fix with scientific precision the snow-line in any given case, it is, of course, certain that high up (to use a rather vague phrase) there is always snow lying on the mountains, though the amount varies even here from day to day. Lower down this precipitation takes the form of rain, but high up it becomes snow owing to the fall in the temperature of the air as one ascends the mountain slopes. But snow does not constitute a glacier. Glacier ice has indeed once been snow, but it has passed through the intermediate stage of 'neve' or 'Firn' before becoming ice. Hence we must distinguish carefully between snow, neve, and ice, though all three are different forms of water.