jecting over so as to cover almost twice as much space as the house itself; and having enough timber in it, I might almost say, to build a comfortable house; and then the shingles on the roof, and sides, also, of the house, are so small, and so carefully rounded and shaped at the ends, as to require, in building, a vast deal of work. The houses, too, are immensely large.

Both the dwellings and the appearance of the people would seem to indicate that there is great equality among them. If there be gentlemen or ladies in this country, one is ready to ask, where are they? They certainly do not appear. Neither do I see any persons that I should take to be physicians, lawyers, or clergymen.

As to ladies, if none of the women are dressed as such, yet they certainly do not fail to be very much dressed. The costume of the canton of Lucerne especially is very showy. A black cap, with beads wrought into it, and a border of lace; the hair in braids falling below the waist; the stomacher of black velvet, embroidered with beads of various colours; the sleeves full, and always white, and a sort of armlet of black, reaching from the elbow to the wrist, and tight; the petticoat dark coloured, blue or brown, of taffeta stuff, often embroidered around the border, and termi

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nating a little below the knee; and the feet always dressed with comfortable stockings and shoes. And this, too, is the common dress of the Lucernese women, young and old, in the field and in the market, in the house and by the way. It seems favourable to agility; and yet the movements and forms of these women are very clumsy, and comeliness is very rare among them. Their taste in dress we could not help remarking, is singularly like that of our North American Indians.

Of the scenery of Switzerland, thus far, the characteristic is not, as I expected it would be, wildness; but striking contrasts-the loveliest valleys, between bold hills; cultivation, surpassing, if possible, that of England, carried up among the rocks, and spreading among steep precipices and dark groves of fir, the richest verdure in the world. Certainly there is no verdure like that of Switzerland. Like all high countries, it is full of springs, and visited with constant showers. The grass, too, is frequently mowed-three, four, and five times in the summer-which gives to the fields oftentimes the appearance of a smooth-shaven English park.

The elevation of the country, also, gives a singular character to the rivers and brooks. They rush forth from their fountains and lakes, with as wift

ness, with an aspect of life, as if, unchained and set free from the ice-bound prisons of the Alps, they were hurrying to the broad and fair fields of Germany, and France, and Italy, rejoicing to spread verdure and beauty through the world.

I wonder that travellers have not said more of some of these Swiss towns. I have spoken of Lucerne. Thun, too, is another glorious spot. It is situated on the Aar, about a mile from its rushing forth from the Lake of Thun, or Thuner See. A beautiful valley, of five or six miles circuit, spreads to the west of the town, terminated by the magnificent mountain barrier of the Stockenberg-dark, severe, with a broken and irregular outline-and relieved, to-day, against a sky of the purest autumnal serenity. Southward lies the lake; and beyond, forty miles distant probably, but seeming much nearer, rise the snowy summits of the Jungfrau, Silverhorn, and the Eigers-mountains between eleven and twelve thousand feet in height, their loftiest and sharpest pinnacles perfectly white, and looking precisely like the forms of our snowbanks after a driving storm. Their immense elevation, with this dazzling whiteness, makes them appear more like things of heaven than of earth.

We went during the afternoon to view the church, the Pavillon de Jacques, and the grove

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southward, on the lake. The last rays of the setting sun upon the snow-capped Alps, the bright waters of the lake, the soft and solemn shadows of the descending evening upon the western mountains, the serene depths of a September sky above them these are the features of the scene. But words are not paintings; and no paintings can do justice to such scenes as these. And yet, the scenes themselves, what are they in all their majesty of form and beauty of colouring, compared with what they are as emblems of our thoughttemples and ministrations of religion. "So," I said as I walked homeward, "let the last shadow steal over me, soft and solemn; the bright waters of life at my feet-for not a cynic would I die; and the serene and illimitable depths of heaven above mefor I would die a Christian.”

CHAPTER X.

Excursion to the Oberland-Sail down the Lake of Thun-Unterseen and Interlaken-Valley of Lauterbrunnen-Wengernalp-Jungfrau-Avalanches-The Eigers-Grindelwald-The Glacier-Condition of the People-Swiss Songs-Return to Thun-Road to Berne-Lake of Neufchatel-Castle Grandson-Battle field of Charles the Bold and the Swiss-Yverdun -Lausanne-Geneva.

On a most beautiful September morning, (the fourteenth instant,) we set out on an excursion to the high Alps, and the glaciers of Grindelwald. We left our carriage, and took a boat at Thun, to go down to Neuhaus, at the bottom of the lake, on our way to the mountains. These boats on the Swiss lakes are almost uniformly rowed in part by women. We had two on the Zug, and one to-day.

Scarcely a finer day in the year could have been chosen to witness those effects of light, those contrasts of light and shade, which are certainly among the most striking things in mountain scenery. All the morning there was not a cloud in the sky, save