THE SIMPLON ROAD AND THE SWISS-ITALIAN LAKES. A WINTER ADVENTURE ON THE SIMPLON ITALY THE ROUTES INTO THE LAKE DISTRICT THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SIMPLON ROAD -ITALIAN TOWNS- - COMO, LUGANO, MAGGIORE, AND ORTA THE BORROMEAN ISLANDS STORM ON LAKE COMO VENICE. PPROACHING the lakes of northern Italy from Switzerland, the route commonly taken is by one or other of the roads leading over the passes of the St. Gothard, the Simplon or the Splugen. These roads have been constructed at immense cost, and are grandly engineered. Sometimes the path has been chiselled out of the face of a perpendicular rock, with an awful gulf on one side, and overhanging beetling cliffs on the other. Sometimes it has been tunnelled through the heart of the mountain, or flung at a dizzy height across a ravine, or carried in a series of zigzags up the side of a mountain, so steep that the chamois could scarcely climb it. At Gondo, on the Simplon, a cataract hurls itself sheer over the road* from the cliffs above, and plunges into the abyss below. At Schöllinen, on the St. Gothard, and the Verlohren Loch, on the Splugen, the gorge was absolutely impassable, and it was necessary to blast a passage through the huge masses of rock which blocked up the way. The poverty stricken canton of Uri had succeeded, with extreme difficulty, in scraping together the means to complete her part of the St. Gothard route, when a storm (August, 1834) burst on the summit of the pass, which, in a few hours, swept away one-third of the road constructed at so much labour and cost. Five Five years later, a similar tempest effected nearly equal injury. And few years pass without some portion of the road being destroyed. In many places avalanches sweep over the roads with destructive force, * The section of road at Gondo, measuring less than two hundred yards, required for its completion the incessant labour of one hundred workmen for eighteen months. In many places the labourers had to carry on their operations suspended from above by ropes, until a lodgment had been effected. THE SIMPLON ROAD AND THE SWISS-ITALIAN LAKES. ITALY THE ROUTES INTO THE LAKE DISTRICT -THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE SIMPLON ROAD PPROACHING the lakes of northern Italy from Switzerland, the route commonly taken is by one or other of the roads leading over the passes of the St. Gothard, the Simplon or the Splugen. These roads have been constructed at immense cost, and are grandly engineered. Sometimes the path has been chiselled out of the face of a perpendicular rock, with an awful gulf on one side, and overhanging beetling cliffs on the other. Sometimes it has been tunnelled through the heart of the mountain, or flung at a dizzy height across a ravine, or carried in a series of zigzags up the side of a mountain, so steep that the chamois could scarcely climb it. At Gondo, on the Simplon, a cataract hurls itself sheer over the road* from the cliffs above, and plunges into the abyss below. At Schöllinen, on the St. Gothard, and the Verlohren Loch, on the Splugen, the gorge was absolutely impassable, and it was necessary to blast a passage through the huge masses of rock which blocked up the way. The poverty stricken canton of Uri had succeeded, with extreme difficulty, in scraping together the means to complete her part of the St. Gothard route, when a storm (August, 1834) burst on the summit of the pass, which, in a few hours, swept away one-third of the road constructed at so much labour and cost. Five years later, a similar tempest effected nearly equal injury. And few years pass without some portion of the road being destroyed. In many places avalanches sweep over the roads with destructive force, * The section of road at Gondo, measuring less than two hundred yards, required for its completion the incessant labour of one hundred workmen for eighteen months. In many places the labourers had to carry on their operations suspended from above by ropes, until a lodgment had en effected. |