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about 12,000; the wages vary from 4 fr. to 10 fr. a day. The number of gold and silver watches made in 1836 was 108,295; in 1774 the total number of watches made was 300. There are two subterranean mills here, turned by the stream of the valley previous to its sinking underground; the rocks have been blasted to afford space for the mills; but those at Locle are even more curious.

Instead of following the high-road to Locle, the pedestrian may take a footpath (a walk of six hours) across the hills to the Saut du Doubs, or waterfalls of the Doubs-the river which separates Switzerland from France. It here traverses one of those singular gaps or rents in the rock, between 300 ft. and 400 ft. deep, which are common in the Jura. Numerous mills are turned by the force of the stream. Some large fragments of rock, which have fallen into the bed of the river, dam it up partly, and form what is called the Lac des Brenets. The scene is wild, and has been compared to a Welsh landscape, but its beauty has been exaggerated. Brenets is about 3 miles from Locle.

There is a carriage-road direct from Chaux de Fonds to

13 Locle-(Inn: Trois Rois)— another scattered village, occupied by an industrious population of 5886 souls, the men chiefly watch-makers, the women lace-makers; rebuilt since a fire which consumed it in 1833.

The little stream of the Bied, which traverses the valley, loses itself, at a short distance from Locle, in a chasm in the rock. This outlet, however, proved insufficient to drain the valley; and the district around the town was, in consequence, inundated at the season of the melting of the snows-and not much better than a morass at any time. To remedy this evil, a tunnel, 950 ft. long, was pierced through the screen of solid limestone-rock which encompasses the valley, and this now

·Pontarlier to Neuchâtel.

effectually carries off into the Doubs the previously stagnant waters. At a short distance from this artificial drain or emissary, and about a mile from Locle, the river disappears in a natural opening, sinking into the heart of the mountain, through a vertical abyss, more than 100 ft. deep. This water-power, or privilege, as an American would call it, is not lost; but, in order to render it available, 3 or 4 mills have been constructed, one below the other, in the cavernous cleft each receiving, in turn, the stream, which puts its wheels in motion. "You go down flights of broken and slippery stairs, cut in the rock, to these mills, placed one under another, in very frightful situations undoubtedly, but rendered more so to the imagination of the beholder from the circumstances of darkness and ignorance of the means by which the works are secured, by the noise, the unfathomable depth below, &c." Simond.

There is another road from Locle to Neuchâtel, by Chaux de Milieu, Les Ponts, the heights of La Tourne, and Corcelles.

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from Pontarlier and Salins, and those from Neuchâtel and Geneva, by Jougne, unite. This frontier-fort was the prison of the unfortunate Toussaint l'Ouverture, when treacherously carried off from St. Domingo by command of Napoleon. He ended his days here, some say by violent means; but the sudden transition from the climate of the tropics to a dark dungeon on the heights of the Jura sufficiently explains the cause of his death, without the need of violence. Here also was confined, previously, another remarkable prisoner, Mirabeau, who was sent hither by virtue of a lettre de cachet obtained by his father "l'Ami des Hommes,” as he called himself, and the tyrant of his own family, as he proved himself. Mirabeau having by his insinuating manners obtained leave from the governor to visit the town of Pontarlier on parole, made love to Madame de Monive, the young wife of an old magistrate there, and eloped with her to Holland. She was the Sophie to whom he addressed some of his obscene writings.

Between the villages of Verriéres de Joux and

31 Verriéres de Suisse, the French frontier is crossed. The Customhouse regulations on this part of the French frontier are more than usually rigorous. In some places, there is a treble line of douaniers, which makes it advisable to have the luggage plombè at the first station. In some places the douaniers attend only during certain hours of the day, and persons arriving in their absence must await their return. Travellers should ascertain by previous inquiry what these hours are (?).

The country now becomes exceedingly romantic-the hills clothed with forests, the valleys carpeted with the richest verdure, and sprinkled with neat cottages in the picturesque style of architecture peculiar to the chain of the Jura and Alps. Cheese, nearly as good as that of Gruyères, and sold

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under that name, is made on the upland pastures of the Jura.

The descent from the summit of the ridge into the Val Travers is through another narrow gorge, called La Chaine, because the passage was at one time stopped by a massy chain drawn across the road, and fastened to staples in the rock. This primitive fortification is said to have been a relic of the Burgundian wars, intended to arrest the artillery of Charles the Bold.

At the village of St. Sulpice the river Reuse, which waters the Val Travers, rises out of the rock. This abundant source is said to be the outlet of the Lac d'Etalieres, situated about 10 miles off, among the hills.

3 Motiers Travers-(Inn: Maison de Commune)—is a village inhabited by watch and lace-makers, on the rt. bank of the Reuse, which has obtained some notoriety as the place of residence of Jean Jacques Rousseau after his banishment from Geneva. In the house occupied by him his desk is shown, at which he wrote his celebrated "Lettres de la Montagne;"" and up-stairs, in a wooden gallery, two peeping-holes, through which he could observe people out of doors without being seen himself. quitted the place under the pretence of having been persecuted, and because the boys threw stones at his windows. During his residence here, Voltaire vented his bile against him in a satire, of which the following verses are a sample:

He

"Dans un vallon fort bien nommé Travers
S'élève un mont vrai séjour des hivers,
Son front altier se perd dans les nuages,
Ses fondemens sont au creux des enfers.
Au pied du mont sont des antres sauvages,
Du Dieu du jour ignorés à jamais.
C'est de Rousseau le digne et noir palais;`
Là se tapit, ce sombre énergumène
Cet ennemi de la nature humaine;
Petri d'orgueil et dévoré de fiel

Il fuit le monde et craint de voir le ciel."

The Val Travers is highly picturesque. A few miles lower down it is bounded on the rt. by a remarkable mountain, called Creux de Vent,

138 Route 50.

4800 ft. above the sea.

Yverdun to Geneva. Lac de Joux.

"Its summit is hollowed out into a vast and profound cavity, 500 ft. deep, surrounded by an amphitheatre of limestone rock from the top to the bottom." It is more than two miles in diameter. "At times when a change of weather is impending, the crater of the mountain is seen to become suddenly filled with a cloud of white vapour, working, and rising and falling with an easy but perceptible motion, until the whole hollow presents the appearance of an immense caldron of boiling vapour, which seldom rises above the edge. If any escape, it is by the opening towards the defile; and I have seen it repeatedly issue in a thin white line, and float gradually down the centre of the valley till imperceptibly diminished and dissipated.". Latrobe.

The echo produced by firing a gun within the Creux de Vent, is like a scattered fire of musketry, or a succession of discharges from a battery; and the hollow may be called the very cradle of the winds, which appear to be perpetually blowing from it.

La Clusette, near Brod, is a very picturesque defile-the road hanging over the precipice. A steep ascent carries the road out of the Val Travers; and at the top of the ridge, near the site of what once was the robber castle of

2 Rochefort, a beautiful view opens through the gap of the defile, over the lake of Neuchâtel, and the Alps along the horizon.

12 NEUCHÂTEL (Route 44).

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town of 1927 inhabitants, built on a hill nearly insulated by the Orbe, which is crossed by two bridges, each of a single arch, a lower one of great antiquity, and an upper and modern arch, 124 ft. span, in use at present. It was the Roman station Urbigenum, and a place of importance in the middle ages, under the Burgundian Kings, who had a Royal Castle here. The fair but cruel Brunehilde, Queen of the Franks, took refuge here, with her grand-daughter, but was soon put to death. The three sons of Lothaire I. met here, in 855, to divide his kingdom. In 1475 the Swiss took Orbe by assault; but the Castle, whose venerable ruins, now reduced to two solitary towers of antique structure, are still a conspicuous object in the view of the town, made a lengthened resistance. The garrison, yielding step by step, disputed the possession of each chamber, stair, and passage. The last remnant were pursued into a tower, which the Swiss set fire to, and the few who fell into their hands alive were thrown over the battlements. "The circular tower of the Castle, not unlike the celebrated Irish towers in construction, though of very different proportions, should be attentively examined."

There is a high-road into France from Orbe, along the 1. bank of the Orbe, by Jougne and Salins.

About 2 miles above the town, near Mont Charand, is a cavern, with stalactites, called Grotte aux Fées; not far from it is a cascade of the Orbe.

An interesting excursion may be made from Orbe to the Lac de Joux.

The carriage-road thither turns away from the river at once, and proceeds through Romainmotier, under the singular mountain called Dent de Vaulion, to Le Pont, on the Lac de Joux. The vale of the Orbe is one of the most beautiful in the Jura, and the pedestrian may find a footpath along its banks, up to its source, in the cliff below Pont.

Route 50.

Pont, a little village, named from a bridge across the channel, which connects the Lac de Joux with the small Lac des Brennet, is the best head-quarters, as it has a tolerable

inn.

It is prettily situated, at the S. base of the Dent de Vaulion, one side of which is a sheer precipice of bare limestone 2000 ft. high-the other a steep slope, or inclined plane, covered with verdant turf. It requires a steady head to look from the top over the verge of the precipice.

About 3 miles N. of Pont, and the same distance above Vallorbe, is the source of the Orbe, which rises at once a copious stream, supplied, it is supposed, by subterranean conduits from the Lac de Joux.

The valley in which the Lac de Joux is situated contains two other lakes, Le Ter and Brennet, and is entirely shut in by high hills; so that, although these sheets of water are fed by all the streams of the valley, they have no visible outlet above ground. There are, however, large cavities and orifices in the beds of these lakes, called entonnoirs, through which the waters escape. These fissures are sometimes rendered incapable of carrying off the waters from internal obstructions, and thus inundations are caused in the valley. A tunnel, of no very great extent, might drain the lake entirely. The Lac de Joux is nearly 3500 ft. above the level of the sea. The source of the Orbe is about 700 ft. lower than the surface of the lake. The scenery of the Valley de Joux is most romantic, and will alone compensate for a visit. Along the S. E. side of the lake rises the imposing mass of the Mont Tendre, 5730 ft. high its lower slopes are well wooded. The view from its summit, extending to Mont Blanc on the one side, and to Soleure on the other, will repay the trouble of the ascent. There is a path down the opposite side of the mountain, leading, in 2 hours, to the village of Mont Richer. An unfortunate En

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glish gentleman, named Herbert, who was drowned in a well near the cha lets of the Mont Tendre, in 1837, is buried at Mont Richer. Henri Chenu, fruitier, is said to be a good guide for the Mont Tendre. There is a cross-road along the N. W. shore of the Lac de Joux from Pont to Les Rousses, on the great post road from Dijon to Geneva. Another crossroad, winding round the shoulder of the Mont Tendre, runs direct from Pont to Aubonne, on the way to Geneva, rendering it unnecessary to return to Orbe.

The lake of Geneva is only about 190 ft. lower than that of Neuchâtel. The road from Orbe traverses the high ground, or water-shed separating the two basins. An attempt was made, in 1639, to connect the two lakes, and through them unite the Rhine with the Rhone, by means of a canal cut between the rivers Orbe and Venoge. It was finished as far

as Entre Roche, a distance of about 12 miles; but difficulties, either in the levelling, or occasioned by the interference of private interests, prevented its being carried farther. The plan of completing it has been revived in 1838. It lies about a mile and a half to the E. of the road.

1 La Sarraz is an ancient town, romantically situated on the Venoge. About 4 miles farther is Cossonex, from which town roads branch off to Lausanne and Morges.

By

4 Aubonne-(Inn: Couronne)an ancient town of 1667 inhabitants, with an Eastern-looking castle. ron says of it-"The entrance and bridge, something like that of Durham: it commands by far the fairest view of the lake of Geneva (and of Mont Blanc behind it); a grove, on the height, of very noble trees. Here Tavernier, the Eastern traveller, bought (or built) the château, because the site resembled and equalled that of Erivan, a frontier city of Persia.

140 Route 53. Dijon to Geneva

Here he finished his voyages." Aubonne is less than 3 miles distant from the lake. About 8 miles W. of Aubonne, in the heart of the Jura, and about 2 miles N. of the village of St. George is a cavern filled with ice, called the Glaciere. This natural ice-house is entered by ladders from above. The floor is of solid ice, many feet thick, and stalactites of the same hang from the walls and roof. A guide may be obtained at St. George's.

1 Rolle, on the high-road from Geneva to Lausanne (Route 56). 63 GENEVA (See Route 53).

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13 La Vattay. In descending the mountain a sublime view is disclosed of the Alps, Mont Blanc, the lake of Geneva, and the intervening plain. There is another road to Geneva by St. Cergues (instead of Gex), “it branches off a little beyond Les Rousses, and is very preferable in some respects. It has been made at a great expense by the Canton de Vaud, and is one of the finest works of the kind."

"Les Rousses to St. Cergues, 11 post; St. Cergues to Nyon.

"The traveller is recommended to mount the steep and picturesque streets of Nyon up to the fine old Château, once the seat of the Baillis de Nyon, in order to see the view from the Terrasse des Marroniers."

"St. Cergues is the spot from which the Dôle, the highest summit of this part of the chain of the Jura, can be most easily ascended. Mules and guides can be procured at the small inn of St. Cergues, which affords tolerable accommodation for a night. The ascent of the Dôle from St. Cergues requires about 3 hours' march; but it is neither fatiguing nor dangerous. Perhaps there is no mountain in Switzerland which better repays the traveller for his fatigue, and no view more wonderfully extensive, and admirably diversified, than that which it commands." — R.

The descent of the Jura to Gex is now (1842) made much more easy and convenient than before, by an excellent new road.

2 Gex. Ferney, Voltaire's residence (described in p. 149.), is passed 5 miles before reaching

2 GENEVA. Germ. Genf. Ital. Ginevra. (Inns: Hotel des Bergues, a grand establishment, facing the lake, very well conducted. Charges-Table d'hote at 1, 3 fr. ; at 5, 4 fr., including wine; dinner in private, 6 fr., without wine; breakfast, 2 fr. ; tea, 1 fr. For 4 beds and a sitting-room overlooking the lake, 15 fr. a day were charged in 1837; servant's board, 4 fr. a day ;—.

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