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Having passed along the whole of the north bank of the Lake of Geneva, a most beautiful tract of country, extending between fifty and sixty miles; having viewed at Vevay the tomb of Edmund Ludlow, one of our regicides; and having looked at Clarens, Meillierie, and Chillon, the scenes of the Eloise of Rousseau; I arrived at Martigni on the evening of the 18th. The next morning I mounted my mare, and attended by a mule and a guide, I ascended the celebrated passage of the Alps. The ascent is indeed steep, and the path, for it cannot be called a road, is in most places rugged, in some ..not a little dangerous. I need not say that it is steep, when I mention that the Convent of St. Bernard, according to Monsieur de Saussure, is at an elevation of 8074 feet (more than a mile and a half) above the Lake of Geneva.* Perhaps I shall convey a more distinct idea of that elevation, by saying that there is no mountain in Wales, Cumberland, or Scotland, which exceeds one half of that height; neither Snowdon, Skiddow, or Benevish, the highest spots in those countries, being more than 4387 feet above the level of the ocean. But if my path was steep and rugged, the picturesque scenery which accompanied it, made ample compensation for every difficulty. A torrent

*The Lake is 1200 above the Mediterranean.`
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which descends from the melting snows of the glacier of St. Bernard, was on my left hand; sometimes (but for a very short way) running like a smooth river, where there is a little flat ground; much oftener rolling with great violence among broken rocks, immense blocks of which are frequently carried to a great distance by its impetuosity in many places it falls from cliff to cliff in broken cascades, the foam and sound of which are no small additions to the sublimity of the scene. For some way after I left Martigni, whatever spots of ground were capable of cultivation, were occupied by vineyards, but they were soon lost, and were succeeded by corn fields. When the elevation was too great for agriculture, pasture succeeded, but all these were frequently interrupted, many parts of the sides of the mountains being too steep to admit of any thing of that nature. These were for the most part covered with thick woods, chiefly of pine, intermixed with craggy rocks, which in many places project in such a manner, that a traveller is at a loss to imagine in what direction a path can possibly be traced. The whole picture is rendered truly sublime by the snowy summits of the Alps, which rise to such an elevation, as frequently to leave but narrow openings for sunshine, and the contemplation of the heavens.

In four places, where the mountains recede sufficiently to admit of it, some miserable villages are situated; at the highest of which I left my mare, and trusted myself to a mule, which is indeed the only proper conveyance for the higher parts of the passages of the Alps. No persons reside during the winter above this village, except the Monks at the Convent; but I came soon after to the summer pastures, which have a very pleasing appearance. Whatever spots of ground in these elevated regions are large enough to admit of pasturage, are occupied by the peasants during three months in the year. They go there with their cattle in June, and stay till September. They live in little chalets or huts; which are furs nished, however, with all that is necessary for making butter and cheese, and whatever concerns their cattle and their dairy.

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The grass in the fields near the villages has time to grow and increase during their absence, and about the autumnal equinox, the peasants descend with their flocks and herds, leaving their chalets shut up for the nine following months. Soon after I had left these pleasing little pastures, my road became more difficult of ascent; I was now above all the ordinary habitations of man, not only above agriculture, but above pasture. I looked down on those

groves of pine trees, which a few hours before. I saw suspended over my head. The blue sky, the snowy summits of the Alps, and the pro. jecting craggy precipices, whose sides were too perpendicular to afford a lodgement for the snow, were now the only objects above me.

Various little streamlets from the melting snows were falling on all sides, to form the torrent which I before described; almost all vegetation was now at an end, a few Alpine plants being the only interruption to that general scene of desolation, which wide extended beds of snow and broken rocks of granite presented to the view. Among these rocks, and on the stony surface on which they lie scattered, my mule carried me in safety. We crossed one bed of snow which covered the path for about a hundred yards, and ascending still more and more perpendicularly, we at last arrived at a spot where the opposite points of the mountains seem almost to touch each other; there is, however, a space between them, and in that space is situated the Hospice de St. Bernard. Its appearance at first sight is, indeed, very striking; the stones of the walls are scarcely distinguishable from the stones of the adjoining rocks; and when the whole of the surrounding scenery is embraced by the eye, the traveller feels it almost impossible to believe

that what he now sees is the habitation of man. -The Monastery, or as it is generally called, the Hospice de St. Bernard, is, I believe, with-. out doubt, in the most elevated situation of any building in the Old World. It is a large parallelogram of thick masonry, but ill contrived, and not handsome; the rocks rise so very close to it, and are of such a height, that for some days before and after the winter solstice, the sun, even at noon, does not rise high enough to be visible in the principal building. Rain is a thing almost unknown; for even in July and August, if any thing falls. it is commonly snow. The thermometer has been known at the foot of the mountain on the Italian side to stand at seventy degrees at sixin the morning, and the same evening at six to be at the freezing point on the outside of the convent. There are, indeed, not many nights in the year when it does not freeze, and during eight or nine months every thing around is covered with ice and snow. On the south side of the building, and a little below it," the rocks recede, and leave a small plain, in which is a lake about half a mile in circumference, which commonly is a sheet of ice, but. was in its liquid state when I saw it.*

*The following observations made by M. Rauriz, a former prior of St. Bernard, may be of some use in giving a just idea of

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