"Every year I devote myself to new researches; and, in acquiring a kind of enjoyment little known by the rest of mankind, - that of visiting Nature in some of her loftiest sanctuaries, - I ask of her an initiation into some of her mysteries, believing that she admits to them only those who sacrifice everything for her, and who render her continual homage." - Dolomieu.

The name of the French geologist who wrote these words has been bestowed not only on the mineral, Dolomite, which he first analyzed and described, but also on the wonderful mountains which are largely formed of that material, and are called the Dolomites.

A Group Of Dolomite Peaks.

Hence, since the history of the man is almost as extraordinary as the peaks named after him, it is both natural and appropriate to let our thoughts revert to him for a moment at the start, lest we should otherwise entirely forget the student in the scenery. Few lives are so romantic and adventurous as that of Dolomieu. Having become in early life a member of the Order of the Knights of Malta, when still in his nineteenth year he killed in a duel a fellow-knight, and in accordance with the laws of the fraternity was condemned to death. Pardoned, however, by the grand master, in consideration of his youth, he was set at liberty after nine months' imprisonment. Devoting himself thenceforth to scientific studies, he soon became a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and traveled extensively in Switzerland, Spain, Sicily, and Italy. In 1797, selected by Napoleon to be one of the scientific staff, which was to accompany him to the Orient, he went with Bonaparte to Egypt. Compelled, however, to return on account of ill health, he had the misfortune to be taken captive on his way home by the Neapolitan government; and as the king of Naples hated him personally for having, in 1783, revealed to the grand master of his order the sinister designs of Naples against Malta, the scientist was thrown at once into a filthy dungeon at Messina, where, clothed in rags, with only a little straw for a bed, and barely kept alive by wretched food, he languished in captivity for twenty-one months. Yet, though deprived of writing materials, Dolomieu used a pointed bit of wood for a pen, and the soot of his lamp for ink, and under these distressing circumstances wrote upon the margins of the leaves of a Bible - the only book allowed him - his Treatise on Mineralogy and his Memoir on Minerals. So great was the hostility of his royal captor that on the conclusion of peace between France and Naples a special clause had to be inserted in the treaty for his rescue. Unhappily this came too late for the brilliant career which otherwise would certainly have awaited him; for, though he was at once appointed Professor of Mineralogy in the Museum of Natural History at Paris, the hardships he had undergone had so affected his constitution that he died seven months after his release.

The Land Of The Dolomites.

Such, then, being the history of the man from whom the Dolomites are called, let us recall, if we have forgotten it, the special part of Europe which they occupy. It is, par excellence, the southeast section of Tyrol, east of the Brenner railway, and not many miles to the northwest of Venice. In fact, a splendid carriage road, known as the Strada Regia, each yard of which is as well made and smooth as any avenue in Central Park, passes directly through these mountains, almost north and south, for a distance of sixty-four miles, from Toblach in the Austrian Puster Thal, to beautiful Belluno in the north of Italy; and since the latter city is but seventy-two miles by rail from Venice, there are few more delightful journeys in the world than that to be enjoyed, in the right season of the year, upon this noble thoroughfare, one end of which is in the heart of Europe, while the other terminus might well be called an antechamber to the court of the Adriatic Queen. Two other doorways to the Dolomites there are of which I shall speak later in connection with a journey made through them; but that of Toblach is the one which I first entered; and, as the best known and the most frequented of them all, it is to this that we first naturally turn.