Chateau Queyraz
w/ Piedmont Alps in the background, valley
of the Guil
Hautes Alps - France
Artist: Bartlett, Engraver:
Wallis
Published by James S. Virtue
Co., London
100+ years old art print ...
in excellent condition ... reverse side is blank !
Size: Size of the image: 4 3/4 x 7 1/4, print size:
8 x 10 1/2 inches.
Condition: Excellent condition.
Printed on heavier paper.
From the original description:
The Valley of the Guil, or Val-Queyras, contains a population
of about eight thousand. It is traversed by the public road winding
along the banks of the impetuous Guil, which takes its rise near the famous
subterranean passage between Mont Crisso on the north, and Mont Viso on
the south, where the Po originates. But, like the Dora and the Durance,
the Guil and the Po perform the most opposite functions—the first ravaging,
the latter fertilizing, the countries through which they flow. Owing
to its great descent—in many places a succession of rapids—the Guil cannot
be rendered of any service to the country, unless as a mere channel through
which timber may be floated down to the Valley. In the centre of the valley
or pass of the Guil, the river appears struggling on in the gloom of a
continued gulf, flanked by walls of tremendous rocks, and fringed with
wild pines clinging to the dripping crevices of the rocks. On quitting
the hamlet of Veyer, which looks like an oasis in this Thebaide, the gorge
commences; the traveller passes under a rock which raises its threatening
canopy between him and the light. From this rock the fragments which are
continually falling, but particularly after rain, render the pass imminently
dangerous. In the whole range of Alpine scenery, rich as it is in
the wonders of nature, there is nothing, says Dr. Gilly, more terribly
sublime than the pass of the Guil. A traveller would be amply
repaid in visiting this region for the sole purpose of exploring a defile,
which, in fact, is one of the keys to France, on the Italian frontier,
and is therefore guarded at one end by the strong works of
Mont Dauphin, and at the other by the fortress of Chateau-Queyras, whose
guns sweep the pass. For several miles the waters of the Guil occupy
the whole breadth of the defile, which is more like a chasm, or a vast
rent in the mountain, than a ravine; and the path, which in some places
will not admit of more than two to walk side by side, is hewn out of the
rocks. These rise to such a giddy height, that the soaring pinnacles
which crown them look like the fine points of carved masonry on the summit
of a cathedral. Meantime, the projecting masses that overhang the
wayfarer's head are more stupendous and more menacing than the imagination
can conceive. (One of the finest views of Chateau-Queyias is obtained
at the extremity of the town, in the direction of Abries.)
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