dungeon is frightful to contemplate. Its only entrance was by a trap-door. This being opened, a spiral staircase of three steps presented itself; there was no fourth step, and the miserable victim, condemned to perish in this way, was precipitated to a depth of eighty feet and never heard of more. I give this to the reader, as I have it myself, on the faith of the guide. Such dungeons, called oubliettes, are not without example in the mediaval prisons. In the ancient palace of the Popes at Avignon. I saw one which had been broken open and its horrid secrets brought to light, in the French Revolution.

The valley of the Rhone begins to open upon you at Chillon, but at first with no attractiveness. The river enters the Lake through a broad alluvial plain, formed by its own deposits. Its waters are turbid, its current sluggish; it is in all respects the reverse of itself as it issues from the Lake. Historically, the spot is remarkable as the scene of the memorable battle, alluded to in the forty-first Number of these papers, in which Divico, the first Helvetian chieftain whose name appears in history, defeated a Roman Consular army, and compelled it to pass under the yoke.

The road from Lausanne westward, is somewhat less picturesque than that which lies along the Lake. Vineyards now disappear, but their place is taken by cornfields, pastures, orchards, and woodlands. There is a continual succession of hill and valley; the farms are divided by hedge-rows and dotted with cottages. There is a more domestic and homelike look about such a country, than in one lined with vineyards; a species of culture which implies a less equal division of property. We breakfasted at Moudon, which stands on the site of a very ancient Roman Colony (Minidunum) of whose name it preserves an abbreviated form. In a niche on the outside of the Hotel de Ville, we saw an ancient altar, which was discovered in 1732. Its inscription, with a dedication to Marius Aurelius, sets forth that it was erected in

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honor of Jupiter and Juno, in commemoration of a large sum of money bequeathed to the city to build a gymnasium.

We made no other stop, till, having passed through a country resembling some of the best parts of New England, we reached Payerne. This is a place of considerable antiquity, having been founded in the sixth century. It was distinguished by the benefactions of Bertha the sovereign of Burgundy; and her saddle, which was shown us, is the great wonder and boast of the place. It certainly puts to shame the saddles of these degenerate days, being equally remarkable for what it is not, and what it is. It is evidently not a side-saddle, and it is furnished, in addition to the usual appliances for equitation, with a distaff fixed to the pommel, in order, it would seem, that her Highness might spin as she journeyed. This curious relic of antiquity, if genuine, must date from the tenth century.

We noticed, throughout this day's journey, more than usual civility on the part of persons whom we happened to meet on the road. Not content with a friendly nod or a touch of the hat, it was generally raised from the head with a courteous word of salutation. The costume of the female peasantry of Switzerland, as we saw it, changed on passing the frontier of almost every Canton. Such was the case on entering the Canton of Frey burg, where the broad-brimmed straw hats, with almost no crowns, began for the first time to appear. These Cantonal differences of costume are, I am told, yielding to the more powerful influences of fashion. With their disappearance, Switzerland will lose not a little of its picturesqueness.

We reached the city of Freyburg before night, a place of 7,000 or 8,000 inhabitants; the capital of the Canton of the same name, of which the population is almost exclusively Roman Catholic. There are not less than nine Monasteries and Convents in the little city. It is not to be supposed, however, that their inmates are all furnished by the Canton of Freyburg, of which the population does not exceed 90,000.

They are places of retreat for heart-stricken men and solitary women, from all parts of Switzerland, and the neighboring regions of France and Germany.

The local position of Freyburg is remarkable. It is built on the slope of a steep promontory formed by the windings of the river Saarine. Many houses are built up to the edge of the precipitous bank of the river. In some places, owing to the steepness of the declivity, the street passes over the roofs of houses, excavated in the solid rock below. The ancient walls are for the most part entire, and, following the irregularities of the surface of the hill, present, with their watchtowers and embattled gateways, a remarkable appearance. They are built of the greenish sandstone of the region, not unlike that which is so much in use in Cincinnati. The streets are narrow, the houses upon them ill-built, and in many cases decaying; and the look of the town in this respect singularly uninviting. Such was the state of things in 1818.

Its greatest curiosity was the venerable Linden tree planted on the 22d June, 1476, in commemoration of the famous battle of Morat, in which the Burgundian army, under Charles the Bold, was defeated with tremendous slaughter by the Swiss. The tradition is that a young man, escaping wounded from the battle, ran the whole way to Freyburg to bring the joyous news, and fell down dead, after uttering the word "Victory." His fellow-citizens planted the Linden twig which he carried in his hand. It took root, and has become a tree of twenty feet in circumference. It is unquestionably of very great antiquity, and was in 1818 sustained with props, and otherwise tended with care. A Court for the adjudication of small controversies and called Linden-Gericht (LindenCourt) was formerly held under its branches. The Cathedral is one of the finest of the ancient Swiss Churches, and from the summit of its tower you enjoy a prospect which well repays the fatigue of the ascent. There is a most extraordinary

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bas-relief over the portal of the tower, dating from the fif teenth century, and representing the last judgment by images of the most grotesque description. We visited the College of Jesuits, who, after being reduced to one aged Canon, had just been restored by the majority of the Cantonal Council, against the vehement reclamations of the minority.

Freyburg is remarkable as forming the point of junction between the German and the French languages, the former being spoken in the lower town and the latter in the upper; neither, it may well be supposed, with purity. In the patois of the peasantry there is a considerable mixture of the Romansch dialect, which in the middle ages was spoken in the region of the western Alps. Sept heures et demi, (half past seven,) as spoken by the postilion who drove us into Freyburg, sounded Shat or et dmi.

There are two suspension bridges at Freyburg erected since my time, one of which is pronounced by the Hand-book to be the largest bridge of a single curve in the world. It is supported by four cables of 1056 wires each. Its length is 905 feet, and its height above the river 180. The bridge at Menai is 580 feet in length to a height of 130; the breadth being respectively 22 feet at Freyburg and 25 at Menai. The dimensions of the suspension bridge below Niagara Falls are 800 feet length, 230 feet height above the water, and 40 feet width, with a two-fold roadway, one for the railroad above and one for ordinary vehicles below. It is supported by sixteen wire cables of 1100 feet in length and a foot in circumference. The Freyburg bridge was erected in eight years, at the moderate expense of about 120,000 dollars-the suspension bridge below Niagara Falls at a cost of 190,000 dollars.*

* Appleton's Travellers' Guide, p. 214. Edit. of 1858.

NUMBER FORTY-SIX.

BERNE.

From Freyburg to Berne-Change of costume-Appearance of the city-Lofty parapet wall and extraordinary leap from it-Alpine scenery-The Bear the heraldic emblem of Berne, and living bears kept at the public expense-The University-Manufactures of Berne, the Messrs. Schenck-Visit to the establishments of M. Von Fellenberg at Hofwyl-Anecdote of the director Reubel-High School-Industry School-The celebrated assistant teacher Wehrli-Agricultural School-M. Von Fellenberg's establishments, formerly an object of great attention in Europe.

OUR next stage was to Berne, a distance of about six leagues. The road was fine, running mostly along the river, and often presenting beautiful views of the distant mountains. For the first part of the way, however, we had a landscape of a different character, but one familiar in some portions of our own country; a dense forest of pine. There is a strongly marked point of difference in the forest scenery of those parts of Europe in which I have travelled and of this country. With us, wherever civilization has penetrated, the primitive forest has been assailed with axe and fire, as the first and greatest obstacle to agricultural improvement. In Europe the conservation of the forests is an object of government regulation, and great care is taken that the trees should not be improvidently cut down. The management of forests forms the subject of regular courses of lectures at the German Universities.

Neueneck is the name of the village, in which you pass from the Canton de Vaud into that of Berne; and here one