Hannibal’s march along the bank of the Isère, in his approach to the famous pass of the Little St. Bernard, was attended by many dangers. The natives mounted the sides of the high passes, and hurled huge rocks and bowlders down upon the elephants and men. But everywhere the strange beasts produced the greatest terror; and, as they approached the Alps, forces that had gathered to oppose them fled at the sight of them. The march was accomplished in fifteen days, at an enormous loss, the passes being strewn with men and beasts.
“Great was the tumult there,
Deafening the din, when, in barbaric pomp,
The Carthaginian, on his march to Rome,
Entered their fastnesses. Trampling the snows,
The war-horse reared, and the towered elephant
Upturned his trunk into the murky sky,
Then tumbled headlong, swallowed up and lost,
He and his rider.”
Rogers’s Italy.