ed by insulated crags of granite—the fragments of a broken world, over which the friendly power of vegetation has never been able to spread its verdant mantle.

We gladly left behind us the misty vapours from which the north side of the mountain is seldom clear, and were rejoiced to find the weather brighten upon us, as we rapidly descended into warmer climes, by a zig-zag road, frequently overhanging tremendous precipices, that form the bed of the Tessino, a branch of the Po, which, with the Rhine, and the Rhone, here take their rise within a days journey of each other.-But we were now too much panic-struck to philosophise, upon their various course, to distant oceans, as my B was obliged by her sprain to descend the stony ladder on horse

horse-back, and a single miss-step would have endangered her life.

We were glad to arrive with whole bones at Airolo, still in a Swiss Bailliage, though in a different climate, where the People speak another language, in tones of harmony, to ears which had long been deafened with discordant dialects.

The remaining descent into the plains of Lombardy, by the Val Levantina, is singularly romantic, and picturesque. It has been in several places broken by Art or Nature, through perpendicular ledges of rock, overhung with spiry larches, and weeping birch. Now and then, it winds round prodigious masses of solid stone, some of which have been moulded by the hand of Nature, into the artificial

forms

forms of Domes, Pyramids, and Amphitheatres, gracefully enriched with pendant shrubbery.

Being no Mineralogist, I cannot entertain you with physical disquisitions upon the nature of quartz, mica, schorl, or feld-spar, with which these ridges abound; or give you a description of the various specimens of the precious metals, which are found in the beds of the torrents. But you will excuse the defect, as mineralogy is little studied in America.-There we have enough to do to clear the surface, without penetrating into the bowels of the Earth.

Near Giornico, the place where, in 1478, six hundred Swiss, repulsed with great slaughter fifteen thousand Milanese,

we

we met a French General Officer, attended by his Aid-de-Camps, and a Troop of Horse; and the Citizen General saluted our Party with all the urbanity of the Old School, notwithstanding the motley appearance of a Cavalcade, part of which was dismounted, and the rest ready to halt.

Vegetation is here astonishingly luxuriant, the chesnut trees, in particular, attaining a prodigious size. Plantations of hemp and flax overspread the plain, while grey Convents, and mossy Cells, occupy, with appropriate seclusion, the neighbouring peaks.

As the valley grew wider, the descent became less difficult; and, being now no longer apprehensive for the safety of my

B

who was by this time well mounted, I directed our Attendants to go on, with the baggage; that we might loiter along in our own way, refreshing ourselves at pleasure, under mantling vines, with which the road was frequently overhung.

After a while, however, the foot-path struck across a meadow; and the horseway, insensibly, wound out of sight. In the mean time night came on; and the two ways met no more, till they reached, together, the gates of Bellinzona. of Bellinzona. There my impatient inquiries procured no intelligence of the solitary Wanderer; and I hurried on to the Inn, distracted with apprehensions for the Partner of my HeartJudge of my happiness, when I found her at the door, expecting my arrival, without

anxiety;