St Bernard

St Bernard, the name of two mountain-passes in the Alps. (1) GREAT ST BERNARD is on the road between Aosta in Piedmont and Martigny in the Swiss canton of Valais, and is 8120 feet above sea-level. Almost on its crest stands the celebrated hospice founded in 962 by Bernard de Menthon, a neighbouring nobleman, for the benefit of pilgrims journeying to Rome. It now affords sleeping-accommodation for eighty travellers, and can give shelter to about 300 in all. The hospice is connected with a station in the valley below, from which the monks above are warned by telephone when travellers are on their way up the mountain. The keepers of the hospice are a dozen or so of Augustinian monks, all young and strong; their work is, with the aid of large dogs, to rescue travellers who are in danger of perishing from the snow and cold. The dogs used are the short-coated variety of the 'St Bernard dog' (see next article). The rigorous cold and the difficulty of breathing the rarefied air frequently do permanent injury to the health of the monks in charge. In 1889 a botanical garden, chiefly for Alpine plants, was laid out in the Entremontthal, on the northern slope of the pass. Diggings in 1890 revealed the foundation of a small Roman temple of imperial times near the summit of the pass, with a few bronzes and other antiques. (2) LITTLE ST BERNARD, SW. of the above in the Graian Alps, connects the valley of Aosta with that of Tarantaise in Savoy. By this pass Hannibal is believed to have led his forces into Italy. It too has a hospice, 7143 feet above the sea.