sublime, from the enormous objects which I had been contemplating for some hours past, objects, the forms of which were new to my imagination, it was not without a feeling of reluctance that I plunged into this scene of night, whose thick gloom heightened every sensation of terror.

'After passing through this cavern, the view which suddenly unfolded itself appeared rather a gay illusion of the fancy than real nature. No magical wand was ever fabled to shift more instantaneously the scene, or call up forms of more striking contrast to those on which we had gazed. On the other side of the cavern we seemed amidst the chaos or the overthrow of nature; on this we beheld her drest in all the loveliness of infancy or renovation, with every charm of soft and tranquil beauty. The rugged and stony interstices between the mountain and the road were here changed into smooth and verdant paths; the abrupt precipice and shagged rock were metamorphosed into gently sloping declivities; the barren and monotonous desert was transformed into a fertile and smiling plain. The long resounding cataract, struggling through the huge masses of granite, here became a calm and limpid current, gliding over fine beds of sand with gentle murmurs, as if reluctant to leave that enchanting abode.

'One of my fellow-travellers observed, that this valley, which is three miles in length, and two in breadth, had, according to every appearance, been originally a lake; for which he adduced many mineralogical reasons; and that the drying up of the lake was occasioned by some violent fraction at the bottom of this valley, which drained the water off from the land, leaving it in its present form. Every part of the valley bore marks of high cultivation, if that term can be applied to the culture of meadow lands, where we saw herds of cattle grazing. One production indeed, essentially necessary for a country so elevated, was wanting; although the day had been uncommonly beautiful and serene, and the sun shed its softest rays where we entered this valley, yet the snows on the higher mountains, and our feelings, when at the close of the evening we reached the village of the Hospital, at the opposite side of the valley, reminded us that the most acceptable offering our

host could make us was, one of those bundles of wood which the villagers are obliged to bring up with great labour and expence from the mountains beneath.

According to popular tradition, this valley was not always so unprovided with this article of first necessity: the mountaineers are persuaded that their hills were once covered with forests, but that some magician who dwelt higher up the mountain, or in some other place, less a paradise than their own, not only burnt their woods, but so bound their soil with potent spells, that it has ever since been incapable of producing

trees.

'We passed the night at the village of Hospital, and the next morning pursued our journey, beginning from hence to ascend what is properly the mountain of St. Gothard. The scene no longer exhibited the savage horrors of the chaos we had traversed the preceding day; the road was neither extremely rapid or dangerous; every where we beheld vegetation, and the mountain myrtle, the white hellebore, and other shrubs, indigenous to high regions, were in their bloom. The Reuss had now sunk into a rivulet, being no longer fed, as below, by the numerous streams that assemble their waters from the hills on each side Urseren; sometimes it presented a succession of fanciful cascades, across which one might leap without apprehension, even if the foot should slip in the enterprize. We had been much affected during the night with cold, and concluded that we had more to suffer before we reached the summit; but exercise and the enlivening sun-beams banished a sensation so new, after having the preceding day felt the heats of July in the valley of Altorf.

"We hitherto found that we had indulged a vain expectation of enjoying, from those lofty heights, vast and picturesque views of the countries beneath; since we had nearly attained what is called the top of St. Gothard, and had yet seen no object that was more remote than the distance of two leagues. If we looked forward, there appeared nothing but the mountain which we had to climb, and which, having ascended was succeeded by another. When we looked back, the mountain we had left was the only object which presented itself, and on

1

either side our view was confined by these wooded precipices, through which, the preceding morning, we had winded our way. Between Urseren and the summit of St. Gothard, amidst piles of rocks which seemed to forbid all ken beyond, we were, however, gratified with one of those bursts through an opening to the north, which displayed in rich succession the summits of all the mountains we had passed, and others at an immense distance, some gilded by sun-shine, and some enveloped by clouds rolling like a troubled ocean far beneath.

'Although the sun poured its noon-tide rays, we perceived that we were ascending into regions of frost, from the nonappearance, or rather the absence, of vegetation. The luxuriant pasture of the valley was succeeded by a coarse spiral grass, which now gave way to moss, or the bare rock, and a solitary and stunted shrub sometimes protruding itself, seemed to mark, not so much the barrenness of the soil, as the proscription of vegetable life.

We at length reached the summit of St. Gothard, and were saluted on our arrival at the convent by a courteous monk, who came out to welcome us, and invite to take refreshments. During three or four months in the year these capuchins spend their time agreeably enough, and probably there is no spot half so far out of the reach of the habitable globe, where so much variety of amusement is to be found. Every successive guest has much to inquire or impart, and here above the world these hermits have many opportunities of witnessing the whimsies and follies with which it abounds. They informed us, that the day before our arrival a numerous retinue of horses, oxen, mules, and other cattle, had passed in the suite of a great man, whose carriage they had dragged, by his order, from the bottom of the mountain, that he might have the fame of crossing St. Gothard in a vehicle with wheels. As our countrymen are known to be the only travelling philosophers, who make experiments of this kind, the monks had no difficulty in conjecturing on the approach of this long procession, that if it was not the emperor, or the burgo-master of Berne, the two greatest personages they had heard of, it must be an English lord; and they were not mistaken in their con

jecture; it proved to be an English lord, who, for the reasons above-mentioned, had run the risk of breaking his neck in his mountain gig, over precipices, which he might have traversed without danger on horseback, or if he could not ride, in a litter. A tragical effect of this sort of temerity had happened some time before to another young English nobleman, who, although repeatedly warned by his tutors, that if he attempted to swim down the cataracts of the Rhine, near Rhinfelden, he would inevitably be dashed to pieces, made the fatal experiment, and perished with his companion on the rocks.

In the winter the intercourse of these fathers is confined chiefly to the muleteers, who, at all seasons, traverse these mountains in spite of snows and avalanches. Here the poor traveller, beaten by the tempests, finds repose and nourishment; nor do the monks demand, even of the wealthy passenger, any recompence for the courtesies they bestow. Every thing that their house affords is set before him with cheerfulness; and he usually returns the hospitality, by leaving on his departure a piece of money under his plate, in order to provide for the relief of travellers, less fortunate than himself. But these pious fathers chiefly maintain this benevolent establishment, by begging once a year through Switzerland for its support, and well would monastic orders have deserved of mankind, and a stronger force than the French revolution would it have required to destroy them, had they consecrated their lives and labours to works of similar usefulness, and thus become the benefactors instead of the burden of society.

'On the top of St. Gothard, one of the most elevated mountains of Europe, we had once imagined the view into Italy on one side, and over Switzerland on the other, would reward all our toil; but this platform, so raised above the level of the earth, is only a deep valley, when compared with the lateral mountains, and skirting piles of rock that bound the view to this desart, diversified only by the habitation of the capuchins, and the adjoining lakes. Had we even been able to reach any of those rocky summits, which lie on either side, we should have perceived only a chaos of rocks and mountains beneath, with clouds floating at their bases, concealing the rest from our view, VOL. IV.

2 L

and cliffs above covered with untrodden snows, for we were not yet in the region of glaciers; the eternal ice impended far beyond; and we were told that the mineralogists, or those who go in search of crystal, which is found in considerable quantities in those mountains, are the only persons who expose themselves to the danger of climbing those tremendous precipices.

'In our rambles near the convent, we saw the remains of a mighty avalanche, which had so fallen as to form a magnificent bridge over the torrent of the Tessino, the waters having hollowed it below in struggling for a passage; but its surface had yet resisted all the attacks of the summer sun beams, and seemed as if pleased with its new habitation, it had there fixed its abode for ever. We walked over this icy bridge to the other side of the torrent, and some of my fellow-travellers amused themselves with a diversion not very common in the middle of July, that of throwing snow-balls at each other. The temperature of this mountain, the monk told us, was at times various, even in the same day; but more constant in general than in the region beneath. Sometimes the Italian zephyr came over them with its genial influence, and conveyed a transient sensation of summer; sometimes they enjoyed clear sun-shine on the summit, when travellers arrived from below drenched in rain; but it appeared from the good man's narrative, that we must make a winter's sojourn with him to form any adequate idea of the pelting of the pitiless storm during six or seven months of the

year.

We bade adieu to this courteous monk, promising ourselves the satisfaction of spending a day with him on our return, and began to descend the mountain on the Italian side, which, though almost vertically steep, is rendered practicable by a well paved road, formed along the side of the mountain, and which, by its frequent returns, brings the traveller without much inconvenience to the base. Although the road was good, the declivity was too great to admit of our trusting ourselves on horseback, especially as our horses had not been accustomed to travel through such mountainous countries. As we loitered down the steep, the mules we had left behind at the convent overtook us, and we admired the firmness with