PREFACE.

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the one, it must have been a mere compilation; forI cannot pretend to more than a general acquaintancewith such subjects; while the other has been made ineedless by The Alpine Guide ,—so admirably edited 1by my friend Mr Ball,—and by many more, designedrather for the ordinary tourist, such as the Guides ofMurray, Baedeker, &c., and (in French ) the valuableItineraires of M. Joanne.

The two points, then, that I have kept before me iin writing this book are :—(1) That it should not beconfined to any single district or country, but shouldendeavour to deal with the Alps as a whole ; re-stricting myself only, where I could, to the properlymountain regions; (2) that it should as far as possibletouch upon all the principal points of interest connectedwith them, and aim to be popular and general, ratherthan exhaustive. 1 felt that I could the better attemptthe former, because I happen to have a tolerablygeneral acquaintance with the whole chain, havingin the course of ten journeys wandered, usually onfoot, over every Alpine district included between linesdrawn, one through Genoa westward, and the otherthrough Venice northward; during which I havecrossed about eighty mountain passes, explored a gooddeal of rarely visited country, and had, I believe,a fair view of every important peak in the Alps ,from the Viso to the Terglou. With regard to the