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Italian Alps : sketches in the mountains of Ticino, Lombardy, the Trentino, and Venetia / Douglas W.Freshfield
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BASSO BI BOSBE.

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but, in size at least, important side-glen of the ValTellina.

Favoured by a cold morning and liard snow, wereached in little more than two hours the crest close toa little rock-turret conspicuous from our night-quarters.At our feet lay Yal Vermolera, one of the heads of YalGrosina, a cheerful expanse of bright green woods andpastures dotted with countless chalets.

Here we left the padrone, greatly satisfied athaving acquired a knowledge of what lay behind thehorizon of his daily life. Ambition pushed us up tothe nearest snow-top on our right, where we were disap-pointed to find ourselves overlooked by a loftier summitto the west, probably the Corno di Lago Spalmo of theLombard map. It was separated from us by a deepgap, offering a fine pass to the head of Yal Vermolera,which, on the south side, would lead over a glacierunmarked in any map. The summit we had climbed isnameless, and I shall not venture to anticipate thecarefully-weighed decision of the painstaking German,who will some day set himself to map and name thepeaks, passes, and glaciers of this remote corner. 1

We soon slid down again to the gap at the easternbase of the turret. A steep rock-wall cut us off from asnow-filled hollow. The difficulty, such as it was, wassoon over, and the rest of the descent was only a trialfor weak knees. A long hillside like that of the MonteMoro was below us; the whole drop from the pass tothe valley must be over 4,000 feet, and the distance isvery small. For some time we followed a stream, some-

1 Herr Zieglers map of S.E. Switzerland includes this country. Thescale is large, and the execution beautiful, but the corrections introducedon the very inaccurate Lombard map are but slight.