De its appropriation until the events of the French revolution Anited Savoy to France, when the castle of Miolans was dismantled. However strong it might have been as a prison, as a military station, at least since the use of cannon, it must have been defenceless. Now, it is interesting only to the painter and the antiquary; rank weeds fill its courts, its drawbridges are decayed; its walls are crumbling to the earth, and bear to oblivion in their ruin the names written upon them by the soldier in the guard-room, and the captive in his cell. Where formerly the sighs of the poor wretch once pierced the walls of the dungeon, blasts of wind have now passed through a thousand rents, and whistled the requiem of feudal tyranny."-Journals of an Alpine Traveller.

A path on the northern side of the road leads down through meadows and vineyards to the village of Fraterive in the road beyond Miolans; thence through the village of Gressy, and the hamlets of St. Vial and Fronteney to l'Hôpital Conflans (ad Publicanos). (Route 119.)

At l'Hôpital the Arly is crossed to pursue the course to the upper valley of the Isère, a district distinguished as the Tarentaise. The journey to Moutiers, distant about 16 English miles, is through a picturesque valley. The road lies on the right bank of the Isère, through a succession of beautiful scenes. The direction of the valley in ascending from Montmeillan to Conflans is N. E., but from Conflans to Moutiers it is a little east of south.

Above Conflans the valley is much narrower; the lower ranges of the mountains are more richly wooded, the valley retired and pastoral in its character. The ruins of châteaux are often seen, on heights that jut out on rocks in commanding situations from the rich backgrounds of forest trees.

The first village that is passed is La Bàtie (Oblimum), and the next of any importance is Roche-Cavins, which is about halfway between Conflans and Moutiers. About 10 miles from Conflans, near the hamlet of Petite Cour, there is a fine cataract, which dashes down amidst immense rocks,—a spot forming a striking contrast to the general fertility and repose of the valley. About three miles farther, the valley opens into a rich little plain, where the pretty village of Aigueblanche is situated. Here the road rises, and having passed its crest, descends into a deep defile that leads to Moutiers, by a road terraced on the steep slope of this ravine, from which it abruptly enters the basin of the Val Isère, in which Moutiers Tarentaise (Darentasia) is situated on the confluence of the Isère, and the Doron of Bozel.

Moutiers.-Inn: Poste. Chez Genard. Inhabitants 2000. This capital of the Tarentaise derives its present name from an old monastery, which was built at a little distance from

the ancient Darcntasia, which was destroyed many centuries since. The ancient city was the seat of the bishops of Darentasia; and it is highly probable that in this city, which gave its name to the bishopric as early as the year 420, and to the province of the Tarentaise-having been destroyed at an unrecorded period-its bishops built, at a little distance, another church, and a monastery for the clergy, who came to fix their residence in the present Moutiers; and preserved the primitive title of their seat, which has not varied for thirteen Centuries. That no vestiges of the ancient city should have been found, is not very extraordinary, when it is considered that the Ostragoths, and the Lombards in the seventh century, and the Saracens twice in the ninth century, having penetrated into the valleys of the Maritime, Cottian, and Grecian Alps, destroyed the habitations, and ruined the towns and villages. It is often afterwards mentioned in local archives connected with the church, and in the wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in 1630, when it was almost depopulated by the plague. The history of its church is perfeet from its first archbishop in 420 to its last in 1793, a period of 1373 years. The city now contains an hospital for the poor, which was founded in the tenth century, and an Ecole des Mines, with a laboratory for practical examination of the productions of the mines of Pesey.

But its salines are now the distinguishing feature of Moutiers. They are admirably conducted, and produce nearly fifteen hundred tons of salt yearly, extracted from a saline source which is only impregnated to the amount of 1 83 per cent., even in the strongest of its three springs.

These springs rise at the base of a vast mass of limestone, in the deep ravine of the Doron, about a mile above its junction with the Isère. The water rises with force from its source, and emits carbonic gas and a little sulphuretted hydrogen. The springs are warm, and that of the strongest 99o Farenheit. During the great earthquake of Lisbon, the salines of Moutiers ceased to flow for 48 hours: when the reflux took place the quantity was increased, but the saline impregnation was weaker. The salt-works at Bex (Route 56.) are conducted in a similar way, but with a vast difference in the saline strength of the water. At Moutiers it has scarcely half the strength of that of sea-water; yet it is worked to some profit by the simplicity of the process, and the use of water as the motive power for the pumps.

Besides common salt, the water contains, in small proportions, sulphate of lime, sulphate of soda, sulphate and muriate of magnesia, and oxide of iron.

There are four great evaporating-houses filled with faggots of black thorn. The water from the mines is pumped to the

top of the first and second of these, which are uncovered, and then allowed to pass through perforated canals, slowly dropping and spreading over the extensive surface of the branches. By this process the sulphate of lime attaches itself to the wood, and the water loses so much by evaporation, that the proportion of salt, after the operation, is increased nearly one half: i. e. to about 3 per cent. It is then pumped above the third house, constructed in the same way, except that it is covered, to prevent the saline solution from being again weakened by rain. In this, the evaporation leaves the solution of the strength of 12 per cent. A fourth house now receives it, and in favourable weather it there acquires a strength of 22 degrees. The process of pumping, after percolation and evaporation, is carried on by the force of a canal of water, detached from the Doron, and the machinery scarcely ever requires interference.

When the brine has acquired the strength of 20 per cent. it is conducted into a large building, where there are boiling pans, and the salt is crystallised in the usual manner.

So much fuel is saved by this system of evaporation by the air, that only one sixteenth of the fuel is consumed which would be required for evaporating the brine as it comes from the springs. The faggots are changed once in about 5 or 6 years they decay soonest in the first evaporating-houses, where the solution is weakest: those in 3d and 4th are more durable, from the coating of selenite they acquire, which, when broken off, resembles the stems and branches of encrinites.

There is another mode of evaporating from cords, invented by an ingenious Savoyard, of the name of Buttel. It consists in suspending cords from the roof, and fixing them tight at the bottom: they are about 16 feet long. These cords are placed as thickly as possible, consistent with free ventilation; and the upper ends are so fastened, that the water pumped over them trickles down, only by these cords, very slowly. By repeatedly allowing the brine thus to descend, the whole of the water is evaporated, and the cords left incrusted with a cylinder of pure salt, which is detached by a particular instrument. This practice of completing the process, by evaporation in the air, is discontinued now, though the cords are used for getting a higher concentration of the brine than heretofore this strong solution is sent, like the rest, to the boiling pans. The weak solution used to rot the cords; but, by only using them after 5 per cent. had been obtained in the solution, they have been known to remain 30 years in use, without being changed; some of these, originally 1/2 an inch in diameter, are coated with gypsum 2 or 3 inches thick.

These works belong to the government, though they yield at annual profit of only 50,000 francs=20001.

From Moutiers to Bourg St. Maurice the road again takes a N. E. direction; and, on leaving the little basin of Moutiers! to ascend the Isère, it passes through a gorge which continues a short way, and then opens at the village of St. Marcel. The scenery around is very fine and picturesque. The road. which formerly passed on the left bank of the Isère, now rises high on the right bank, and is carried over a neck of rock at a great height above the torrent. The view looking down and back upon St. Marcel from the rock is very fine. This road was made by Victor Emanuel, Duke of Savoy, in 1766. The defile at the base of this rock is only wide enough for the torrent of the Isère.

The valley opens above this defile; and immediately beyond it, below the road, is seen the village of Centron, still preserving the name of the Centrones, an alpine people who inhabited this valley.

About 10 milles from Moutiers is

Aime (Axuma), one of the chief towns of the Centrones, and, according to inscriptions found there, was evidently called Forum Claudii before the name of Axuma was given to it. On a hill above it, there are the remains of Roman fortifications; some round towers of great antiquity, both in the town and on the site of the ancient fort are still standing, the masonry having been strong enough to hold the masses together through so many ages. There is also a subterraneous communication which traverses the town, from some ruins, supposed to have been a temple, to the fortress; the vault of this passage is supported by columns of stone, each shaft of a single piece. Here some inscriptions have been found, particularly one in honour of Trajan :

IMP CÆSARI

DIVI NERVÆ F. TRAIANO.

AUG. GERM. DAC.

COS. PONTIFICI. MAX.

TRIBUNI. POTEST.

XII IMP. VI, COS. V.

P. P.

DEVICTIS DACIS

FORO CLAUDII PUBL.

An ancient communication between the town and the fort may also be traced in steps cut out of the rock upon which the latter stands. That the former extent of Aime greatly exceeded its present boundaries, was shown by some discoveries of subterraneous structures opened in forming a new road into the Upper Tarentaise in 1760.

Above Aime the formation of a new carriage road is in apid progress, and the inhabitants hope that their Government will soon open it across the Little St. Bernard, and make this a high road to Turin. The beauty and interest of such a route cannot fail to lead to a great influx of strangers, besides the benefit of communication between different communities of the same state.

Generally, the valley of the Isère, from Aime to Moutiers, is wild and dreary, and not picturesque. The vine grows as far as the village of Bellentres, which is nearly opposite to the village and valley of Laudri, that lead to the mines of Pesey, the most celebrated in Savoy. They are situated near the foot of the glacier of the Chaffe-Quarré, and more than 5000 feet above the level of the sea: the ore is a fine-grained sulphuret of lead; it contains about 60 ounces of silver per ton. These mines in 1785 yielded annually about 4000 marks of silver, and 40,000 quintals of lead: they are now less productive. The height of the mines is a serious obstacle to their being worked to great advantage.

As the valley is ascended, the pass of the Little St. Bernard opens to the observer a more obvious course than that of the road up the Isère, which turns again from St. Maurice to the W. and S. S. W., and continues in this direction to its source in the Iseran.

Bourg St. Maurice (Berigentrum). Excellent Inn: Hôtel des Voyageurs, chez Mayat. (Route 114.) Thus far up the Val Isère there is a good char or carriage road but beyond St. Maurice it is necessary, in order to go further up the valley, to go on horseback or on foot; it requires one day to go from Bourg St. Maurice to La Val, and another across the Col d'Iseran to Lanslebourg and the Mont Cenis.

From Bourg St. Maurice to St. Foi (Route 113.) The approach to St. Foi from the meadows below it offers one of the most beautiful scenes in the valleys of the Alps. Having climbed the tortuous and difficult chaussée which leads to the village, the route continues for a long way by a wild and lofty path on the mountain side high above the torrent. through the village of La Tuile to Brennières.

Nothing can exceed the savage grandeur of this route; the deep ravine is too narrow for the structure of a path lower down towards the torrent. On the opposite side the enormous glaciers that stretch from the Chaffe-Quarré along the crest of the mountains, offer the grandest scene of its class to be found anywhere in the Alps. The most magnificent view thus presented is opposite to the village of La Gure, of which the spire seems to touch the glaciers. More than once this village has been destroyed by the fall of ice and rocks; but the danger is defied for the sake of the little land which