Alps Sentence Examples

This place had nothing to the castle in the Alps, though she never wanted to go back.

Thunder cracked overhead.  Rhyn had ignored the rain, accustomed to being miserable.  Hell was either broiling or freezing, and the Alps were just as cold.  The underworld's chilled rain didn't compare.

Parma, one of the finest cities of northern Italy, lies in a fertile tract of the Lombard plain, within view of the Alps and sheltered by the Apennines, 170 ft.

The value per acre of land, which exceeds 48 in the departments of Seine, Rhne and those fringing the north-west coast from Nord to Manche inclusive, is on the average about 29, though it drops to 16 and less in Morbihan, Landes, Basses-Pyrnes, and parts of the Alps and the central plateau.

It consists in the main of an Archean block or " coign,"which still occupies nearly the whole of the western half of the continent, outcrops in north-eastern Queensland, forms the foundation of southern New South Wales and eastern Victoria, and is exposed in western Victoria, in Tasmania, and in the western flank of the Southern Alps of New Zealand.

Messrs Hamilton Hume and Hovell set out from Lake George, crossed the Murrumbidgee, and, after following the river for a short distance, struck south, skirting the foothills of what are now known as the Australian Alps until they reached a fine river, which was called the Hume after the leader's father.

In 387 Magnus Maximus, who had commanded a Roman army in Britain, and had in 383 (the year of Gratian's death) made himself master of the northern provinces, crossed the Alps into the valley of the Po and threatened Milan.

Ancient geographers appear to have generally regarded the remarkable headland which descends from the Maritime Alps to the sea between Nice and Monaco as the limit of Italy in that direction, and in a purely geographical point of view it is probably the best point that could be selected.

Towards the north-east, the point where the Julian Alps approach close to the seashore (just at the sources of the little stream known in ancient times as the Timavus) would seem to constitute the best natural limit.

Here the main chain of the Alps (as marked by watershed) recedes so far to the north that it has never constituted the frontier.

One chief result of the manner in which the Apennines traverse Italy from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic is the marked division between Northern Italy, including the region north of the Apennines and extending thence to the foot of the Alps, and the central and more southerly portions of the peninsula.

By far the larger portion of Northern Italy is occupied by the basin of the Po, which comprises the whole of the broad plain extending from the foot of the Apennines to that of the Alps, together with the valleys and slopes on both sides of it.

More important are the rivers that descend from the main chain of the Graian and Pennine Alps and join the Po on its left bank.

The next great affluent of the Po, the Adda, forms the outflow of the Lake of Como, and has also its sources in the Alps, above Bormio, whence it flows through the broad and fertile valley of the Valtellina for more than 65 m.

The tract adjoining this long line of lagoons is, like the basin of the Po, a broad expanse of perfectly level alluvial plain, extending from the Adige eastwards to the Carnic Alps, where they approach close to the Adriatic between Aquileia and Trieste, and northwards to the foot of the great chain, which here sweeps round in a semicircle from the neighborhood of Vicenza to that of Aquileia.

In the Alps and Vosges this resinous semi-fluid is collected by climbing the trees and pressing out the contents of the natural receptacles of the bark into horn or tin vessels held beneath them.

Metternich persuaded the tsar and the king of Prussia to make a declaration that the allies would leave to Napoleon the "natural boundaries" of France - the Rhine, Alps, Pyrenees and Ocean.

Schists, as a rule, are found in regions composed mainly of metamorphic rocks, such as the Central Alps, Himalayas, and other mountain ranges, Saxony, Scandinavia, the Highlands of Scotland and north-west of Ireland.

The Silurian mica-schists of Bergen in Norway are fossiliferous; in the Alps it is believed that even Mesozoic rocks pass laterally into mica-schists and talc-schists.

The whole of this plain has been formed by the debris swept down from the Alps by the rivers Po, Ticino, Oglio, Adda, Mincio, Adige, Brenta, Piave, Livenza, Tagliamento and Isonzo.

Along the coast-line, roughly speaking between the Apennines at Rimini and the Carnic Alps at Trieste, three main systems of lagoons were thus created, the lagoon of Grado or Marano to the east, the lagoon of Venice in the middle, and the lagoon of Comacchio to the south-west (for plan, see Harbour).

This expansion of mainland territory was followed in 1420 by the acquisition of Friuli after a successful war with the emperor Sigismund, thus bringing the possessions of the republic up to the Carnic and Julian Alps, their natural frontier on the north-east.

This, with the exception of a brief tenure of Cremona (1499-1512), formed her permanent territory down to the fall of the republic. Her frontiers now ran from the seacoast near Monfalcone, following the line of the Carnic and Julian and Raetian Alps to the Adda, down the course of that river till it joins the Po, and thence along the line of the Po back to the sea.

To the north of the valley of the Drave the duchy is occupied by the Hohe Tauern and the primitive Alps of Carinthia and Styria, which belong to the central zone of the Eastern Alps.

To the east of the Hohe Tauern stretches the group of the primitive Alps of Carinthia and Styria, namely the Pöllauer Alps with the glacier-covered peak of the Hafner Eck (10,041 ft.); the Stang Alps with the highest peak the Eisenhut (8007 ft.); the Saualpe with the highest peak the Grosse Saualpe (6825 ft.); and finally the Koralpen chain or the Stainzer Alps (7023 ft.) separated from the preceding group by the Lavant valley.

The country south of the Drave is occupied by several groups of the southern limestone zone, namely the Carnic Alps, the Julian Alps, the Karawankes and the Steiner Alps.

The Carnic Alps are divided by the Gail valley into the South Carnic group and the northern Gailtal Alps.

This fort covers the road which traverses the Predil Pass in the Julian Alps and is the principal road leading from Carinthia to the Coastland.

The Gailtal Alps end with the Dobratsch or Villacher Alp (7107 ft.), situated to the south-west of Villach, which is celebrated as one of the finest views in the whole eastern Alps.

The Ursula Berg (5563 ft.) ends the group of the Karawankas, which are continued by the Steiner Alps.

In 1828 he at last crossed the Alps, and the next three years were spent in Italy.

It soon becomes the boundary for a while between the departments of the HautesAlpes and of the Basses-Alpes, and receives successively the considerable Ubaye river, flowing from near the foot of Monte Viso past Barcelonnette (left), and then the small stream of the Luye (right), on which, a few miles above, is Gap. It enters the Basses-Alpes shortly before reaching Sisteron, where it is joined (right) by the wild torrent of the Busch, flowing from the desolate region of the Devoluy, and receives the Bleone (left) (on which Digne, the capital of the department, is situated) and the Asse (left), before quitting the department of the Basses-Alpes just as it is reinforced (left) by the Verdon, flowing from the lower summits of the Maritime Alps past Castellane.

After his father's death he crossed the Alps to found a school in France; but in a short while he decided that Normandy would afford him a better field.

Preparations for defence were made; a Neapolitan army was to advance through the Romagna and attack Milan, while the fleet was to seize Genoa; but both expeditions were badly conducted and failed, and on the 8th of September Charles crossed the Alps and joined Lodovico it Moro at Milan.

The St Bernard is a large breed taking its name from the monastery of Mount St Bernard in the Alps, and remarkable for high intelligence and use in rescuing travellers from the snow.

Farther west, the Vrbas cuts a channel through the Dinaric Alps, and, after passing Jajce and Banjaluka, meets the Save 94 m.

Rising on the Montenegrin border, under the Lebrsnik mountains, it flows north-westwards at the foot of the Dinaric Alps; and, near Konjica, sweeps round suddenly to the south, and falls into the Adriatic near Metkovic, after traversing 125 m.

In both alike the scirocco, bringing rain from the south-west, is a prevalent wind, as well as the bora, the fearful north-north-easter of Illyria, which, sweeping down the lateral valleys of the Dinaric Alps, overwhelms everything in its path.

To meet these forces the emperor could not collect men in all, of whom upwards of 10o,000 were held by Wellington on the Spanish frontier, and more were required to watch the debouches from the Alps.

At first it becomes more coarse-grained, like the Firn Schnee of the Alps, and is moist by melting during the summer.

There seem to be periodical oscillations in the extension of the glaciers and the inland ice similar to those that have been observed on the glaciers of the Alps and elsewhere.

The southern part belongs to the region of the Eastern Alps, containing the Salzkammergut and Upper Austrian Alps, which are found principally in the district of Salzkammergut (q.v.).

They are named the Usinsk Mountains in West Sayan and the Tunka Alps in East Sayan; the latter, pierced by the Angara at Irkutsk, are in all probability continued north-east in the Baikal Mountains, which stretch from Irkutsk to Olkhon Island and the Svyatoi Nos peninsula of Lake Baikal, thus dividing the lake into two parts.?

Beds of excellent graphite have been found in the Kitoi Alps (Mount Alibert) and in the Turukhansk district in.

The southern division of the province is, in the main, mountainous and hilly, and is occupied by the Lower Austrian Alps and their offshoots.

At Rome, in the Jubilee year 1500, he himself lectured with applause; but having been nominated in 1497 canon of the cathedral of Frauenburg, he recrossed the Alps in 1501 with the purpose of obtaining further leave of absence for the completion of his academic career.

It still survived in certain cantons of the Alps in the 5th century, and clung to life with more tenacity in its Eastern home.

When the spring had come, being still very poor and in feeble health, he started homewards on foot by Florence, across the Apennines, through Bologna, Parma, Piacenza, Turin, over the Alps, through Savoy and Dauphine to Lyons, andfinally to Paris, where he arrived in excellent health.

These mountains belong to the Carpathians and the Alps, which are separated by the valley of the Danube.

The greatest elevations are in the Tatra mountains of the north of Hungary proper, in the east and south of Transylvania (the Transylvanian Alps) and in the eastern portion of the Banat.

The portion of Hungary situated on the right bank of the Danube is filled by the Alpine system, namely, the eastern outlying groups of the Alps.

The province of Croatia-Slavonia belongs mostly to the Karst region, and is traversed by the Dinaric Alps.

Only the Zsil, the Aluta and the Bodza or Buzeu pierce the Transylvanian Alps, and flow into the Danube outside Hungary.

Towards the close of this period great earth movements took place and the gap between the Alps and the Carpathians was formed.

The frontier was to follow the watershed of the Julian Alps from Tarvis as far east as the Snjeznik (Schneeberg) and to reach the sea just east of Volosca, Fiume being expressly reserved to Croatia.

Pledging his lands, he crossed the Alps and issued a manifesto at Verona setting forth his claim on Sicily.

The distance in a direct line between its source in the Alps and its mouth in the German Ocean is 460 m.

The Rhine connects the highest Alps with the mud banks of Holland, and touches in its course the most varied geological periods; but the river valley itself is, geologically speaking, of comparatively recent formation.

It is situated on the plain between the Gulf of Venice and the Alps, 18 m.

Urban crossed the Alps in the summer, and remained over a year in France and Burgundy, being everywhere reverently received.

In the Alps it is profitably cultivated up to an altitude of 1870 ft., and in the north of Piedmont as high as 3180 ft.

He was then sent on a mission to Lyons to investigate the frauds in connexion with the supplies of the army of the Alps.

Italy from the Tiber to the Alps, but by the end of the 5th century B.C. it was considerably diminished, and about the year 100 B.C. its boundaries were the Arnus (Arno), the Apennines and the Tiber.

Fearing a plan to kidnap him, he left Rome, ostensibly to meet the emperor, and from Sutri fled by night on horseback, pursued by 300 of the emperor's cavalry, to Civitavecchia, whence he took ship for Genoa and thence proceeded across the Alps to Lyons, at that time a merely nominal dependence of the Empire.

It is situated on the right bank of the Danube, at the base of the Wienerwald, and at the beginning of the great plain which separates the Alps from the Carpathians.

The water is brought by an aqueduct direct from the Alps, viz.

Forbes was also interested in geology, and published memoirs on the thermal springs of the Pyrenees, on the extinct volcanoes of the Vivarais (Ardeche), on the geology of the Cuchullin and Eildon hills, &c. In addition to about 150 scientific papers, he wrote Travels through the Alps of Savoy and Other Parts of the Pennine Chain, with Observations on the Phenomena of Glaciers (1843); Norway and its Glaciers (1853); Occasional Papers on the Theory of Glaciers (1859); A Tour of Mont Blanc and Monte Rosa (1855).

A fine view of the Bernese Alps is obtained from the castle, while a still finer one may be enjoyed from the Lueg hill (2917 ft.), north-east of the town.

Conflagrations are frequent, particularly in the months of January and December, when hot, dry winds resembling the Fdhn of the Alps come down from the snow-capped Elburz.

In 412 he quitted Italy and led his army across the Alps into Gaul.

In response to an appeal from Adelaide, Otto crossed the Alps in 951.

Even more picturesque, though less lofty, than the Alps of Japan, are the Nikko mountains, enclosing the mausolea of the two greatest of the Tokugawa shoguns.

Farther south, in the province of Kai (KOshiu), and separating two great rivers, the Fuji-kawa and the Tenriu-gawa, there lies a range of hills with peaks second only to those of the Japanese Alps spoken of above.

It will be observed that all the highest mountains of Japan form a species of belt across the widest part of the main island, beginning on the west with the Alps of Etchiu, Hida and Shinano, and ending on the east with Fuji-yama.

Geographically it is divided into northern or Upper Styria, and southern or Lower Styria, and is traversed by various ramifications of the eastern Alps.

The southern flank is formed by the massif of the Reichensteiner Gebirge, which culminates in the Hochthor (77 80 ft.) and belongs to the north Styrian Alps, also called Eisenerzer Alps.

Other groups of the north Styrian Alps are the Hochschwab, with the highest peak the Hochschwab (7482 ft.) and the Hochveitsch with the Hohe Veitsch (6501 ft.).

Then come the Lower Austrian Alps with the groups of the Voralpe (5800 ft.), of the Schneealpe (6245 ft.), and the Raxalpe, with the Heukuppe (6950 ft.).

All these mountains belong to the northern zone of the eastern Alps.

The Styrian Nieder Alps cover the country north and east of the Mur, and contain the Fischbacher Alps with the Hochlantsch (5646 ft.), the Wechsel group (57 00 ft.), and the small Semmering group with the Stuhleck or Spitaler Alpe (5847 ft.), and the Sonnenwendstein (4994 ft.).

This part is occupied by the eastern outliers of the Alps, known as the Styrian hill country, and by the Windisch Biiheln, which is one of the most renowned vine districts in the whole of Austria.

It belongs to the region of the Eastern Alps, and contains the Dachstein group with the Dachstein (9830 ft.) and the Thorstein (9657 ft.).

In the Dachstein group are found the most easterly glaciers of the Alps, of which the largest is the Karls-Eisfeld, nearly 22 m.

The Carpathians do not form an uninterrupted chain of mountains, but consist of several orographically and geologically distinctive groups; in fact they present as great a structural variety as the Alps; but as regards magnificence of scenery they cannot compare with the Alps.

The Carpathians, which only in a few places attain an altitude of over 8000 ft., lack the bold peaks, the extensive snow-fields, the large glaciers, the high waterfalls and the numerous large lakes which are found in the Alps.

They are nowhere covered by perpetual snow, and glaciers do not exist, so that the Carpathians, even in their highest altitude, recall the middle region of the Alps, with which, however, they have many points in common as regards appearance, structure and flora.

The Danube separates the Carpathians from the Alps, which they meet only in two points, namely, the Leitha Mountains at Pressburg, and the Bakony Mountains at Vacz (Waitzen), while the same river separates them from the Balkan Mountains at Orsova.

The so-called Klippen of the Swiss Alps are now usually supposed to rest upon thrustplanes, but they are not strictly analogous, either in structure or in position, with those of the Carpathians.

The Carpathians, like the Alps, form a protective wall to the regions south of them, which enjoy a much milder climate than those, situated to the north.

The highest parts in the High Tatra and in the Transylvanian Mountains have a flora similar to that of the Alps, more specially that of the middle region.

The founder of the house of Savoy is Umberto Biancamano (Humbert the White-handed), a feudal lord of uncertain but probably Teutonic descent, who in 1003 was count of Salmourenc in the Viennois, in 1017 of Nyon on the Lake of Geneva, and in 1024 of the Val d'Aosta on the 4 eastern slope of the Western Alps.

Oddone thus came to rule over territories on both sides of the Alps, a fact which was to dominate the policy.

Thomas, who reigned until 1222, was a Ghibelline in politics and greatly increased the importance of Savoy, for he was created Imperial Vicar and acquired important extensions of territory in the Bugey, Vaud and Romont to the west of the Alps, and Carignano, Pinerolo, Moncalieri and Vigone to the east; he also exercised sway over Geneva, Albenga, Savona and Saluzzo.

He won a reputation as a bold knight in the fields of chivalry and in the crusades, and he inaugurated a new policy for his house by devoting more attention to his Italian possessions than to those on the French side of the Alps and in Switzerland.

The Brenner, too, being on the main watershed of the Alps, separates the two main river systems of which Tirol is composed.

Owing to its position astride of the Alps, and so commanding the road across them, Tirol has often been the scene of sharp fighting.

After some hesitation he escaped across the Alps to Geneva.

Adrian, between whom and the Lombards other causes of quarrel existed, refused to assent to this demand, and when Desiderius invaded the papal territories he appealed to the Frankish king for help. Charles, who was at the moment engaged in his first Saxon campaign, expostulated with Desiderius; but when such mild measures proved useless he led his forces across the Alps in 773.

He crossed the Alps under the guidance of a white hart, miraculously sent to assist the passage of the army.

In formation it resembles the limestone Alps of Tirol and there are on its elevated plateaus a number of doline or funnel-shaped depressions into which the melted snow and the rain sink.

Crossing the Alps with a small army in September 1132, he reached Rome in March 1133, accompanied by Innocent.

The Algau Alps contain several lofty peaks, the highest of which is Madelegabel (8681 ft.).

He deliberately chose the difficult route over the French Alps because he recognized that his opponents would neither expect him by this route nor be able to concert combined operations in time to thwart him.

Everywhere, and especially in the district round Toulouse, heretics were keenly prosecuted, and before the continued zeal of persecution the Waldenses slowly disappeared from the chief centres of population and took refuge in the retired valleys of the Alps.

There, in the recesses of Piedmont, where the streams of the Pelice, the Angrogne, the Clusone and others cleave the sides of the Alps into valleys which converge at Susa, a settlement of the Waldensians was made who gave their name to these valleys of the Vaudois.

He was perhaps the first Roman born beyond the Alps who attained eminence in literature.

It is one of the least mountainous Swiss cantons, forming part of a great table-land, to the north of the Alps and the east of the Jura, above which rise low hills.

Under it Jourdain became absolute master of the regions lying between the Pyrenees and the Alps, Auvergne and the sea.

There the Southern Alps rise range upon range, filling the whole centre, almost or quite touching the western shore, and stretching from end to end of the island.

On the north-east a double range, the Kaikouras, scarcely fall short of the Southern Alps in height and beauty.

Apart from the fjords and lakes the chief beauties of the Alps are glaciers and waterfalls.

The Southern Alps, the backbone of the South Island, rest on a foundation of coarse gneisses and schists, that are quite unrepresented in the North Island.

Suess therefore suggested that the northern continuation of the Alps had foundered, and its summits been buried beneath the Pliocene marine rocks of the Wanganui basin and the volcanic rocks of the Taupo area.

The oldest rocks are Archean, represented by the band of gneisses and schists exposed along the western foot of the Southern Alps.

To the south of the district in southern Westland, where the Alps have passed out to sea, the Archeans become more extensive; for they spread eastward and underlie the whole of the dissected tableland of Otago.

The Maitai beds include a thick mass of slates and sandstones, which form the bulk of the Southern Alps, whence branches extend southeastward to the coast.

The beds take their name from the Maitai river near Nelson; they are largely developed in the mountains of the Tararua-Ruahine-Raukumara chain, on the eastern side of the North Island; they occur in the Kaikoura Mountains, and an outlier forms Mount Torlesse, near the eastern edge of the Southern Alps, west of Christchurch.

On the eastern side of the Alps the glaciers appear to have been confined to the mountain valleys.

Outside the forest country the weka, an almost wingless bird, is numerous, and in the Alps a hawk-like green parrot, the kea, has learned to kill sheep and holds its ground.

The principal groups are those in the Lakes of Bourget, Geneva, Neuchatel, Bienne, Zurich and Constance lying to the north of the Alps, and in the Lakes Maggiore, Varese, Iseo and Garda lying to the south of that mountain range.

The " mountains " in this case are the Alps, so that, from the Italian standpoint, Germans and French for instance were " ultramontane."

North of the Alps, however, the term seems never to have been restricted to the sense implying locality; for from the very beginning we find it used as a party appellation to describe those who looked " beyond the mountains " in order to obtain a lead from Rome., who represented the papal point of view and supported the papal policy.

The culminating summits of the ranges generally present the appearance of a flat, rounded swelling, and when they are crowned with glaciers, as many of them are, these shape themselves into what may be described as a mantle, a breastplate, or a flat cap, from which lappets and fringes project at intervals; nowhere do there exist any of the long, narrow, winding glacier tongues which are so characteristic of the Alps of Europe.

For the importance of Charlemagne's work, from the point of view of the Church, consists also, not so much in the fact that, by his conversion of the Saxons, the Avars and the Wends in the eastern Alps, he substantially extended the Church's dominions, as in his having led back the Frankish Church to the fulfilment of her functions as a religious and civilizing agent.

The emperor, having named Carloman as his successor, died in August 875, but Charles the Bald reached Italy before his rival, and by persuading Carloman, when he did cross the Alps, to return, secured the imperial crown.

The first group of immigrants is said to have crossed the Pennine Alps (Great St Bernard) into the valley of the Po.

Before 1525 the study of Greek had begun to decline in Italy, but meanwhile an interest in that language had been transmitted to the lands beyond the Alps.

Such veins often attain a thickness of several feet, and sometimes possess a columnar structure perpendicular to the enclosing walls; they are met with in the crystalline limestones and other Laurentian rocks of New York and Canada, in the gneisses of the Austrian Alps and the granulites of Ceylon.

A portion of the Ischler Alps, as well as of the Dachstein group, also belongs to Salzburg.

Caesar secured the passing of a legislative enactment conferring upon himself the government of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria for five years, and exacted from the terrorized senate the addition of Transalpine Gaul, where, as he well knew, a storm was brewing which threatened to sweep away Roman civilization beyond the Alps.

Caesar had but one legion beyond the Alps.

Hastening back to Italy he withdrew his three remaining legions from Aquileia, raised two more, and, crossing the Alps by forced marches, arrived in the neighbourhood of Lyons to find that three-fourths of the Helvetii had already crossed the Saone, marching westward.

The valley floors always join at accordant levels, as is the habit among normally subdued mountains; they thus contrast with glaciated mountains such as the Alps and the Canadian Rockies, where the laterals habitually open as hanging valleys in the side slope of the main valleys.

Travellers whose idea of picturesqueness is based upon the abnormally sharpened peaks of the ice-sculptured Alps are disappointed with the scenery of the central and southern ranges of the Rocky Mountains.

The descending winds on the eastern slopes of the ranges are frequently warm and dry, to the point of resembling the Fhn winds of the Alps; such winds are known in the Cordilleran region as Chinook winds.

The larch abounds on the Alps of Switzerland, on which it flourishes at an elevation of 5000 ft., and also on those of Tirol and Savoy, on the Carpathians, and in most of the hill regions of central Europe; it is not wild on the Apennine Branchlet of Larch (Larix europaea).

On the French Alps a sweet exudation is found on the small branchlets of young larches in June and July, resembling manna in taste and laxative properties, and known as Manna de Briancon or Manna Brigantina; it occurs in small whitish irregular granular masses, which are removed in the morning before they are too much dried by the sun; this manna seems to differ little in composition from the sap of the tree, which also contains mannite; its cathartic powers are weaker than those of the manna of the manna ash (Fraximus ornus), but it is employed in France for the same purposes.

It grows as rapidly and attains as large a size in British habitats suited to it as in its home on the Alps, and often produces equally good timber.

From the Julian Alps, which traverse the province in the north, the country descends in successive terraces towards the sea, and may roughly be divided into the upper highlands, the lower highlands, the hilly district and the lowlands.

The principal peaks in the Julian Alps are the Monte Canin (8469 ft.), the Manhart (8784 ft.), the Jalouc (8708 ft.), the Krn (7367 ft.), the Matajur (5386 ft.), and the highest peak in the whole range, the Triglav or Terglou (9394 ft.).

The Julian Alps are crossed by the Predil Pass (3811 ft.), through which passes the principal road from Carinthia to the Coastland.

As viewed from the east the city stands out boldly against the Alps.

Not far from Turin are also the castles of Moncalieri, Stupinigi, Rivoli, Racconigi, Agle, Venaria, and the ancient monastery of the Sagra di San Michele (753 metres above sea-level), famous for its view of the Alps as far as the beginning of the Lombard plain.

The natural advantages of its site and its position with relation to the pass over the Alpis Cottia (Mont Genevre; see CoTTri Regnum) made it important in early times, though it cannot have been very strongly fortified, inasmuch as Hannibal, after crossing the Alps in 218 B.e., was able to take it after a three days' siege.

At fourteen he was taken through Flanders, along the Rhine, and through the Black Forest to Switzerland, where he first imbibed his dominant passion for the Alps.

The southern Suebic peoples, the Alamanni and Bavarians, extended their frontiers as far as the Alps probably about the same time.

He died in 41, while stationed with his army at the foot of the Alps, just as he was on the point of marching against Octavianus.

The surprising thing is that, although Rome was then included within the empire of the Franks, so that the popes were afforded special opportunities for activity, they showed for the most part no eagerness to strengthen their authority over the clergy beyond the Alps.

The popes of Tusculum did, at least, belong to the country, while the German kings chose bishops from the other side of the Alps.

If Spain could gain this Alpine valley her territories would touch those of Austria, so that the Habsburgs north of the Alps could send troops to the aid of their Spanish cousins against Venice, and Spain in turn could help to subdue the Protestant princes of Germany in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648).

The result of this evolution is that Belgium is to-day the most staunchly Catholic land north of the Alps.

The Romsdal and Naerodal of Norway and Lauterbrunnen of the Alps are well characterized glacial valleys of the Yosemite type, and in S.E.

Even books were to be had only with the greatest difficulty, at least north of the Alps.

In the meantime, John VIII., who was menaced by the Saracens, was continually urging him to come to Italy, and Charles, after having taken at Quierzy the necessary measures for safeguarding the government of his dominions in his absence, again crossed the Alps, but this expedition had been received with small enthusiasm by the nobles, and even by Boso, Charles's brother-in-law, who had been entrusted by him with the government of Lombardy, and they refused to come with their men to join the imperial army.

Devoted, however, as were the labours of Boniface and his disciples, all that he and they and the emperor Charlemagne after them achieved for the fierce untutored world of the 8th century seemed to have been done in vain when, in the 9th " on the north and north-west the pagan Scandinavians were hanging about every coast, and pouring in at every inlet; when on the east the pagan Hungarians were swarming like locusts and devastating Europe from the Baltic to the Alps; when on the south and south-east the Saracens were pressing on and on with their victorious hosts.

To the east this plain stretches in an unbroken level, as far as the eye can follow it, towards Venice and the Adriatic; on the southern side the line of the Apennines from Bologna to Genoa closes the view; to the west rise the Maritime, Cottian and Graian Alps, with Monte Viso as their central point; while northward are the Pennine, Helvetic and Rhaetian Alps, of which Monte Rosa, the Saasgrat and Monte Leone are the most conspicuous features.

This chain is collectively known as the Alps, and is the most important physical feature of the European continent.

The Alps, however, do not present so continuous a barrier as the Himalayas, the Andes or even the Pyrenees.

The derivation of the name Alps is still very uncertain, some writers connecting it with a Celtic root alb, said to mean height, while others suggest the Latin adjective albus (white), referring to the colour of the snowy peaks.

These will depend on the meaning we attach to the word Alps as referring to the great mountain-chain of central Europe.

But if we confine the meaning of the term Alps to those parts of the chain that are what is commonly called " Alpine," where the height is sufficient to support a considerable mass of perpetual snow, our boundaries to the west and to the east must be placed at spots other than those mentioned above.

On the northern side the Alps (in whichever sense we take this term) are definitely bounded by the course of the Rhine from Basel to the Lake of Constance, the plain of Bavaria, and the low region of foot-hills that extend from Salzburg to the neighbourhood of Vienna.

One result of this limit, marked out by Nature herself, is that the waters which flow down the northern slope of the Alps find their way either into the North Sea through the Rhine, or into the Black Sea by means of the Danube, not a drop reaching the Baltic Sea.

But what properly forms the western bit of the Alps runs, from near Turin to the Col de Tenda, in a southerly direction, then bending eastwards to the Col d'Altare that divides it from the Apennines.

It should be borne in mind that the limits adopted above refer purely to the topographical aspect of the Alps as they exist at the present day.

The position of the Alps about the centre of the European continent has profoundly modified the climate of all the surrounding regions.

The accumulation of vast masses of snow, which have gradually been converted into permanent glaciers, maintains a gradation of very different climates within the narrow space that intervenes between the foot of the mountains and their upper ridges; it cools the breezes that are wafted to the plains on either side, but its most important function is to regulate the water-supply of that large region which is traversed by the streams of the Alps.

Nearly all the moisture that is precipitated during six or seven months is stored up in the form of snow, and is gradually diffused in the course of the succeeding summer; even in the hottest and driest seasons the reserves accumulated during a long preceding period of years in the form of glaciers are available to maintain the regular flow of the greater streams. Nor is this all; the lakes that fill several of the main valleys on the southern side of the Alps are somewhat above the level of the plains of Lombardy and Venetia, and afford an inexhaustible supply of water, which, from a remote period, has been used for that system of irrigation to which they owe their proverbial fertility.

Six regions or zones, which are best distinguished by their characteristic vegetation, are found in the Alps.

The interference of man has in many districts almost extirpated them, and, excepting the beech forests of the Austrian Alps, a considerable wood of deciduous trees is scarcely anywhere to be found.

The Subalpine is the region which mainly determines the manner of life of the population of the Alps.

On a rough estimate we may reckon that, of the space lying between the summits of the Alps and the low country on either side, one-quarter is available for cultivation, of which about one-half may be vineyards and corn-fields, while the remainder produces forage and grass.

The larger villages are mostly in the mountain region, but in many parts of the Alps the villages stand in the subalpine region at heights varying from 4000 ft.

In the pine forests of the Alps the prevailing species are the common spruce and the silver fir; on siliceous soil the larch flourishes, and surpasses every other European species in height.

The Siberian fir is found scattered at intervals throughout the Alps but is not common.

The mughus, creeping pine, or Krummholz of the Germans, is common in the Eastern Alps, and sometimes forms on the higher mountains a distinct zone above the level of its congeners.

In the Northern Alps the pine forests rarely surpass the limit of 6000 ft.

Throughout the Teutonic region of the Alps the word Alp is used specifically for the upper pastures where cattle are fed in summer, but this region is held to include the whole space between the uppermost limit of trees and the first Alpine p pp appearance of permanent masses of snow.

It is here that the characteristic vegetation of the Alps is developed in its full beauty and variety.

Hence all attempts to fix accurately the level of perpetual snow in the Alps are fallacious, and can at the best approach only to local accuracy for a particular district.

In some parts of the Alps the limit maybe set at about 8000 ft.

Hence the upper region of the Alps sustains a far more varied and brilliant vegetation.

The Alps, therefore, are not composed of a single range (as shown on the old maps) but of a great " divide," flanked on either side by other important ranges, which, however, do not comprise such lofty peaks as the main watershed.

In the following remarks we propose to follow the main watershed from one end of the Alps to the other.

Thence for a short way the direction is north to the Col de la Seigne, and then north-east along the crest of the Mont Blanc chain, which culminates in the peak of Mont Blanc (15,782 ft.), the loftiest in the Alps.

The break in the continuity of the Alpine chain marked by the deep valley, the Vintschgau, of the upper Adige (Etsch) is one of the most remarkable features in the orography of the Alps.

Eastward of this pass, the main chain runs north-east to the Brenner Pass along the snowy crest of the Oetzthal and Stubai Alps, the loftiest point on it being the Weisskugel (12,291 ft., Oetzthal), for the highest summits both of the Oetzthal and of the Stubai districts, the Wildspitze (12,382 ft.) and the Zuckerhiitl (11,520 ft.) stand a little to the north.

For some way beyond it the watershed runs eastwards over the highest crest of the Zillerthal Alps, which attains 11,559 ft.

But, a little farther, at the Dreiherrenspitze (11,500 ft.) we have to choose between following the watershed southwards, or keeping due east along the highest crest of the Greater Tauern Alps.

The eastward direction is maintained and the watershed (though not the chief Alpine watershed) continues through the Greater Tauern Alps, culminating in the Gross Venediger (12,008 ft.), for the Gross Glockner (12,461 ft.) rises to the south.

Our chain bends northeast near the Radstddter Tauern Pass, and preserves that direction through the Lesser Tauern Alps to the Semmering Pass.

Soon after our watershed makes a last bend to the south-east and culminates in the Terglou (9400 ft.), the highest point of the Julic Alps, though the Grintovc (8429 ft., the culminating point of the Karawankas Alps) stands more to the east.

Yet it is a curious fact that the three longest glaciers in the Alps (the Great Aletsch, 162 m., and the Unteraar and the Fiescher, each 10 m.) are all in the Bernese Oberland.

In the Eastern Alps the longest glacier is the Pasterze (rather over 64 m.), which is not near the true main watershed, though it clings to the slope of the Greater Tauern range, east of the Dreiherrenspitze.

But the next two longest glaciers in the Eastern Alps (the Hintereis, 64 m., and the Gepatsch, 6 m.) are both in the Oetzthal Alps, and so close to the true main watershed.

The so-called alpine lakes are the sheets of water found at the foot of the Alps, on either slope, just where the rivers that form them issue into the plains.

The most singular, and probably the loftiest, lake in the Alps is the ever-frozen tarn that forms the summit of the Roccia Viva (11,976 ft.) in the Eastern Graians.

Principal Passes.-Though the Alps form a barrier they have never formed an impassable barrier, since, from the earliest days onwards, they have been traversed first, perhaps, for purposes of war or commerce, and later by pilgrims, students and tourists.

The native inhabitants of the Alps were naturally the first to use the alpine passes.

In the one case we have no direct knowledge (though the Romans probably selected the passes pointed out to them by the natives as the easiest), while in the other we hear almost exclusively of the passes across the main chain or the principal passes of the Alps.

Of these the Mont Genevre and the Brenner were the most frequented, while it will be noticed that in the Central Alps only two passes (the Spliigen and the Septimer) were certainly known to the Romans.

In fact the central portion of the Alps was by far the least Romanised and least known till the early middle ages.

It should always be borne in mind that in the Western and Central Alps there is but one ridge to cross, to which access is gained by a deep-cut valley, though often it would be shorter to cross a second pass in order to gain the plains, e.g.

On the other hand, in the Eastern Alps, it is generally necessary to cross three distinct ridges between the northern and southern plains, the central ridge being the highest and most difficult.

As late as 1905, the highest pass over the main chain that had a carriage road was the Great St Bernard (8111 ft.), but three still higher passes over side ridges have roads-the Stelvio (9055 ft.), the Col du Galibier (8721 ft.), in the Dauphine Alps, and the Umbrail Pass (8242 ft.).

Divisions.-The Alps, within the limits indicated under (2) above, form a great range, consisting of a main chain, with ramifications, and of several parallel minor chains.

As these divisions, great or small, are so to speak artificial, several systems have been proposed according to which the Alps may be divided.

Our selected divisions relate only to the High Alps between the Col de Tenda and the route over the Radstddter Tauern, while in each of the 18 subdivisions the less elevated outlying peaks are regarded as appendages of the higher group within the topographical limits of which they rise.

No attempt, of course, has been made to give a complete catalogue of the peaks and passes of the Alps, while in the case of the peaks the culminating point of a lower halfdetached group has been included rather than the loftier spurs of the higher and main group; in the case of the passes, the villages or valleys they connect have been indicated, and also the general character of the route over each pass.

As regards the main divisions, three are generally distinguished; the Western Alps (chiefly French and Italian, with a small bit of the Swiss Valais) being held to extend from the Col de Tenda to the Simplon Pass, the Central Alps (all but wholly Swiss and Italian) thence to the Reschen Scheideck Pass, and the Eastern Alps (wholly Austrian and Italian, save the small Bavarian bit at the north-west angle) thence to the Radstadter Tauern route, with a bend outwards towards the south-east, as explained under (2) in order to include the higher summits of the SouthEastern Alps.

Strictly speaking, we should follow the Reschen Scheideck route down the Adige valley, but as this would include in the Central Alps the Ortler and some other of the highest Tirolese summits, it is best (remembering the artificial character of the division) to draw a line from Nlals southwards either over the Umbrail Pass (the old historical pass) or the Stelvio (wellknown only since the carriage road was built over it in the first quarter of the 19th century) to the head of the Valtellina, and then over the Aprica Pass (as the Bergamasque Alps properly belong to the Central Alps) to the Oglio valley or the Val Camonica, and down that valley to the Lake of Iseo and Brescid.

Assuming these three main divisions, we must now consider in detail the 18 sub-divisions which we distinguish; the first 5 forming the Western Alps, the next 7 the Central Alps, and the rest the Eastern Alps, the heights throughout being, of course, given in English feet and representing the latest measurements.

This range contains all the highest peaks in the Alps, save the Finsteraarhorn (14,026) in the Bernese Oberland.

The eastern portion of this range, from the St Gotthard Pass to the Splugen, is sometimes named the Adula Alps.

Political History and Modern State of the Inhabitants of the Alps.-We know practically nothing of the early dwellers in the Alps, save from the scanty accounts preserved to us by Roman and Greek historians and geographers.

The successive emigrations and occupation of the Alpine region by divers Teutonic tribes from the 5th to the 6th centuries are, too, known to us only in outline, while to them, as to the Frankish kings and emperors, the Alps offered a route from one place to another rather than a permanent residence.

It is not till the final break up of the Carolingian empire in the 10th and II th centuries that it becomes possible to trace out the local history of different parts of the Alps.

In the case of the Western Alps (minus the bit from the chain of Mont Blanc to the Simplon, which followed the fortunes of the Valais), a prolonged struggle for the Alpine region took place between the feudal lords of Savoy, the Dauphine and Provence.

In 1349 the Dauphine fell to France, while in 1388 the county of Nice passed from Provence to the house of Savoy, which too held Piedmont as well as other lands on the Italian side of the Alps.

The struggle henceforth was limited to France and the house of Savoy, but little by little France succeeded in pushing 10,483 9,984 9,961 9,879 9,626 8,714 8,534 8,376 8,006 7,983 7,937 7,595 7,507 6,824 6,513 6,217 6,181 5,968 5,476 5,407 5,051 4,462 4,219 3,875 to the 5,971 5,932 5,374 5,066 8,468 8,429 8,202 7,386 7,369 7,346 7,110 5,059 7,550 6,506 4,495 4,462 back the house of Savoy across the Alps, thus forcing it to become a purely Italian power.

One turning-point in the rivalry was the treaty of Utrecht (1713), by which France gave up to Savoy the districts (all forming part of the Dauphine, and lying on the Italian slope of the Alps) of Exilles, Bardonneche, Oulx, Fenestrelles, and Chateau Dauphin, while Savoy handed over to France the valley of Barcelonnette, situated on the western slope of the Alps and forming part of the county of Nice.

The final act in the long-continued struggle took place in 1860, when France obtained by cession the rest of the county of Nice and also Savoy, thus remaining sole mistress on the western slope of the Alps.

In the Central Alps the chief event, on the northern side of the chain, is the gradual formation from 1291 to 1815 of the Swiss Confederation, at least so far as regards the mountain Cantons, and with especial reference to the independent confederations of the Grisons and the Valais, which only became full members of the Confederation in 1803 and 1815 respectively.

On the other hand, the Grisons won in 1512 the Valtellina, with Bormio and Chiavenna, but in 1797 these regions were finally lost to it as well as to the Swiss Confederation, though the Grisons retained the valleys of Mesocco, Bregaglia and Poschiavo, while in 1762 it had bought the upper bit of the valley of Munster that lies on the southern slope of the Alps.

In the Eastern Alps the political history is almost monotonous, for it relates simply to the advance or retreat of the house of Habsburg, which still holds all but the whole of the northern portion (the exception is the small bit in the north-west that belongs to Bavaria) of that region.

But they received a rich compensation in the Eastern Alps (not to speak of the imperial crown), for they there gathered in the harvest that numerous minor dynasties had prepared for them, albeit unconsciously.

Thus they won the duchy of Austria with Styria in 1282, Carinthia and Carniola in 1335, Tirol in 1363, and the Vorarlberg in bits from 1375 to 1523, not to speak of minor " rectifications " of frontiers on the northern slope of the Alps.

But, as is well known, in 1859 they lost to the house of Savoy both the Milanese and the Bergamasca, and in 1866 Venetia proper also, so that the Trentino is now their chief possession on the southern slope of the Alps.

The gain of the Milanese in 18J9 by the future king of Italy (1861) meant that Italy then won the valley of Livigno (between the Upper Engadine and Bormio), which is the only important bit it holds on the nonItalian slope of the Alps, besides the county of Tenda (obtained in 1575, and not lost in 1860), with the heads of certain glens in the Maritime Alps, reserved in 1860 for reasons connected with hunting.

Thus the Alpine states (Italy, Switzerland and Austria), other than France and Bavaria, hold bits of territory on the slope of the Alps where one would not expect to find them.

In Switzerland there are Italian-speaking regions, as well as some spots (in the Grisons) where the old Romance dialect of Romansch or Ladin survives; while in Austria, besides German, Italian and Ladin, we havea Slavonic-speaking population in the South-Eastern Alps.

The highest permanently inhabited village in the Alps is Juf, 6998 ft.

It was by the members of these clubs (and a few others) that the minute exploration (now all but complete) of the High Alps was carried out, while much has been done in the way of building club huts, organizing and training guides, &c., to smooth the way for later corners, who benefit too by the detailed information published in the periodicals (the first dates from 1863 only) issued by these clubs.

Limits of space forbid us to trace out in detail the history of the exploration of the High Alps, but the two sub-joined lists give the dates of the conquest of about fifty of the greater peaks (apart from the two climbed in 1358 and in 1492, see above), achieved before and after 1st January 1858.

Coolidge's Josias Simler et les origines de l'alpinisme jusqu'en 1600 (1904) summarises our knowledge of the Alps up to 1600.

Such a gap is that between the Alps and the Carpathians, but a glance at a geological map of the region will show that the folding was probably at one time continuous.

Leaving, however, the larger question of the connexion between the great mountain ranges of Europe and Asia, we find that the Alps are formed of a series of wrinkles or folds, one behind another, frequently arranged en echelon.

Some of the older beds indeed are crumpled, but the folding is altogether different in age and in direction from that of the Alps.

To assist in forming a clear idea of the relations of the Alps to the surrounding regions, a simple illustration will suffice.

If the two hands be placed flat upon the table, in the angle between the two books, and the cloth pushed towards the corner, it will at once be rucked up into a fold which will follow a curve not unlike that of the Alps.

Imperfect though this illustration may be, it will serve to explain the modern conception of the forces concerned in the formation of the Alps.

In the case of the Alps it seems natural enough that the crystalline masses of Bohemia, the Black Forest and the central plateau of France should be firmer than the more modern sedimentary deposits; but it is not so easy to understand why the Mesozoic rocks of southern Germany resisted the folding, while those of the Jura yielded.

Such is in outline the process by which the Alps were elevated; but when the chain is examined in detail, it is found that its history has not been uniform throughout; and it will be convenient, for purposes of description, to divide it into three portions, which may be called the Eastern Alps, the Swiss Alps, and the Western Alps.

The Eastern Alps consist of a central mass of crystalline and schistose rocks flanked on each side by a zone of Mesozoic beds and on the north by an outer band of Tertiary deposits.

Throughout the whole extent of the Eastern Alps it is strictly limited to the belt between this fault and the marginal zone of Molasse.

It bears, indeed, very much the same relation to the Alps that the Siwalik beds of India bear to the Himalayas.

The Mesozoic belt of the Bavarian and Austrian Alps consists mainly of the Trias, Jurassic and Cretaceous beds playing a comparatively subordinate part.

But between the Trias of the Eastern Alps and the Trias of the region beyond the Alpine folds there is a striking contrast.

The Trias of the Eastern Alps, on the other hand, consists chiefly of great masses of limestone with an abundant fauna, and is clearly of marine origin.

The Trias has almost disappeared, and what remains is not of the marine type characteristic of the Eastern Alps but belongs rather to the continental facies which occurs in Germany and France.

Within the Alps, when normally developed, we may trace the individual folds for long distances and observe how they arise, increase and die out, to be replaced by others of similar direction.

They consist chiefly of Jurassic and Triassic beds, but it is the Trias and the Jura of the Eastern Alps and not of Switzerland.

P. Protogine connexion, that the pebbles of the Swiss Molasse are not generally such as would be derived from the neighbouring mountains, but resemble the rocks of the Eastern Alps.

In the Western Alps the outer border of Molasse persists; but it no longer forms so well-defined a zone, and strips are infolded amongst the older rocks.

The Eocene has altogether w Alps.

Partly in consequence of the uncertainty as to the age of these and other rocks, there is considerable difference of opinion as to the structure of the Western Alps.

The chain of the Alps was not raised by a single movement nor in a single geological period.

In the Eastern Alps the central ridge seems to have been in existence at least ag as early as Triassic times, but it has since been subject p to several oscillations.

The structure of the zones in the Bavarian Alps seems to suggest that the chain grew outwards in successive stages, each stage being marked by the formation of a boundary fault.

Ball, 2010 well-marked species of flowering plants occur within the limits of the Alps.

If now we confine our attention to the alpine and higher regions of the Alps and exclude from our list all those plants which, however abundant in these regions, are not less so in the adjacent lowlands, we have left some 700 species (693, according to Dr Christ).

In the ice-free belt, between the northern ice-sheet and the vastly extendedglaciers of the Alps, the two floras must have found a common refuge and congenial conditions of existence; and this view is confirmed by direct palaeontological evidence.

With the return of a milder climate, the so-called northern forms of the present alpine flora were split in two, one portion following close on the northern ice in its gradual retreat to the Arctic, the other following the shrinking glaciers till the plants were able to establish (or re-establish) themselves on the slopes of the Alps.

In any case, however, the migration of these plants to the Alps must for the most part have taken place via the Arctic. The possibility of any extensive east to west migration having taken place direct from the Altai to the Alps seems excluded by the fact that 50 o ho of the arctico-altaic alpine plants are absent from the Caucasus.

A score of species, it is true - not such a number, be it observed, as was formerly supposed - are common to the Alps and Altai, but absent from the Arctic. But the species composing this Altaic element are not so numerous as the arctico-alpine species that are absent from the Altai.

Their affinities are chiefly, though not exclusively, with the present Mediterranean flora - about fifty are of presumably Mediterranean origin - and a large proportion of them are restricted to the southern slopes of the Alps.

Many of them are restricted to some one small portion of the chain; these occur chiefly in the southern and eastern Alps.

It is an interesting fact that the centrally situated Bernese Alps produce hardly a single peculiar species.

It seems therefore best to treat here principally of the animal inhabitants of the high Alps.

Though among mammalia - as also in the case of the birds - there are but few forms peculiar to the Alps, many interesting animals have found in the high mountains at least a temporary refuge from man.

The former - the sole representative, in western Europe, of the antelopes - is found elsewhere only in the Pyrenees, Carpathians, Caucasus and the mountains of eastern Turkey; the latter survives only in the eastern Graian Alps.

The snow-mouse (Arvicola nivalis) is confined to the alpine and snow regions, and is abundant at these levels throughout the whole chain of the Alps.

Among the Insectivora, the alpine shrew (Sorex alpinus) is restricted to the Alps.

The birds of the Alps are proportionately very numerous.

The lammergeyer (Gypaetus barbatus), once common, is now extremely rare, even if it has not already become extinct in the Alps; but the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) still holds its own.

Some of the smaller birds of prey are not uncommon, but there is none that can be regarded as specially characteristic either of the Alps as a whole or of the alpine region.

The remaining classes of Vertebrata are very sparsely represented in the high Alps; and what few species occur are mostly common to the plains as well.

The former connexion between the Arctic and the Alps, which has left such unmistakable traces in the present alpine flora, affords, as regards the fauna also, the only possible explanation of the present geographical distribution of many alpine forms; but it is chiefly among the Invertebrata that we find this collateral testimony to the influence of the glacial period.

C. Zeller's Alpentiere im Wechsel der Zeit (1892) gives a reliable account of the gradual disappearance of some of the larger forms of life from the Alps.

The forests are well stocked with game, deer, chamois (in the Alps), wild boars, capercailzie, grouse, pheasants, &c. being plentiful.

Their country bore some traces of Roman influence, and its main boundaries were the Inns, the Danube, the Lech and the Alps; but its complete settlement was a work of time.

When Otto of Wittelsbach was invested with Bavaria at Altenburg in September 1180 the duchy was bounded by the Bohmerwald, the Inn, the Alps and the Lech; and the power of the duke was practically confined to his extensiverivate domains around Wittelsbach Kelheim wittels- bachbaths.

From England, Carboniferous rocks can be followed across northern and central France, into Germany, Bohemia, the Alps, Italy and Spain.

The eastern part of the chain passed from South France through the Vosges, the Black Forest, Thuringia, Harz, the Fichtelgebirge, Bohemia, the Sudetes, and possibly farther east; this constitutes the " Varischen Alps " of Suess.

It is reckoned that there are 2430` "Alps" or mountain pastures in the canton, of which 1474 are in the Oberland, 627 in the Jura, and 280 in the Emme valley; they can maintain 95,478 cows and are of the estimated value of 462 million francs.

The tails have also been worked, in the manner explained with regard to the baum marten, as sets of trimmings and in other forms. Stone martens are found in Russia, Bosnia, Turkey, Greece, Germany, the Alps and France.

What is true in this remark lies partly in the fact that scholarship in Aldo's days had flown beyond the Alps, where a new growth of erudition, on a basis different.

As the battle which terminated this campaign, the battle of the Frigidus, was fought near the passes of the Julian Alps, Alaric probably learnt at this time the weakness of the natural defences of Italy on her northeastern frontier.

He accordingly crossed the Julian Alps, and in September 408 stood before the walls of Rome (now with no capable general like Stilicho to defend her) and began a strict blockade.

They are particularly fond of salt, and in the Alps sandstone rocks containing a saline impregnation are often met with hollowed by the constant licking of these creatures.

It rises at the upper or eastern extremity of the Swiss canton of the Valais, flows between the Bernese Alps (N.) and the Lepontine and Pennine Alps (S.) till it expands into the Lake of Geneva, winds round the southernmost spurs of the Jura range, receives at Lyons its principal tributary, the Saline, and then turns southward through France till, by many mouths, it enters that part of the Mediterranean which is rightly called the Golfe du Lion (sometimes wrongly the Gulf of Lyons).

But during this half of its course it can boast of having on its left bank (the right bank is very poor in this respect) such historical cities as Vienne, Valence, Avignon, Tarascon and Arles, while it receives (left) the Isere, the Drome and the Durance rivers, all formed by the union of many streams, and bringing down the waters that flow from the lofty snowy Dauphine Alps.

But Spartacus overthrew both consuls, one after the other, and then pressed towards the Alps.

A body of the rebels which had escaped from the field was met and cut to pieces at the foot of the Alps by Pompey (the Great), who was returning from Spain.

For the summer irrigation Italy depends on the glaciers of the Alps; and the great torrents of the Dora Baltea and Sesia can be counted on for a volume exceeding 6000 cub.

Its true source is in some small lakes near the head of the Fra g ile glen, but its volume is increased by the union with several smaller streams, near the town of Bormio, at the Raetian Alps.

It possesses large plateaus, such as that of Bavaria, which stretches away from the foot of the Alps, fertile low plains like that intersected by the Rhine, mountain chains and isolated groups of mountains, comparatively low in height, and so situated as not seriously to interfere with communication either by road or by railway.

Bavaria is the only division of the country that includes within it any part of the Alps, the Austro-Bavarian frontier running along the ridge of the Northern Tirolese or Bavarian Alps.

In the upper part of the plain, towards the Alps, there are several lakes, the largest being the Ammersee, the WUrmsee or Starnberger See and the Chiemsee.

Excluding the Alps, the Schneekoppe (5266 ft.) is the highest peak in Germany; and the southern declivities of this range contain the sources of the Elbe.

A good many smaller lakes are to be found in the Bavarian Alps.

The Eoccne system is unknown in Germany except in the foothills of the Alps; but the Oligocene and Miocene are widely spread, especially in the great plain and in the depression of the Danube.

The very much broader depression of the Danube is associated with the formation of the Alps, and was flooded by the sea during a part of the Miocene period.

It has nothing in common with the Mediterranean climate of southern Europe, Germany being separated from that region by the lofty barrier of the Alps.

Foxes, martens, weasels, badgers and otters are to be found everywhere; bears are found in the Alps, wolves are rare, but they find their way sometimes from French territory to the western provinces, or from Poland to Prussia and Posen.

In the south the Germans come into contact with Rhaeto-Romans and Italians, the former inhabiting the valley of the Vorder-Rhein and the Engadine, while the latter have settled on the southern slopes of the Alps, and are continually advancing up the valley of the Adige.

The best meadow-lands of Bavaria are in the province of Franconia and in the outer range of the Alps, and those of Saxony in the Erzgebirge.

In south Germany salt abounds most in WUrttemberg (Hall, Heilbronn, Rottweil); the principal Bavarian works are at the foot of the Alps near Freilassing and Rosenheim.

She appealed to Otto; other reasons called him in the same direction, and in 951 he crossed the Alps and descended into Lombardy.

For his adventurous and imaginative spirit Italy and the imperial title had an irresistible charm, and in 1154, two years after he had ascended the throne, he crossed the Alps, being crowned emperor at Rome in June 1155.

His purpose to cross the Alps at the head of a great force was hailed with delight by the Ghibellines, whose aspirations found utterance in Dantes noble prose, but his life was too short for him to fulfil the hopes of his friends.

It is found also in Persia, Palestine, Crete and Greece, the Italian Alps, Sicily, Sardinia and Mauritania.

Finding only a small space of level ground along the shore, it has been obliged to climb the lower hills of the Ligurian Alps, which afford many a coign of vantage for the effective display of its architectural magnificence.

The Achaeans, or Hellenes, as they were later termed, were on this hypothesis one of the fair-haired tribes of upper Europe known to the ancients as Keltoi (Celts), who from time to time have pressed down over the Alps into the southern lands, successively as Achaeans, Gauls, Goths and Franks, and after the conquest of the indigenous small dark race in no long time died out under climatic conditions fatal to their physique and morale.

By the autumn of the same year, probably feeling the incompleteness of the artistic training that could be obtained north of the Alps, he must have taken advantage of some opportunity, we know not what, to make an excursion of some months to Italy, leaving his lately married wife at Nuremberg.

The evidences of this travel (which are really incontestable, though a small minority of critics still decline to admit them) consist of (1) some fine drawings, three of them dated 1494 and others undated, but plainly of the same time, in which Diirer has copied, or rather boldly translated into his own Gothic and German style, two famous engravings by Mantegna, a number of the "Tarocchi" prints of single figures which pass erroneously under that master's name, and one by yet another minor master of the North-Italian school; with another drawing dated 1495 and plainly copied from a lost original by Antonio Pollaiuolo, and yet another of an infant Christ copied in 1495 from Lorenzo di Credi, from whom also Diirer took a motive for the composition of one of his earliest Madonnas; (2) several landscape drawings done in the passes of Tirol and the Trentino, which technically will not fit in with any other period of his work, and furnish a clear record of his having crossed the Alps about this date; (3) two or three drawings of the costumes of Venetian courtesans, which he could not have made anywhere but in Venice itself, and one of which is used in his great woodcut Apocalypse series of 1498 (4) a general preoccupation which he shows for some years from this date with the problems of the female nude, treated in a manner for which Italy only could have set him the example; and (5) the clear implication contained in a letter written from Venice in 1506 that he had been there already eleven years before; when things, he says, pleased him much which at the time of writing please him no more.

Diirer's engravings, both on copper and wood, had by this time attained great popularity both north and south of the Alps, and had begun to be copied by various hands, among others by the celebrated Marcantonio of Bologna, then in his youth.

From Flanders to Rome his distinction was acknowledged, and artists of less invention, among them some of the foremost on both sides of the Alps, were not ashamed to borrow from his work this or that striking combination or expressive type.