A friend sojourning on the banks of Lake Neufchatel, in Switzerland, sends us the accompanying sketch of the pleasant town of Neufchatel, capital of the canton of the same name, lying along the north-western portion of the lake. This is the birthplace of Agassiz, and here he spent the earliest portion of his life, developing those powers that were to give him a world-wide celebrity. Here William Farel, Calvin's favorite colleague at Geneva, was buried, though his grave, like that of Calvin, cannot be pointed out. Though not large, the place is important as an entrepot for the manufactures of the canton, and carries on an extensive trade, for which good roads and water privileges afford 4-90/101godi to lite

government offices; the old Gothic church adjoining the castle, built in the 12th century, containing several curious ancient monuments, and surrounded by a magnificent terrace; the new church, a handsome edifice, in modern style; the townhouse, a large building, with a Grecian portico, used, among other purposes, for the meetings of the Grand Council; the gymnasium, with an interesting museum, and a celebrity almost European, in consequence of the distinguished labors of Agassiz, a native of the town, and one of its professors; Pury's hospital, so called after its founder, David Pury, a native, who amassed a fortune of about £160,000, and left the whole to the town for its general improve

excellent facilities.

Steamers cross the lake and communicate with towns bordering thereon. The scenery of the lake here is not much distinguished by grandeur, but the whole site is fine; below, a wide expanse of water, which has sometimes been compared to the Bay of Naples; around, rich fields and vineyards, dotted over with numerous villas, glancing in the sun; and behind, piles of black forest, which climb the mountain sides, and are overtopped at last by the magnificent wall faces of the Jura. The town itself rises in the form of an amphitheatre, and is well built, containing several good streets, particularly the Rue de l'Hopital and Rue de Faubourg. The principal buildings are the castle, an ancient open building, of considerable extent, originally the residence of the princes of Neufchatel, now partly occupied by the Prussian governor, and partly converted into

ment and benevolent purposes; and the Pourtales hospital, so called because founded by another benevolent native.

On the slope above Neufchatel is the largest boulder on the Jura. It is 62 feet long by 48 broad, and is calculated to contain 14,000 feet of granites a ledge of which stone is sixty miles distant, on great St. Bernard, from whence it is conjectured by Agassiz to have been borne to its present position by glaciers no longer existing. The lake has not three hundred and sixty-five islands, as is claimed for most lakes, and is the least interesting of any of the Swiss lakes. It is 28 miles long, 7 wide, and 400 feet deep.

The canton of Neufchatel has five times changed its masters before becoming one of the Swiss confederation, the fourth of which was when Bonaparte, in 1806, as a recompense for the military services of his com

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panion in arms, Berthier, named him Prince of Neufchatel. In 1814 the canton became again a possession of Prussia, and the next year it was annexed to the Confederation. The canton is composed of six principal valleys, the soil of which affords excellent pasture, but few fruit trees or leguminous plants. Throughout the canton, as well. as at the town of Neufchatel, are evidences of the glacial agency, as large granite boulders are everywhere found, brought from the Bernese Alps. The Jura, seen in our illustration, is of a singular geological character. Accord-, ing to the observations of M. de Buch, in the deep gorge of Seyon, in the Jurasic range, it may be conjectured that this range of mountains, to the depth of three thousand feet, is composed of about nine hundred and sixty layers, all more or less calcareous. The last sixty-three, and highest of these, are mostly oolites (or roe-stone, resembling the roe of a fish), and composed of particles about the size of millet seed. The four hundred and sixty-eight immediately below these are of a much more compact nature. The four hundred and ten which follow are again oolites, like the first. Lastly, one hundred more layers exist under these last, which are nowhere exposed in the canton of Neufchatel, and descend as deep as the gypsum beds, where the salt springs of Salins and Lens-leSaulnier take their rise. These granite boulders have some long journeys in their ice cars to visit their relatives of the Jura range, and afford an excellent illustration of the glacier theory which Prof. Agassiz so clearly demonstrates, citing this vicinity just named, with which he is so familiar, in proof. The mountains of the canton contain, with many curious grottoes, two natural icehouses, and several sulphurous and chaly beate springs, three of which are between four and five thousand feet above the level of the sea. One of these natural icehouses, situated in the village of Motiers, is attained by means of a ladder, descending into which, the floor is found covered with a thick layer of ice, above which rise five or six icy columns.

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villagers, every mountain, stream and cascade being pressed into some useful employment. Clocks, watches, toys and ten thousand delicate articles are manufactured here for the markets of the world. On the Bied, a torrent here lost in the rocks, are three caverns hollowed by the action of the waters, which have been turned to account by the bold and ingenious construction of three mills, placed vertically one above another. In another gorge, about a league from the above, where the river precipitates itself from the height of eighty feet, it gives play in its fall to twelve mills and a forge for making anvils. There are no more ingenious people than the Swiss, and their characters are harmonious with the bold nature that surrounds them.

In the valley of Verrieres is the commune named Cote aux Fees, or the Fairy Mount, in which are several of the grottoes already alluded to. This is the only place where the mysterious dynasty is recognized. It is singular that Switzerland, the most romantic country in Europe, presents few or none of the thousand legends and superstitions so carefully preserved and circulated among the English, and more particularly the Scotch and Irish peasantry. The fairy gossip and fairy-land mythology, which are first learned in the nurseries of the north, and there group the peasantry around the wintry hearth, are yet strangers to the Swiss. The only phantoms which seem to cross the Switzer's imagination are the spirits of heroic ancestors, with their bucklers, spears and cross-bows, and their abhorrence of bondage.

The wines of Neufchatel are distinguished for their excellence, prominent among which are the white wines of St. Blaise, that are much esteemed by connoisseurs. The inhabitants are very intelligent, the Protestant religion greatly preponderating. Apropos of this: The Reformation was established in this country by a very summary method, and in opposition to the authority of the magistrates. A party of the inhabitants having gone to support the cause of Geneva in 1530 against the Duke of Savoy, they embraced the reformed religion, and on their return hoine took forcible possession of the churches. Their system of proselytism met with so much success, that on the 10th of November, the same year, the new religion was adopted by a majority of eighteen votes, an event which was greatly accelerated by the powerful eloquence of Farel.