I
mounted farther and reached an alpe, where a man and a boy were
tending a mob of calves.
Going still higher, I at last came upon a
small lake close to the top of the range: I find this lake given
in the map as about 7400 feet above the sea. Here, being more than
5000 feet above Faido, I stopped and dined.
I have spoken of a monte and of an alpe. An alpe, or alp, is not,
as so many people in England think, a snowy mountain. Mont Blanc
and the Jungfrau, for example, are not alps. They are mountains
with alps upon them.
An alpe is a tract of the highest summer pasturage just below the
snow-line, and only capable of being grazed for two or three months
in every year. It is held as common land by one or more villages
in the immediate neighbourhood, and sometimes by a single
individual to whom the village has sold it. A few men and boys
attend the whole herd, whether of cattle or goats, and make the
cheese, which is apportioned out among the owners of the cattle
later on. The pigs go up to be fattened on whey. The cheese is
not commonly made at the alpe, but as soon as the curd has been
pressed clear of whey, it is sent down on men's backs to the
village to be made into cheese. Sometimes there will be a little
hay grown on an alpe, as at Gribbio and in Piora; in this case
there will be some chalets built, which will be inhabited for a few
weeks and left empty the rest of the year.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 19 of 279
Words from 4817 to 5103
of 75076
