. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. Dec. 30, 1897.] THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 515 SKETCHES BY A ROVING BEE-KEEPEE.—No. BY ALFRED WATKINS. It was in the Val Formazza, a narrow valley branching out from the great Simplon road toward the heights of the great Pontine Alps. We were in full marching order, and only the day before had started from the Swiss side of the mountain chain, where we had rested for the night at a little hamlet near the head of the Rhone Valley. The usual difficulties of an Alpine pass had been surmounted, not without a spice of danger, for it was mis
. British bee journal & bee-keepers adviser. Bees. Dec. 30, 1897.] THE BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 515 SKETCHES BY A ROVING BEE-KEEPEE.—No. BY ALFRED WATKINS. It was in the Val Formazza, a narrow valley branching out from the great Simplon road toward the heights of the great Pontine Alps. We were in full marching order, and only the day before had started from the Swiss side of the mountain chain, where we had rested for the night at a little hamlet near the head of the Rhone Valley. The usual difficulties of an Alpine pass had been surmounted, not without a spice of danger, for it was misty on the top, and in crossing the Gries ice field, where no track is, our boyish gaide had completely lost his way, and had to be set right with the aid of map and compass. And so it was with some thankfulness that we hit upon the rugged track leading down into Italy ; first over more snow, then came barren rocks, widening out into a cup-like valley, then banks of Alpine flowers, with Edelweiss (the Swiss bridal tiower) to be found here and there. In these upper valleys the descent is usually by means of steps or plateaux, per- haps a couple of miles apart, the road de- scending in steep zig-zags to the lower level. A village or hamlet is often (as in our illustration) built on the verge of one of these steps ; and at the spot where we rested for the night the valley stream leaped down the steep descent to its new bed far below, forming a cascade (the Tossa Falls) higher than the cross on St. Paul's Cathedral. How striking was the gradation of vegetable life in that journey down the Formazza Valley, ranging from the utter bareness of eternal snows to the warmth of Italian vine- yards. First, the poor pasture above the tree line, where the stone cow-shed is occupied for three summer weeks only ; then fir tree groves ; then a patch of potatoes in the meagre garden? of the scattered stone-built houses ; and lower down a little wheat and rye. The valley widens, and deciduous tre
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