In A Word, We Were
Obliged To Tie A Rope About His Heel, And All The People In The
House Assisting To Pull, The Poor Marquis Was Drawn From One End
Of The Apartment To The Other Before The Boot Would Give Way:
At
last his legs were happily disengaged, and the machines carefully
dried and stuffed for next day's journey.
We took our departure from hence at three in the morning, and at
four, began to mount the Col de Tende, which is by far the
highest mountain in the whole journey: it was now quite covered
with snow, which at the top of it was near twenty feet thick.
Half way up, there are quarters for a detachment of soldiers,
posted here to prevent smuggling, and an inn called La Ca, which
in the language of the country signifies the house. At this
place, we hired six men to assist us in ascending the mountain,
each of them provided with a kind of hough to break the ice, and
make a sort of steps for the mules. When we were near the top,
however, we were obliged to alight, and climb the mountain
supported each by two of those men, called Coulants who walk upon
the snow with great firmness and security. We were followed by
the mules, and though they are very sure-footed animals, and were
frost-shod for the occasion, they stumbled and fell very often;
the ice being so hard that the sharp-headed nails in their shoes
could not penetrate. Having reached the top of this mountain,
from whence there is no prospect but of other rocks and
mountains, we prepared for descending on the other side by the
Leze, which is an occasional sledge made of two pieces of wood,
carried up by the Coulants for this purpose. I did not much
relish this kind of carriage, especially as the mountain was very
steep, and covered with such a thick fog that we could hardly see
two or three yards before us. Nevertheless, our guides were so
confident, and my companion, who had passed the same way on other
occasions, was so secure, that I ventured to place myself on this
machine, one of the coulants standing behind me, and the other
sitting before, as the conductor, with his feet paddling among
the snow, in order to moderate the velocity of its descent. Thus
accommodated, we descended the mountain with such rapidity, that
in an hour we reached Limon, which is the native place of almost
all the muleteers who transport merchandize from Nice to Coni and
Turin. Here we waited full two hours for the mules, which
travelled with the servants by the common road. To each of the
coulants we paid forty sols, which are nearly equal to two
shillings sterling. Leaving Limon, we were in two hours quite
disengaged from the gorges of the mountains, which are partly
covered with wood and pasturage, though altogether inaccessible,
except in summer; but from the foot of the Col de Tende, the road
lies through a plain all the way to Turin.
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