The Rhine, its valley and history . wald from the Adula massif, towering in the south-west corner of the Grisons high over the deep-cutTicino valleys of the Italian slope. By a curiouscoincidence this massif alone, or almost alone, of thegreater summits of the Alps, still retains its ancientname. It is the Mons Adulis of Strabo. The highestpoint, of more than 11,000 feet is the Rheinwald-horn, and at the foot of this, on the eastward slope,in an ice cavern at the end of the Zapport glacier, isthe source of the Rhine. The issuing stream, thick withglacial mud, falls through a rocky gorge descri
The Rhine, its valley and history . wald from the Adula massif, towering in the south-west corner of the Grisons high over the deep-cutTicino valleys of the Italian slope. By a curiouscoincidence this massif alone, or almost alone, of thegreater summits of the Alps, still retains its ancientname. It is the Mons Adulis of Strabo. The highestpoint, of more than 11,000 feet is the Rheinwald-horn, and at the foot of this, on the eastward slope,in an ice cavern at the end of the Zapport glacier, isthe source of the Rhine. The issuing stream, thick withglacial mud, falls through a rocky gorge described bythe peasants as Hell. Alongside, in the midst of the wil-derness of ice and stones, there is a rise with a trace ofvegetation, and this is known as Paradise. From Helland Paradise the river flows north-eastward for twentymiles through the open Rheinwald valley to the ravinecalled La Rofna, in which, turning northward, it fallsagain rapidly. Punctuating the Rheinwald at a thirdand at two-thirds of the way from the Adula to the. ON I III sPI UGEN PASS The Rhaetic RhineRofna are two little villages, Hinterrhein and Splugen,raised a mile above sea level. From Hinterrhein a car-riage road zigzags southward up to the Bernardino Pass,of more than 6,700 feet, and then descends to the SwissTicino. From Splugen another road leads over theSplugen Pass, nearly 7,000 feet in height, and so south-ward into an Italian valley. Within twenty miles of theRheinwald villages these twin roads are down whereItalian is spoken, in valleys hot with sunshine, trenchedto depths only half a mile above the sea, where arechestnut and walnut forests, and presently vineyardsand stone houses of a southern aspect. The Bernardinoroad was constructed by the Swiss government to con-nect two of the cantons ; the Splugen was built at thesame time by the Austrian Government when it wasruler in Italy. The peasants of the Rheinwald are of German speech,descendants of a colony brought in the twelfth centuryby the
Size: 1307px × 1912px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1908
