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here be idleness, will certainly notexhaust the beauties of the country,and will probably leave deeper im-pressions than a rapid excursion ex-tending over a considerable part ofthe Alps.
Good accommodation is new foundeverywhere on the Swiss side, par-ticularly at Zermatt , on the Riffel,at Saas Grund , and at Saas Fee . Onthe Italian side the same is true ofthe most attractive headquarters—Breuil, Gressoney , Alagna , andMacugnaga, while the mountain innsat Fi^ry and on the Col d’Olen aresupplemented by many good Clubhuts. Among the Italian foot hills,too, the traveller will find goodquarters, as at Fobello, Varallo ,Ponte Grande, and in the environs ofBiella . The mountaineer will, ofcourse, not fail to provide himself withSir Martin Conway’s indispensable‘ Central Pennine Alps ’ and ‘ East-ern Pennine Alps’(issued in 1890-1in the ‘Climbers’ Guides’ Series),while Part 2 of volume ii. (1896)of Signori Martelli, Bobba, and Vac-carone’s capital ‘ Guida delle AlpiOccidentali ’ is useful for the Italian side. For the southern valleysof Monte Rosa Mr. S. W. King’scharming ‘ Italian Valleys of thePennine Alps ’ (1858) may still beconsulted, while the following Italian local guide books contain much inte-resting information: Brusoni’s ‘ Guida■alle Alpi Centrali Italiani,’ vol. i.(Domodossola , 1892), Rattiand Casa-nova’s ‘ Guida lllustrata della Valled’Aosta’ (3rd edition, Turin , 1893),Tonetti’s ‘ Guida lllustrata dellaValsesia e del Monte Rosa ’ (Varallo ,1891), and Pertusi and Ratti’s‘ Guida pel villeggiante nel Biellese ’(2nd edition, Turin , 1887). Thebeautifully illustrated work of SignoriV. Sella and I). Vallino, entitled‘Monte Rosa e Gressoney’ (1890),cannot be too highly recommended.
In addition to the attractions ofmagnificent scenery some of thevalleys described below are otherwisemost interesting. The Zermatt valley
was known to botanists and geolo-gists long before it was discovered byholiday tourists, while it has aninstructive local history of over 600years (see the account in Mr.Coolidge’s ‘ Swiss Travel and SwissGuide Books,’ 18S9), particularly fromthe fact that the original Romance-speaking inhabitants gave way in thefifteenth century to a German -speakingpopulation from the Upper Vallais,though some of the old place namesstill survive under a Teutonic veneer.On the other hand, about 1250, theSaas valley was colonised by Italian-speaking men from the Val Anzasca,while rather later some of the Ger man -speaking inhabitants of thelower part of the Saas valley settledat Macugnaga, the effect on the localnames being an interesting paralleland contrast to what happened in theZermatt valley. In the thirteenthcentury, too, a German -speakingcolony is found at the head of theVal de Lys, probably brought therein the twelfth century over theSt. Theodule by the lord of that terri-tory, the bishop of Sion, while it wasthis colony which probably sent outoffshoots to Alagna and Rima,though possibly these are due to theenergy of the Counts of Biandrate,who were the promoters of the Saas and Macugnaga colonies. The his-torical importance of the Theodule andthe Monte Moro therefore deservesto be studied more carefully than hashitherto been the case, while theglacier and minor passes should notbe overlooked, especially those lead-ing over from the Saas to the Antronavalley. The historian, the philolo-gist, and the ethnologist will thusfind much to interest them in the widearea now to be described in detail.