30

PASSO I) I REPORT A.

due enquiry would have established the existence of arationalistic explanation in the shape of a roundaboutstaircase not beyond the powers of an Italian heifer.

The lowest saddle in the high ridge before us wasthe Passo di Redorta. Despite the beauty of the daythere was little distant view and no peak near enoughat hand to tempt to further exertion. Val Maggia itself was almost hidden by the vertical lines of a bold,many-headed buttress' and the eye ranged over thewilderness of its mountain-ridges, a savage expanse ofruined gneiss naked of snow and void of prominentpeaks or bristling ridges. The rock cannot, like thefirmer granites of Val Masino or the Adamello , offerany stubborn resistance to the action of the atmosphere.Hence the mountain-tops are one mass of comparativelylevel ruin. Those who have looked down from someSyrian hilltop on an ancient city, of which the ponde-rous materials cumber the ground, while not a columnis left standing, may exactly picture to themselves thescene of desolation now offered on a vastly larger scaleto our eyes by the ranges of Val Maggia . In contrastthe head of Val Verzasca , lying as it w r ere at our feet,was green, bright, and inviting.

We were joined on the pass by a young Verzascan,returning from a visit to relatives at Peccia, laden witha store of simple delicacies, such as white bread, honeyand cheese. The pains he was at to transport such aburden suggested comparative poverty in the land wewere entering. We descended together, but there wasno need of any guide, as the valley lay always straightbefore us, and the ground, though excessively steep,was not precipitous. Near the foot of the descent apretty fall tumbles off the right-hand hillside.