A PILGRIMAGE to Chamouni and Mont Blanc is so much a matter of course with all who visit Geneva, that even had we felt no inclination to see either of them, etiquette alone would have almost exacted from us a compliance with a custom observed by all travellers. Indeed, we were not sorry at having so good an excuse held out to us for loitering a little longer in the neighbourhood of the Leman; accordingly we set out on this excursion, and after driving four miles entered the territory of Savoy, which almost instantly announced itself to us as a Catholic country, so great was the change which we perceived. Wooden crosses, erected at intervals, plainly enough indicated that we were once more among a people who attribute to mere emblems of religion the efficacy of devotion; while the wretchedness and squalidity of the people themselves attested no less strongly their extreme degradation, both physical and moral. Again, too, did beggars and troops of ragged

urchins begin to annoy us most clamorously,—a nuisance we had congratulated ourselves on having escaped from when on Swiss ground, and one for which there appears to be no other cure than a general determination on the part of travellers never to bestow a single sous on the sturdy vagabonds who prefer picking up a miserable livelihood in that way, to doing any thing in the form of set labour.

We passed through the romantic valley of the Arve, enclosed with hills wooded quite to their summits; at Bonneville, which is situated at the foot of the lofty mountain Mole, the river swells out to a great breadth, and its waters are of a dingy slatish hue. Here there is a bridge of five arches, having at one extremity of it a column raised upon a pedestal, and surmounted by a statue of Charles Felix, King of Sardinia, with the date 1823. Crossing this bridge, we shortly afterwards entered the valley of Claussel, and reached Cluse, a small town enveloped in wood, with exceedingly narrow streets, and houses in some places partly cut out of the rock. Hitherto we had seen scarcely a village of any kind, although the country seems well cultivated; and what houses we did see were no better than very clumsy timber erections, with enormous projecting roofs, a mode of building which it is difficult to guess wherefore it should be so much in favour hereabouts, since it certainly cannot recommend itself by its economy, and would seem objectionable were it only on account of

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the quantity of snow that must in consequence lodge upon the houses. We saw many females riding astride on horseback, and employing themselves with knitting. at the same time, after the fashion of Queen Bertha,, who, as already observed, used to spin while taking an airing.

Beyond Cluse we entered an exceedingly narrow defile or pass between two walls of mountain, where the path was, in many places nearly blocked up by tremendous masses of rock that had been hurled down, and the sight of which convinced us that travelling through⠀⠀ this strait must at some seasons be a very perilous undertaking. Nay, we did not feel altogether at ease when on looking up we discerned huge fragments of rock still hanging midway up, threatening to fall with the slightest vibration and crush us. We stopped for a short while in order to inspect the Grotte de Balme, a cavern celebrated for its echo, which is said to be exceedingly powerful whenever a small cannon is discharged in it, when the reverberations are heard to a great dis-› tance; but this is an experiment we did not witness, The entrance to this cavern is about seven hundred feet higher than the bed of Arve, and forms a very regularly shaped arch ten feet high by twenty in width. Within the grotto is very spacious, and divided into several chambers or halls, where, according to the tra ditions of the peasantry, immense treasure is buried, and jealously watched over by supernatural guardians.

Nor is it any wonder that so very fairy-like a place should have some extraordinary history of the kind attached to it.

From the gallery of the inn at Sallenches, we had a most noble view of the gigantic Mont Blanc. Hitherto we had beheld no more than its summit elevated above other eminences intervening between it and ourselves,— merely its bust, as it were; but now we saw it at full length, in all its surprising vastness of stature, with its head lifted far into the heavens. Sallenches itself is 540 feet above the level of the Lake of Geneva, and twice as much above the sea, yet compared with Mont Blanc it stands in a low region. Here, in order to proceed to Chamouni, we were obliged to engage a char-àbanc - an odd-looking vehicle covered with leather, in which persons sit sideways. As there are no springs, there was little danger of our falling into a reverie, for the noise and jolting are sufficient to scare away any fit of musing, or even a tendency towards contemplation ; although if it shakes the bones somewhat too rudely, the motion is both an excellent specific against indigestion, and helps to bring on a keen appetite.

So long as we continued in the valley our route promised to be pleasant enough; but on quitting that, we found the road grow exceedingly bad, and the country become bare and desolate, to say nothing of being frequently obliged to ford torrents as well as we could, and to be continually either upon the ascent or descent,

while we were for the most part of the time enveloped in clouds, which, like many other things, and likewise some persons, are more agreeable to contemplate from a distance than they are upon a nearer acquaintance, when we find out their unpleasantness, and the stuff they are really composed of. For aught we could tell to the contrary, perhaps the clouds we would gladly have dispersed might appear to those afar off of brilliant silvery hue and fantastic shapes, whereas to us, who were buried in them, they seemed quite as dull and dismal as a London fog.

3. We escaped from them, however, by the time we reached Servoz, so that we were not hindered from observing the peculiar mode of building which prevails in that part. The walls are constructed of stone for about the height of ten or fifteen feet, but all the rest is of wood; and the roof generally overhangs the sides of the building to a very great extent, projecting in many instances full fifteen feet which causes it to look as if it had been taken from a much larger house and clapped upon one for which it was not intended. What may be the object of this measure I do not profess to know, yet hardly, I should guess, economy; but be it what it may, this amplitude of verge to the roofs fairly entitles them to be styled "broad brims." Like the upper part of T the houses themselves, the roofs are covered externally with wood, and it would seem very insecurely; since, in order to prevent this sort of wooden tiling being blown