Matterhorn (Switzerland and Italy); Mountaineering
[Illustration: An arch of the aqueduct in the Val Tournanche]
The Val Tournanche is one of the most charming valleys in the Italian
Alps; it is a paradise to an artist, and if the space at my command were
greater, I would willingly linger over its groves of chestnuts, its bright
trickling rills and its roaring torrents, its upland unsuspected valleys
and its noble cliffs. The path rises steeply from Chatillon, but it is
well shaded, and the heat of the summer sun is tempered by cool air and
spray which comes off the ice-cold streams.(71) One sees from the path, at
several places on the right bank of the valley, groups of arches which
have been built high up against the faces of the cliffs. Guide-books
repeat—on whose authority I know not—that they are the remains of a Roman
aqueduct. They have the Roman boldness of conception, but the work has not
the usual Roman solidity. The arches have always seemed to me to be the
remains of an _unfinished_ work, and I learn from Jean-Antoine Carrel that
there are other groups of arches, which are not seen from the path, all
having the same appearance. It may be questioned whether those seen near
the village of Antey are Roman. Some of them are semicircular, whilst
others are distinctly pointed. Here is one of the latter, which might pass
for fourteenth-century work, or later;—a two-centred arch, with mean
voussoirs, and the masonry in rough courses. These arches are well worth
the attention of an archæologist, but some difficulty will be found in
approaching them closely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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