To many who visit Tyrol the most interesting district of this delectable land is the Dolomite region, which forms by far the greater part of the South Tyrol Highlands and offers not only unique opportunities for climbers, but also much impressive and beautiful scenery.

It is only in comparatively recent years that the Dolomite of south-eastern Tyrol has become a popular holiday-ground of tourists and travellers. But a few decades ago it was--except to geologists, a few artists, mining experts, and the more enterprising climbers--a _terra incognita_, a region scarcely more known to the general travelling public than the centre of Africa. Even nowadays it is far less frequented by western European holiday-makers than it deserves to be.

Formerly there was some excuse for an ignorance and neglect which a lack of easy transit, good roads, and railways to near-by points might be held to condone. But at the present time so much has been done to throw open this fascinating mountain district to the traveller, rest-seeker, and artist that the excuse can no longer be urged.

Concerning the climate, scenery, people, and accommodation now offered to travellers, much can be said in praise. Indeed, regarding all of these, it would be difficult to say everything one might without running the risk of being accused of partiality or exaggeration.

In this portion of Tyrol (as, indeed, may be said also of others) one still meets with hospitality and courtesy at inns and rest-houses which are not chiefly based upon the expectation of personal aggrandis.e.m.e.nt or monetary reward, just as one still finds quietude wedded to splendid scenery and beautiful prospects not yet exploited.

In the Dolomite region, though its popularity is yearly increasing, one can yet happily meet with comfortable hotels, which are not overrun by the type of tourist for whom a good dinner is more than fresh air and scenery, and dress clothes and gorgeous costumes of an evening a _sine qua non_. In a word, we have found that the Dolomite region is free from many of the disadvantages of Switzerland--that most exploited of European countries, and the one in which nowadays perhaps the least quietude and rest is to be found--and provides a playground for the mere pedestrian as well as a most attractive region for the exercise of the climbing instinct.

It must be admitted, however, that in the less frequented pa.s.ses and valleys one has occasionally to "rough" it in a mild kind of way, and that one needs to be a good and enduring walker to "do" the region on foot. But although some of the inns in the lesser known valleys are yet somewhat primitive, the cooking is usually good, and the beds, though the linen may be coa.r.s.e, will be found almost without exception spotlessly clean.

It may be added that French is of little use in the Dolomites, except in the hotels at the most frequented tourist resorts, such as Toblach, Cortina, Karer See, Bozen, etc., Italian and German being generally spoken--the former almost everywhere in the region; the latter chiefly in the Gader Thal, Grodener Thal, and the district north of the Ampezzo Thal; although in scattered hamlets south of the latter, here and there one finds peasants speaking both.

The Dolomite region is most accessible from the Venetian frontier, Bozen, or Bruneck; and the true Dolomite district, which contains all that is most magnificent as regards scenery and attractiveness to the mountaineer and geological student, lies midway between the points we have mentioned, and covers the comparatively small area of some fifty miles by forty miles.

Even nowadays there remain many peaks in the Dolomites yet untrodden by the foot of, at least, modern man, as well as numberless delightful paths amid exquisite scenery, where flowers carpet the earth and tiny streams make their water-music. Along which by-ways, from sunrise to sunset, one can travel amid the great silence of the hills without meeting a single fellow-wayfarer. Many of the summits are upwards of 10,000 feet in height, and they who first climb their rocky walls, deeply fissured sides, and ice- and snow-clad peaks, will have accomplished tasks not inferior to those performed by the intrepid mountaineers of the past who have scaled the great heights of the Alps or the Himalayas.

[Sidenote: THEORIES OF ORIGIN]

Ever since geologists have speculated and argued concerning the origin and nature of natural phenomena, there has been a conflict of opinion amongst Tyrolese, German, and French geologists in particular concerning the Dolomites. But although speculations have been many, and various plausible theories have from time to time been advanced, it may, we think, safely be said that none have been absolutely proved or universally accepted. Baron Richthofen is perhaps the ablest exponent of what is commonly known as the Coral Reef theory of origin, and this has of late years been largely accepted by leading geologists of different nationalities.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ALPENWIESE, ON THE SEISER ALP]

Baron Richthofen bases his theory chiefly upon the following points: "(A) The isolated nature of the mountains themselves, and the fact that their sides are frequently so steep and clear-cut as to preclude any suggestion that they have been so made by the ordinary processes of attrition, and that in general form they resemble atolls. (B) That in their substance there are often found fossils and deposits of a strictly marine character very closely resembling those found in coral reefs; in addition to which the configuration shown by many of the peaks is almost exactly similar to that found in the coral reefs of to-day, with precipitous and almost perfectly vertical sides, where they would have been (if the coral-reef theory is the correct one) constantly scoured by the tide, and with much less precipitous sides on the inner or lee side. (C) The fact that there is no trace discernible of any volcanic origin. (D) They also, in their general shape and lines, enclose s.p.a.ces in a similar way to that which coral reefs invariably enclose." There are many other points of resemblance advanced in Mr. G. C. Churchill's exhaustive "Physical Description of the Dolomite District," into which it is, however, unnecessary here to enter more deeply.

Of the Schlern, the magnificent peak which rises from so wild and picturesque a wooded ravine to a height of 8402 feet, Baron Richthofen makes the positive a.s.sertion that it is a coral reef, and that its entire formation is owing, like that of the "Atolls" of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, to animal activity and deposit.

The Dolomites, which may be said to stretch between the Eisack, Etsch, and Puster-Thal towards the south-east, and extend over the Tyrol border into the Venetian district, derive their name from the well-known geologist, Dolomieu, who lived in the eighteenth century, and during the latter part of it travelled extensively in Tyrol, and was the first to call the attention of scientists and others to the peculiar structural formation of the southern mountain ranges. It may be briefly here said that their material is largely limestone, but is distinguished from the other chalky Alps by a special admixture of magnesia. The fact that long ages ago the sea must have covered this region, and did so for a period of long continuance, is proved by the circ.u.mstance that, when climbing, one often finds on the very summits of the highest peaks fossilized sea-sh.e.l.ls. Many authorities are inclined to the belief that some at least of the Dolomites have been a.s.sisted in their growth, if not actually formed, by volcanic agencies, and this theory is borne out by the fact that craters are traceable in some of them even to-day. But whatever may be the true origin of these magnificent peaks, there can be no doubt regarding their unique formation.

It may be urged by some that the Dolomites do not possess the severe and apparently unapproachable majesty of the snow-clad Middle Alps, with their mighty glaciers and fields of perpetual snow; but as regards their beauty of colour, the wildness of their romantic scenery, closely connected with the most lovely and panoramic of landscapes, they are unequalled, just as the climate of the district in which they stand is delightful and invigorating.

In this comparatively small area one has a variety of scenery unsurpa.s.sed by any, so far as we know, on the Continent of Europe.

Within the confines of the Dolomite region one has the wide range of lofty mountains and terrific cliffs, in places reminding the traveller of the canons of the Rocky Mountains, with pinnacles, battlements, and towers, rearing themselves on every hand like ruined and t.i.tanic fortresses, yet with their wildness softened in a measure by their beauty of colour when gilded by the sunrise or bathed in roseate hue of sunset light. Between the lofty peaks which rise skyward into the very vault of heaven, as it seems to the wayfarer at their feet, stretch lovely, winding Alpine valleys, often well-wooded and with turf of a most delightful greenness strewn with myriads of Alpine blossoms. Through valleys sweet with the odours of pinewoods and flowers run rushing torrents or more quietly flowing streams, which often have their origin in tiny, dark-blue Alpine lakes set amid environing pine forests, in whose tranquil waters are reflected the towering rocks and secluded woods which surround them.

To these beautifully situated spots, which are peopled by happy and friendly disposed peasants, come year by year an increasing number of travellers from other countries of Europe and from America, flocking into all the more frequented parts intent upon enjoying the beautiful scenery over which hangs, during the summer months, a vault of deep-blue sky, looking all the bluer by contrast with the snow-clad Dolomite peaks, whose grandeur and fascinating beauty are not easily forgotten by those who have once gazed upon them.

[Sidenote: TOURING FACILITIES]

One of the great advantages of touring in the Dolomites to pedestrians, and cyclists more especially--although cycling provides plenty of "collar-work"--is the wonderful network of roads which cross the country in all directions. The surface of these roads is generally excellent, although several of them reach alt.i.tudes of between five and six thousand feet above the sea. The gradients have been well seen to, the road ascending by winding curves up the hillsides mostly by such easy stages as enable them to be traversed either on foot, in a carriage, motor-car, or even on a bicycle without much difficulty or fatigue. In this manner one reaches the open, sunny plateaux and ridges which serve to divide the separate groups of mountains one from the other, where the traveller can almost always find accommodation in good modern hotels or in well-arranged and modernized inns.

It is in the possession of these numerous well-managed and excellently appointed hotels and inns that the Dolomite region excels; and they are of such variety as regards size and the kind and cost of accommodation which can be obtained at them, that almost all tastes and purses can be suited. This has been more especially the case during the last decade, in which new routes have been opened up, and further and adequate hotel accommodation provided. Huge buildings, affording every possible comfort and modern convenience, patronized by the wealthy visitor, hotels on a less grand scale, suited to the requirements of the well-to-do middle cla.s.ses, and yet more modest, though not less well-managed and comfortable, establishments, where for an almost incredibly small sum pedestrians and tourists of more restricted means can obtain excellent food, are all to be found in the Dolomite region. In the larger hotels at the more noted resorts, of course, one finds much the same "life" as that prevailing at such places as Ischl, Semmering, Pontresina, St. Moritz, and Lucerne, where bands play during dinner, ladies wear elaborate Parisian toilettes, men dress for dinner, and climbing is, for most of the visitors, quite a secondary consideration to that of enjoying "smart" society. In the smaller places one finds greater simplicity and, to our thinking, greater charm, with more of the life of the people in evidence and less of the exotic.

But the Dolomites themselves present many attractions to the climber, and yet provide numerous ascents which can be undertaken by the comparatively untrained and inexperienced. This is largely owing to the fact that they consist chiefly of isolated groups of mountains of great height, but which, owing to their isolation, are not approached by long and toilsome journeys ere the actual climbing itself commences, such as is often the case with the greater peaks of the Central Alps. Numbers of the higher ones, reaching to upwards of 9000 feet in height, may be ascended without any great fatigue by well-made paths, thus providing for the tourists who are not expert climbers plenty of exercise with just those elements of adventure and inspiration which prove the greatest charms to all climbers, and the reward at the end which comes to those who penetrate the higher regions of a purer atmosphere, and a larger outlook upon the glorious beauties of mountainous districts.

There are, of course, many other Dolomite summits which can only be ascended, and should only be attempted, by practised and hardy climbers, for whom great heights and the risks attending their ascent possess no terrors. It is generally conceded that the district provides both for the inexperienced and most experienced climbers some of the most interesting mountain ascents in Europe. In the Dolomite region, especially of recent times, climbing has made extraordinary progress. Summits, the ascent of which a few years ago was looked upon as a great achievement by even good climbers, are now scaled by numbers of people every year; and each year brings additions to the conquered peaks, some of which were a decade ago looked upon as absolutely unclimbable, and likely to remain so.

The Dolomites are, indeed, gradually becoming as well known to climbers and would-be climbers of even the countries of Western Europe as are the Swiss Alps, and annually a larger number of lovers of Alpine scenery take their holidays in this region; and of late years the district has been visited by many even in winter time. In summer, although much accommodation has already been provided for tourists, it is, up to the present, decidedly insufficient for all the visitors who flock to this region during the months of July, August, and September.

It is, therefore, advisable for any one who wishes for a comfortable time during those months to secure rooms in advance at all places which are to be visited, more especially at those centres of attraction to which the greater number of tourists are in the habit of gravitating.

[Sidenote: DOLOMITE GROUPS]

The Dolomites may be divided into the following groups, running from east to west.[20] (1) The s.e.xtner Dolomites, the most important summits amongst which are the Drei Schuster Spitz, 10,375 feet, which is ascended generally from the Fischelein Boden; the Elferkofel, 10,220 feet; the Zwolferkofel, 10,150 feet; Oberbacher Spitz, 8700 feet, and the Drei Zinnen, 7897 feet, two absolutely bare peaks of sulphurous limestone, streaked with pale orange, rising grandly and boldly from behind the Monte Piana plateau like two huge scored and fissured fingers of a t.i.tanic hand. (2) The Ampezzaner Dolomites, with Monte Cristallo, 10,495 feet, with its many peaks veiled by snows, gla.s.sing itself in the agate green waters of the lovely pine-environed Durren See. Monte Antelao, 10,710 feet; the three Tofanas, ranging in height from 8565 feet to 10,635 feet; and the Sorapis, 10,520 feet. (3) The Agordinischen Dolomites, with the Nuvolau, 8685 feet; Monte Pelmo, 10,395 feet; and Monte Civetta, 10,565 feet, whose western face from Caprile was unascended till as recently as 1895, when Messrs. Raynor and Phillimore, with two Ampezzo guides, made the ascent. (4) The Grodener Dolomites, which embrace the beautiful Rosengarten, the Schlern, 8415 feet; the Sella-group, including the Sellajoch, 7275 feet; Rodella, 8155 feet, and other lesser peaks; and the Geislerspitzen, with its highest peak, Sas Rigais, 9930 feet. (5) The Fa.s.saner Dolomites, consisting of the groups of the Latemar, 9166 feet; the Marmolada, the highest of all the Dolomites, a huge group with several peaks, including the Puntadi Penia, 11,020 feet; the Marmolada di Rocco, 10,820 feet, and other magnificent and lofty summits; and the Pala Group, including the Cimone Della Pala, 10,450 feet, the Pala Di San Martino, 9830 feet, and the Pala Della Madonna, 8336 feet.

There are numberless interesting and picturesque excursions to be made in this charming region of the Dolomites, but the s.p.a.ce at our disposal will only permit of the mention of a few of the most accessible, interesting, or picturesque.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MISURINA LAKE]

INNICHEN THROUGH THE s.e.xTEN THAL TO LAKE MISURINA.

Innichen, reached from Toblach through a beautiful pine (larch) forest, is a prettily situated townlet on the Puster Thal road, with good accommodation for visitors. It possesses a fine monastery church, dating from the thirteenth century, which is one of the most interesting and unique buildings in Tyrol. It contains some very extraordinary and grotesque figures and faded frescoes, and a small chapel built in imitation of the Holy Sepulchre by one of the villagers, who once made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The road leads a little below past the village into the s.e.xten Valley, the princ.i.p.al hamlet of which is s.e.xten, or St. Veit, which is nowadays a charming and much-frequented summer resort, where one may wander amidst almost illimitable pine forests, and enjoy fresh mountain air and quietude surrounded by exquisite scenery. From s.e.xten one reaches in about an hour Fischlein Boden, by way of Moos, along a beautiful path through the pine woods, from whence one obtains an admirable view of the head of the valley, with the Drei Schuster Spitze, the Oberbacher Spitze, Drei Zinnen, Elferkofel, Zwolferkofel, and Rothwand, and an almost unrivalled vista of snow peaks. From this point, pa.s.sing the Zsigmondy Hut, 7320 feet, one comes to the Bacherjoch. From the Zsigmondy Hut, the Elferkofel and the Zwolferkofel may be ascended, both of which are, however, very difficult. Over the Bacherjoch a footpath leads to the Drei Zinnen Hut on the Toblinger Riedel, 7895 feet, on past the celebrated Drei Zinnen to the pretty Misurina Lake, tree-bordered and mountain environed, one of the most charming and picturesque spots in the Dolomites.

TOBLACH THROUGH THE AMPEZZO THAL TO SCHLUDERBACH AND CORTINA.

From Toblach there is an excellent excursion through the Ampezzo Valley to Schluderbach and Cortina. The starting-point is situated on the watershed of the high Puster Thal, and is a great place for consumptives and different forms of fresh-air cures. It is visited by people from almost all parts of the world, and in consequence the hotel accommodation is excellent and even luxurious. The village of Toblach itself is at the head of the Ampezzo road, which here leaves the Puster Thal at an alt.i.tude of nearly 4000 feet, and leads due south, pa.s.sing between the Sarlkofel, 7740 feet, on the right, and the Neunerkofel, 8418 feet, on the left. The Puster Thal railway, which comes within about a mile of the village, makes Toblach easily accessible, and it is in the neighbourhood of the station that the huge modern hotels are built, acting, as it were, as gateways to the beautiful Ampezzo Valley. The road through the latter is a magnificent one, well suited for motoring if care be taken in descending some of the sharp curves which lead down into Cortina; and especially beautiful upon such an evening in June as we traversed it, just as the sunset hues were illuminating the higher peaks with that roseate glow which is destined too soon to fade to purples and through them to the slatey blues of twilight.

From Toblach the ascent is very gradual to the pretty and romantically situated Toblach Lake; and thence one pa.s.ses on to Landro at the head of the valley of the Schwarze Rienz, where rise the lofty and snow-clad Drei Zinnen with the waters of the Durren See, jade green and beautiful in colour, with Monte Cristallo with its cap of eternal snow and its glacier, the Piz Popena and Monte Cristallino, rising in the background. From the Durren See to Schluderbach, 4730 feet, is a distance of less than two miles; and here, too, one finds a beautifully situated village surrounded by fine scenery, and provided with excellent accommodation for tourists whether they be but pa.s.sing along into Italy or inclined to make a lengthy stay.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A ROAD THROUGH THE DOLOMITES]

SCHLUDERBACH--CORTINA.

From Schluderbach the road pa.s.ses over the boundary between Tyrol and Italy, through a beautiful forest, past a deep ravine, down to Ospitale, 4835 feet, situated at the base of the Crepa di Zuoghi, 6745 feet, and afterwards skirting the Peutelstein or Podestagno, 4945 feet, by a wide though sharply curving road skirting precipitous slopes and crossing the deep gorge of the Felizon by the Ponte Alto, down to Cortina d'Ampezzo, 4025 feet above the sea, reached by carriage from Toblach in about seven hours, and distant from it just over twenty miles.

[Sidenote: CORTINA]

Cortina is beautifully situated on the left bank of the River Botta, with the fine Tre Croci Pa.s.s (which takes its name from the three large wooden crucifixes) opening away behind the town eastward, and the Tre Sa.s.si Pa.s.s widening out before it westward. The town is the princ.i.p.al one in the commune of Ampezzo, and is surrounded by stupendous heights and grand snow-clad mountains, amongst which are some of the most splendid of the Dolomites. For years past Cortina has been so considerable a resort of tourists and rest-seekers that splendid accommodation is nowadays obtainable; and one of the first impressions made by the place upon the traveller who comes to it after that of its picturesqueness is its prosperity. It is far cleaner, too, than most Italian or semi-Italian towns of its type. Though the climate is so favourable--even in the coldest of winters the thermometer seldom falls far below freezing-point--the soil of the district is very poor, and the appearance of most of the mountain-sides and valleys is bleak. There is in consequence little agriculture and no cultivation of the vine in the immediate neighbourhood of Cortina. Indeed, throughout the Ampezzo Thal pasturage and timber-felling, and not agriculture, are the chief industries, although wood-carving and the manufacture of gold and silver filigree work is carried on to a very considerable extent.

The festivals and fairs of the district are amongst the most important of south-eastern Tyrol, and at them one still sees many of the charming peasant costumes which have had here, as elsewhere, a tendency to die out. The huge silver-headed hairpins of the girls form a particularly noticeable feature of their elaborately and neatly plaited coiffures.

The main street of Cortina is a sunny and picturesque one, many of the houses possessing quaint, irregular roofs, and the church, little piazza, and hostelries making up a charming picture, with a beautiful vista of pastures and mountain summits at the end of the street.

The church, with its stately detached campanile, from the gallery of which, nearly 250 feet above the level of the street, there is a fine and extensive view of the town and valley, is one of the largest for many miles around, and contains, amongst other things, an unusually handsome altar, and some beautiful wood-carvings by Brustolone. The churchyard (unless recently altered) is a desolate though a picturesque spot, unfortunately a standing memorial of indifference for the memory of those who have pa.s.sed away, and irreverent neglect.

All who reach Cortina, whether they stay long or merely for a few hours, should go to the Aquila Nera Inn, if only to see the interesting and varied paintings of two of the sons of a former proprietor named Ghedina which adorn the walls of the dining-room, staircase, the outside of the "Dependance," and even the whitewashed walls of the outhouses and stables. The subjects are of great variety, displaying in many cases much technical skill and imaginative gifts, and comprise military and religious figures and designs, grotesques, and on the walls of the square-built and solid-looking Dependance are some large groups representing painting, sculpture, architecture, and other domestic subjects, especially noticeable being the painter-like and clever manner in which modern objects, such as telegraphic instruments, cameras, steam-engines, etc., have been handled.

From the top of the campanile, in which are hung great bells, one has the village and the valley spread out at one's feet, with the Ampezzo Thal stretching north and south and the pa.s.ses of Tre Croci and Tre Sa.s.si stretching east and west.

[Sidenote: BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS]

In the valleys surrounding Cortina there are many beautiful wild flowers and specimens of Alpine flora, amongst the most noticeable of which are the wild daphne and the smaller mountain gentian; we fancy, too, that in another very beautiful though small pink flower with waxen petals, which grew in large cl.u.s.ters, we found the _Androsace glacialis_, although two botanically learned friends differed as to the correct name of this charming specimen.

On the way to Cortina via Schluderbach one can, by branching off southward soon after leaving the village, reach, either on foot through the woods or by a good carriage road through the Val Popena, the beautiful and nowadays much-frequented Lake Misurina, in which the peaks of the Drei Zinnen and the tree-clad lower slopes of environing hills are charmingly reflected. The lake, although of comparatively small size, is justly considered one of the most beautiful in Alpine regions, and on its banks several large hotels have already been erected for the accommodation of the increasing number of visitors who come to this quiet and lovely spot which lies nearly 6000 feet above sea-level.

One of the most picturesque excursions in this extreme southern limit of Tyrol is by the carriage road, which, after pa.s.sing through the village, traverses the forest and by a gradual ascent reaches Tre Croci, 6000 feet above sea-level. All along this beautiful road, which traverses the slope of the Crepe di Rudavoi, one obtains the most beautiful peeps of the huge cliffs of Cristallo to the right, with fine vistas of the Marmorole and Sorapis on the opposite side. At Tre Croci the beautiful Ampezzo Valley suddenly bursts upon the view with the huge ma.s.s of the Tofana right across the valley, whilst in the distance and to the south-west appears the serrated ridge of Croda da Lago; and yet further distant the snow-clad summits of Marmolada.