. Alps and sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino (Op. 6.) . ich stones were some-times carried. The dwellers in houses near the blast-ing would cover their roofs with boughs and leavesto soften the fall of the stones. A few people werehurt, but much less damage was done than might havebeen expected. I may mention for the benefit ofEnglish readers that the tunnels through Monte Piot-tino and the Biaschina are marvels of engineering skill,being both of them spiral; the road describes a com-plete circle, and descends rapidly all the while, so thatthe point of egress as one goes from Airol
. Alps and sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino (Op. 6.) . ich stones were some-times carried. The dwellers in houses near the blast-ing would cover their roofs with boughs and leavesto soften the fall of the stones. A few people werehurt, but much less damage was done than might havebeen expected. I may mention for the benefit ofEnglish readers that the tunnels through Monte Piot-tino and the Biaschina are marvels of engineering skill,being both of them spiral; the road describes a com-plete circle, and descends rapidly all the while, so thatthe point of egress as one goes from Airolo towardsFaido is at a much lower level than that of ingress. If an accident does happen, they call it a disgrazia,thus confirming the soundness of a philosophy whichI put forward in an earlier work. Every misfortunethey hold (and quite rightly) to be a disgrace to theperson who suffers it; Son disgraziato is the CALONICO. 53 Italian for I have been unfortunate. I was oncegoing to give a penny to a poor woman by the road-side, when two other women stopped me. Non. TENGIA, NO. II. merita, they said ; She is no deserving object forcharity — the fact being that she was an they were very kind to her. CHAPTER V. CAL0N1C0 CONTINUED, AND GI0RN1C0. Our inventions increase in geometrical ratio. Theyare like living beings, each one of which may becomeparent of a dozen others—some good and some neer-do-weels ; but they differ from animals and vegetablesinasmuch as they not only increase in a geometricalratio, but the period of their gestation decreases ingeometrical ratio also. Take this matter of Alpineroads for example. For how many millions of yearswas there no approach to a road over the St. Gothard^save the untutored watercourses of the Ticino andthe Reuss, and the track of the bouquetin or thechamois ? For how many more ages after this wasthere not a mere shepherds or huntsmans path by theriver side—without so much as a logf thrown over soas to form a rude b
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