Change of air and scene : a physician's hints with notes of excursions for health amongst the watering-places of the Pyrenees, France (inland and seaward), Switzerland, Corsica, and the Mediterranean / by Alphonse Donné.

  • Donné, Alfred, 1801-1878.
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Change of air and scene : a physician's hints with notes of excursions for health amongst the watering-places of the Pyrenees, France (inland and seaward), Switzerland, Corsica, and the Mediterranean / by Alphonse Donné. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    disagreeable sensation of fomiing part of a mechanism, being at the mercy of a gearing, deprived of freewill and carried away by a superior and fatal power ; my own will—nay, whim—was my sole law. On the most lonely paths I was not alone; the humble animal I bestrode was for me a real travelling com- panion. We understood each other ; I guessed his inclinations, and he replied to my words by a very significant shake of his ears. He animated the solitude. Are these not true enjoyments, old indeed, but from which we have been severed so long that they become new ? As to the slow progi'ess, this is a matter of imagination ; all we need do on starting is to assume the mental disposition of a man who is not in a hurry. I shall not describe in detail the road I followed in re-ascend- ing the valley of the Durance as far as Gap, nor that which from Gap conducted me to Grenoble, a road interesting, nevertheless, by its sites and famous for its historical recollections. It was the one taken by the exile of Elba when, after having once more, in the Gulf of Juan, stepped on the soil of his empire, he followed the guidance of his eagle, which flew from steeple to steeple to the Tuileries. But we have so many places and things to see that we must hasten on. Near Visille let us, in passing, cast a glance on the Castle of Lesdiguieres, belonging to the Perrier family. Gavet merits a momentary delay, were it only to recall a geological catastrophe, which suddenly changed the aspect and even the conditions under which that district existed. In the twelfth century the mount Voudine, which bars the passage of the Romanche, slipped from its base ; the whole valley of Bourg-d’Oisans was converted into a lake to a depth of ten metres, fonning the lake of Saint-Laurent. From labourers the inhabitants of the country became fishermen. But in 1219 the dike was carried away, and the whole valley ravaged as far as Grenoble ; the villages disappeared. Around Visille you may still behold boulders transported thither by the eruption of the waters of the lake. Bourg-d’Oisans is a small town situate in a level valley, fertile and well cultivated. At a great depth below the Romanche you may see the defile. The road above Freney,