still point to narrow, light hand-sledges, on which the casks were charged before the last pitch of the pass.  Some wine came, no doubt, on pack-saddles.  A meadow in front of the Dischma-Thal, where the pass ends, still bears the name of the Ross-Weid, or horse-pasture.  It was here that the beasts of burden used for this wine-service, rested after their long labours.  In favourable weather the whole journey from Tirano would have occupied at least four days, with scanty halts at night.

The Valtelline slipped from the hands of the Grisons early in this century.  It is rumoured that one of the Von Salis family negotiated matters with Napoleon more for his private benefit than for the interests of the state.  However this may have been, when the Graubuenden became a Swiss Canton, after four centuries of sovereign independence, the whole Valtelline passed to Austria, and so eventually to Italy.  According to modern and just notions of nationality, this was right.  In their period of power, the Grisons masters had treated their Italian dependencies with harshness.  The Valtelline is an Italian valley, connected with the rest of the peninsula by ties of race and language.  It is, moreover, geographically linked to Italy by the great stream of the Adda, which takes its rise upon the Stelvio, and after passing through the Lake of Como, swells the volume of the Po.

But, though politically severed from the Valtelline, the Engadiners and Davosers have not dropped their old habit of importing its best produce.  What they formerly levied as masters, they now acquire by purchase.  The Italian revenue derives a large profit from the frontier dues paid at the gate between Tirano and Poschiavo on the Bernina road.  Much of the same wine enters Switzerland by another route, travelling from Sondrio to Chiavenna and across the Spluegen.  But until quite recently, the wine itself could scarcely be found outside the Canton.  It was indeed quoted upon Lombard wine-lists.  Yet no one drank it; and when I tasted it at Milan, I found it quite unrecognisable.  The fact seems to be that the Graubuendeners alone know how to deal with it; and, as I have hinted, the wine requires a mountain climate for its full development.

II

The district where the wine of Valtellina is grown extends, roughly speaking, from Tirano to Morbegno, a distance of some fifty-four miles.  The best sorts come from the middle of this region.  High up in the valley, soil and climate are alike less favourable.  Low down a coarser, earthier quality springs from fat land where the valley broadens.  The northern hillsides to a very considerable height above the river are covered with vineyards.  The southern slopes on the left bank of the Adda, lying more in shade, yield but little.  Inferno, Grumello, and Perla di Sassella are the names of famous vineyards.  Sassella is the general name for a large tract.  Buying an Inferno, Grumello, or Perla di Sassella