the appearance of true chamomile, but a fainter scent.

CHAMONIX, a mountain valley in south-east France, its chief village, of
the same name, being the capital of a canton of the arrondissement of
Bonneville in the department of Haute-Savoie. The valley runs from N.E.
to S.W., and is watered by the Arve, which rises in the Mer de Glace. On
the S.E. towers the snowclad chain of Mont Blanc, and on the N.W. the
less lofty, but rugged chain of the Brevent and of the Aiguilles Rouges.
Near the head of the valley is the village of Argentiere (4101 ft.),
which is connected with Switzerland by "char" (light carriage) roads
over the Tete Noire and past Salvan, and by a mule path over the Col de
Balme, which joins the Tete Noire route near Trient and then crosses by
a "char" road the Col de la Forclaz to Martigny in the Rhone valley. The
principal village, Chamonix (3416 ft.), is 6 m. below Argentiere by
electric railway (which continues via Finhaut to Martigny) and is
visited annually by a host of tourists, as it is the best starting-point
for the exploration of the glaciers of the Mont Blanc chain, as well as
for the ascent of Mont Blanc itself. It is connected with Geneva by a
railway (55 m.). In 1906 the population of the village was 806, of the
commune 3482.

The valley is first heard of about 1091, when it was granted by the
count of the Genevois to the great Benedictine house of St Michel de la
Cluse, near Turin, which by the early 13th century established a priory
therein. But in 1786 the inhabitants bought their freedom from the
canons of Sallanches, to whom the priory had been transferred in 1519.
In 1530 the inhabitants obtained from the count of the Genevois the
privilege of holding two fairs a year, while the valley was often
visited by the civil officials and by the bishops of Geneva (first
recorded visit in 1411, while St Francis de Sales came thither in 1606).
But travellers for pleasure were long rare. The first party to publish
(1744) an account of their visit was that of Dr R. Pococke, Mr W.
Windham and other Englishmen who visited the Mer de Glace in 1741. In
1742 came P. Martel and several other Genevese, in 1760 H.B. de
Saussure, and rather later Bourrit.

See J.A. Bonnefoy and A. Perrin, _Le Prieure de Chamonix_ (2 vols.,
Chambery, 1879 and 1883); A. Perrin, _Histoire de la vallee et du
prieure de Chamonix_ (Chambery, 1887); L. Kurz and X. Imfeld, _Carte
de la chaine du Mont Blanc_ (1896; n