The Portland daily press., 1895-08-26
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.
Martigny, chamonix and Mont Blanc.

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either side by one of the fine mountainous
notonous But it is restful sometimes
to leave grandeur and magnificence be-
hind and give oneself up for little while,
to the ordinary commonplace events OF
life. Especially as here one OF those
pleasant meetings with friends occurred
which sometimes come so suddenly in
these foreign parts, when one is thinking
least of falling in with familiar scenes
and faces. Such meetings are doubly
priced when the nerves have got unstrung
with too high flights of fancy, when for
days the mind has been reaching up and
trying to take in all the sublimity OF
these unrivalIed mountain peaks.
MARTIGNY.
The village of Martigny is unique and
give up to the business of equipplng
tourists for mountain routes. Their
home industry consists of grooming
horses, bridling donkeys, cleaning Car.
riages and sgetting things in readiness
for the general caravan which traverses
each day the mountain sides. No other
people protect their home industries half
as well as they do. A few years ago one
could dicker for horse in Martigny as
we'll as elsewhere, now all is changed and
in the hands of monopoly. Cook and
the coach proprietors and few rich liv-
cry stable keeEo- have things as they
want them. Since Martigny is in Swift
zerland and Chamonix is in france they
have now arranged the law (perhaps by
lobbying, who knows?) SO that any driver
coming into Martigny goes out again
empty handed and these poor fellows dare
not infringe against this law. So they go
about the town like discouraged dog
with dropping ears and downcast look,
and when asked if they have carriage
to take you to Chamonix, they reply that
they have, and that they will gladly carry
and SO the other parties, like all monop-
olists, fitch your purse and keep you in
tho bonds Of slavery.
From here there are two score of routes
or more which take you anywhere, to
any place where there is a gorge or cat
eAAoOu. " AAOdAiboAA Pe1So ~ SAeeOAoAt u oOte
of ice or steep sdeclivity. Every maze
or mountain fastness has here a guide Or
connoisseur in all the arts Of scaling
cliffs of bridging cataracts. of leaping
precipices where it is necessary to keep
all tied together
Here they start for the Simplon route,
hence they go to the Rhone glacier,
which over the Grimsel pass takes you
by Meiringen to the Bernese Overland.
Here also you start by St. Bernard for
AoSta or by the same pass, the st. Ber
nard, from Chamonlx you come bajk
to Martigny. But there area half dozen
easier ways to reach Mont Blanc going
from Martigny to Chamonix.
AT five o'clock each afternoon the gen.
eral influx Of mountaineers begins and
with it all the tone of high declivitles.
CHANGING any moment outside the door
some fresh (not nice and new little
cabriolet is seenwith it's freight of passen
gers. Noiselessly it has come and in the
early morning noiselessly it goes then
not full but empty Eagerly travellers
alight with that absorbed look one
notices at Monte Carlo. No one sees them
more until the next day, when they de-
part for some other lake or mountain
scenes. More travellers come and go,
other cabmcn leave their loads until their
little carts fill up all space. This happens
THE CARRIAGES
These cabriolets are sui generis and al
though in other mountain ways there
are other queer cabs they are not those
going to Chamonix. The back seat with
covered top is fac-simile of Holiness one
horse shay" which seems as ready to go
all at once" first and foremost. Marrow
and without springs it is, and perfectly
inelastic. The front seat has no kinship
with the back or at least is far enough
away to be a distant relative This I'M
covered seat is broad and wide enough
for driver and two passengers. But since
the driver never drives, but walks, lead
ing his horse by the bride, all the way
and frightened passengers also walk,
the seat is plenty large enough.
THE ROUTE.
This route to Chamonix by "The
Noire" is the safest and most easy of
all the routes to Mount Blanc, but never
theless the road is such that this is the
fashion of going. One good sized horse
is harnessed up Alright, the road is so
narrow that only this little cabriolet
has room for the one horse in the mid
die and how two carriages could meet
should such a juncture occur has never
had solution. But for safety, ease and
convenience they bring donkey and
fasten at the side with extra tackle.
Since the way is always zigzag the extra
donkey is always near corner which al
ways hangs over the precipice Each
moment one thinks the little beast is gone
and wonders what his own fate next will
be yet he is always at the verge but never
going over.
The true way to go to Chamonix as
over any narrow mountain way is on
foot with blue sky above, the mountains
all about and cne's own free limbs to
do the rest, for the pedestrian in these
narrow paths has the greatest advan-
tage and by far outstrips the horse. 1t
is only the habit of walking one needs
to acquire; when this is accomplished
one has all the intricate by ways and all
the mountains of Europe for his possess
sion.
But this seemingly hard route just de- |
scribed is not the steep old road you read |
about but the good new road hewn out |
of rock with no mauvais pas or PREACHER |
GUS pitfalL
Soon the Col de Forclaz is passed and |
Tho croroa and valIay nf Trianto M, rro+o