The Press.
London, England, 1858-11-20 00:00:00

assumes a tone as if that region had never been
visited before, and is almost as minute as if he
were writing a description of his travels in China
or some unexplored district. This want of se'
lection and retrenchment does give a certain air
of heaviness, and his style would be better if he
allowed it to sink and swell with his theme. He

exhibits a calm, strong, smooth, and quietly ener-
getic manner throughout, and the reader would

at times wish for more variety.
Solidity of matter, closeness of detailed descrip-
tion, accuracy of investigation, and a serene
temper, with good literary powers, are the main
merits of Mr. King. His explorings were per-
formed in company with his wife, and he thus
describes their luggage :

With this object in view we were on our way across the
Alps. Profiting by experience, we had divested ourselves
of every possible encumbrance, and reduced our baggage to

the smallest compass—expecting that we must oaten
encounter wild districts and difficult passes : at the same
time, from the probability of very scanty accommodation in
the chance quarters we might meet with in the reinoter
valleys, where inns are rare exceptions, we were obliged to
provide such articles as might render us independent of
all but a roof. Accordingly, one of Whippy's portable
side saddles for E. folding into a compact waterproof
case, and adaptable to a donkey or a horse,—a pair of
saddle-bags, small, but of most multifarious and well-
selected contents, comprising every possible requiaite,—a
spare bag for emergencies,--plaids, waterproofs, a portable
cooking apparatus and adjuncts, fly rod, vasculutn, and
some instruments, with various inapt, charts, and neces-
sary guide-books, constituted the total of our personal
travelling kit for the next three months. We bad besides
a reserve depot of a couple of light air-tight japanned
cases, so arranged with straps as to be easily adjusted on
either side of a mule. After crossing the Alps these
were to be sent on to some convenient point in advance,
for the purpose of replenishing our scanty wardrobe if
necessary, and to receive future collections of plants,
minerals, and othermatters. The whole together weighed
only 132 lbs.
We shall select several passages from this valuable
work, and we shall choose them so as to exem-
plify the great variety of matter to be found in
it. Mr. King devotes much space to his account
of the Val d'Aosta

Having be!ore travelled down the Val d'Aosta by night,
full daylight now enabled us to enjoy its exquisite beauty
and variety of scenery. The recent thunder showers bed
pooled the air, freshened the vegetation, and heightened
the rich colouring and beauty of the wonderfully tinted
rocks, as we left the walls of Ivrea behind us, and rapidly
penetrated the mountains, which begin to close in at a
village aptly called Monte Stretto. The ruins of the
quadrangular keep of the old castle of Montalto steed in
the middle of vineyards, on a rock of pure limestone.
There are several rocks of the same kind in the reigh-
bourhood, on which De Saussure remarks with reference to
the striking difference of the prevailing formations on the
two sides of the Alps. On the north, limestone or dolomite
predominates, consecutive ranges of calcareous mountains
of vast area extending along a great pertion of it. This
will be readily understood on reference to the convenient
reduction of MM. Studer and Escher's geological map, a
most useful companion to the Alpine traveller. • It will be
seen there that a distinctly marked belt of secondary
ranges of these formations, allied to the Jura limestones
runs along the north side of the loity chain of central
Alps, which—as Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa. and the higher
peaks of the Oberland—are chiefly granite or schistose
rocks. But on the south side, the calcareous format'ons
constitute &comparatively insignificant proportion of the
geological system, being mere yatches ; that in the
neighbourhood of the Allie Blanche, the only one of
importance. Granites, micaceous and chlorite schist*,
quartz, gneiss, and every variety of metamorphic rock,
some of the largest tracts of serpeutiue in Europe,
masses of hornblende. gabbro, and syenite. form the pre-
dominant components of the ranges of the Italian valleys.
It is this which gives to their scenery the remarkably
abrupt and romantic character which distinguishes it
entirely from the Series Alps, and causes that bo!d; rugged
form, and peculiar richness of rock colouring, which
fascinate the eye of the artist, as much as they surpass all
the efforts of his pencil.
The Val d'Aosta does not, strictly speaking ,begin until
just before the village of Pont St. Mar.in is reaches!, but
the mountain scenery increases in beauty every mile from
Ivrea—passing Bc.rgo Franco and Settiruo Vittone,
the head of the commune, the striking entrance to which
is under overarching walnuts —until at last it culminates
in the Val d'Aosta proper The mountains on either
side are more like immense blocks of rock of great height,
clothed from top to base with magnificent forest; not toe
severe sombre pine only, but mixed with the finest timber,
chiefly indigenous sweet chesnut and walnut. The faces
of these heights, too, are generally so rocky and steep,
that there is no pasture. Their colouring after the rain
was lovely—deep purple, almost black, olive-green, red,
yellow, grey, and every intermediate tint—while a few
white fleecy clouds, here and there, crept slowly up their
aides, as the sun dried up the shower. Wherever it is
practicable, vines are carried up, on the side facing the
south, to the extremes% accessible hilltops; and with more
freedom and wildness of growth than nearer Aosta.
They mantle elegantly over and among the scattered rocks,
and in the sunniest yet fresh-looking nooks form fairy
bowers, gracefully intermingled with the ferns and flowers
growing from the crevices.
The Val d'Aosta, from head to foot, is indeed • continued
feast to the eye, of every cumbuiation of mountain, rock,