of them. The free and general current of the river is at least two leagues and a halfin an hour. This great rapidity causes the water to swell at the fides, and makes it, in many places, take a direction different from that of the middle. We profited by this reflux, notwithstanding which, we went up very flowly, the wind being weak, and the current exceedingly rapid, in some places. Our impatience was augmented by a prodigious quantity of gnats and flies, whose sting was insupportable, The shores of the river are formed of funken and marshy lands, covered only with reeds which are well adapted for breeding these insects. It seems as if nature took a pleasure in multiplying their species, and in rendering their stings sharp; they give pain in a variety of shapes, differing according to their form, their size, or colour. The fight of an immenfe extent of these reeds, always verdant, very lofty, and undulating in the wind, would form a very pleasing view, were we not aware that they harboured such venomous inhabitants. During the heat of the day, the most troublesome of these insects was a fpecies of fly, called "strike quick," which never fails to fting the moment it settles, and that so severely that the blood in stantly follows; from which circumstance it has received its name; the coolness on the approach of night, makes these flies retire, and clouds of gnats, muskeroes, and other infects, fucceed them. Nothing but a very thetmoke will drive them away, a remedy to which the inhabitants of Louifiana have recourse. About ten leagues from the entrance of the Miffifippi, is the feparation of that branch of the river which forms the fouth-east mouth. A little shores of the river serve alfo as a re treat for a vast number of water, fowl, of every denomination, which are fo fat, that the industry of the inhabitants of New Orleans has been roused to extract an oil from them, which forms a small branch of commerce. Fifteen leagues from the mouth, we came to the strait of the Plaquemines, so called from a wild fruit of that name, which is very good. Here the land begins to rise above the water, the river is skirted with high, large, and majestic trees, which, being intermixed with shrubs, form a very thick wood. On entering these woods, the foil, covered with decayed leaves, presents some agreeable walks, when they are not interrupted by trees fallen by age, or by stagnant waters. The thickness of the trees forms a fhade impenetrable to the fun. The swans and the birds called cardi. nals please the eye by the beauty of their colours: the plumage of the latter is equal to that of any bird in Europe. The river has plenty of wild ducks, and other birds fit for food, in places adapted to harbour them. Many forts of large fish may be caught here by the line; among others dabs and thornbacks; the sharp weapons these fish are furnished with make the fishermen sometimes repent their too great alertness; the wounds they make is followed by a swelling of the injured parts. In this reach we encountered fo violent a storm, that the hawser with which we were made faft to a tree parted, and we were driven towards the opposite side of the river. Our topmast, which was only about two inches and a half diameter, broke, it was very short, but had indeed neitner shrouds nor stay to support it, as our vessel was only about fixty tons bur higher up, on the same shore, we faw then. In this river they make the the oyster cove; these sish are of a vessels faft to trees on the shore, beprod gious fize, and their shells are used cause if they came to anchor, they to make lime, there being no lime- would probably leave their anchors stone in this country. These marshy among funken trees. We We soon began to find inhabitants, but the harvest is not in any place fo and plantations of rice and Indian, fine and so abundant as in this. The corn. Rice is generally sowed in places where the land is only about two feet above the level of the water, in order to cut channels for fuch a fupply of that commodity as is necessary for its cultivation. Indian corn is cultivated in all parts of Louisiana, houses of the inhabitants are agreeable enough, they are built some few feet above the earth, to guard them from the damp, from ferpents and other venomous animals, which are still however very dangerous. [Ta be continued.] Description of Monte Rosa, by Monf. Saussure. MOUNT Rofe (Monte Rofa,) is and covered its banks with the principal hill of the fouthern boundary of the chain of the Alps, as Mount Blanc rises over the northern boundary of the fame chain. This mountain may be seen from all the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy, from Turin, from Padua, from Milan, and even far beyond it. Yet it has never been described: by many travellers it has not been mentioned; and from those in whose works it occurs, no very exact information can be obtained: Monf. Saussure was eager to examine it, and began his journey with his son in July of last year: his tour contains some singular circumstances. In his way he visited the noble collection of baron Erlach, at Lausanne, where he found not only a beautiful collection of the pres of Saxony and other countries, but the most compleat collection, which exists, of the minerals of Switzerland, and particularly the crystallized feld spaths and schorls, and the tourmalines of St. Gothard. From Laufanne they proceeded to Vevay, to Martigny, to Sierre, and to Viege. In the last stage they crofsed the torrent of Millgrabe, one of those rapid and tranfitory streams which fall from the Alps with inconceivable violence, and pass away with the storm which contributes to their fury. The stream of Millgrabe had a large quantity of yellowish earth. All this had been done the day before, and it was already almost dry. A quarter of a league beyond it, if the traveller turns to the right, he sees a kind of funnel, composed of high mountains, whose bare fides are furrowed by the streams which supply the torrent, and are covered with earth of the fame colour. M. Saussure then describes the passage over the Simpione, in French the Simplon, which some authors have raised to the rank of a faint, ftyling it Saintomb: its greatest elevation is 1029 toises. This part our countrytryman, Mr. Coxe, scarcely saw, and we shall transcribe M. Saussure's bold and animated description of the pafsage. "On the fide of Switzerland the traveller passes through beautiful forests, under the most magnificent shades, watered, not by torrents, but by rills, as gentle as they are limpid. The side of Italy presents, on the contrary, rocks the most abrupt and the most terrible; like enormous walls, sharpened to a point, and so near, that a single block of granite rolled from the mountain is suspended between the walls of the valley, and ferves as a bridge from one bank to the other. At some distance the torrent precipitates itself into abyffes, with hollowed the ground to a great depth, fuch violence, that the drops broken and quently a marble of the kind called faline. It is fix feet thick, naturally dividing in laminæ, of from seven to eight lines, and is bounded on each side by a foliated vitrescent rock of quartz and mica. If this last is a primitive rock, our author thinks the calcareous must be also primitive, as the vitrescent rock rests on it. The distinction, however, added in the note, appears of importance, and is truly new. We shall transcribe it. "The calcareous, secondary rocks, or those which have been formed subsequent to the revolution, at the conclufion of which the fea was inhabited by fish, and abounded with shells, are almost always covered with grits, with brecciæ, and puddingstones; in other words, with the remains of the rocks, broken to pieces in the revolution. These remains, interpofed between the strata of primitive rocks and those of the fecondary stones, form the transitions which I have often observed, and particularly at the bottom of Buet (Voyages, sect. 594.) The calcareous primitives, on the contrary, or those which have existed previous to this revolution, are not diftinguished by such traofitions, or they are tranfitions of another kind. and raised by the air, which separates confusedly crystallized, and confethe particles, mount with impetuofity as the steam of an enormous cauldron; they are coloured by the rays of the fun, and appear a mixture of flame and smoke. But it requires a good head to receive from such scenes a pleasure unalloyed by fear, for the road, or rather the path, often projects over a dreadful precipice, and is scarcely four feet wide, without any parapet. In many parts it is worked out of the rock; and there is one place where the rock is pierced at the edge of a projecting part, and appears like a ring fufpended in the air. The traveller who fees it at a distance, for the first time, can scarcely believe that he must pass on horfeback through this ring. The route terminates at Lake Major, and is the most frequent ed pass for transporting corn and wine, which is done on mules. As it is the route also of the courier of Milan, it is kept up with the greatest care. Yet it is not easy to traverse on a mule, " cornices" so strait, so high, and paved with granite polished by travel'ing: it is indeed better to walk, particularly down the hills; but, whatever taste the traveller may have for these savage beauties, he feels a real fatisfaction on coming out of these defiles, and feeing the country open near Dovedro. There the mountains feparate on the eaft, and form an ample girdle, which inclofes an amphitheatre of vines and chestnettrees; a delicious mix'me of a beauful verdure and hardfome buildings." On the fide of Switzerland the rock is calcareous, mixed with more or less of glimmer: the strata vertical, or nearly vertical. On the other fide are either the common foliated rocks, composed of quartz ard mica, or veined granites: they are generalIy horizontal, or inclined at most from thirty to forty degrees. On the northern fide of the road, about a Ieague and a quarter from Simplon, is a block of white calcareous stone, Domo d'Ossola is the next principal town which they mention, and they foon arrive at Lake Major, and then follow the right bank of the Toccia, to go three fourths of a league farther to Pié de Mulera, where they find the first effects of the gold mincs of Macugnaga; the great church and the Palazzo Teftoni being built by means of the gold drawn from the mines. From the middle of the bridge leading to Vanzon, a village in the road to the mines, they see Mount Rose, which arises as majeftically as Mount Blanc, feen from Salenche. This mountain has the advantage of appearing furrounded by the beautiful verdure of the narrow and deep valley of Anzasca, which, like the frame of a picture, sets off the whiteness of the snow and the ice. This exquifitely beautiful valley, where the verdure and the trees are equally luxuriant, is bounded by the approaching hills, which meet, except in one point, where the river Lanza passes out. The nature of the rocks resembles that of the valley of Martigny (Voyages, fect. 1047, &c.) The situation of the strata is nearly vertical; the direction of their planes nearly that of the valley. At a little diftance from Vanson is a transverse rock, which incloses as it were the mines. Near the bridge of Vando is a magnificent block of granite, in the middle of which was a group of large hexagonal crystals of black fchorl, fet in a mixture of white feld spath and filver mica. The situation of the village of Macugnaga is faid to be very beautiful; but the inhabitants were not hofpitable. Habitations were only wanting; for the inhabitants, and even the curate, live on milk and rye-bread, made fix months in advance, and which can be cut only by a hatchet. Our travellers provisions were brought from Vanzon. The mineral of gold is found in the continuation of the base of Mount Rose: it is composed of a veined granite or a foliated rock of feld spar, mica, and quartz. The strata are generally horizontal, or a little inclined, and the gold is found in all the varieties of this granite, but generally in the softer kinds and those of the finest grain. The matrix of gold is a yellow fulphureous pyrites. Gold alfo occurs in the carious hollows of the quartz, mixed with a ruft of iron, which appears to be the refiduum of decomposed pyrites. The auriferous pyrites are often crystallized in cubes; but these are the poorest: those whose grain is finer are not much richer; and the most valuable are those where the crystallization appears to have been rapid, so that little of the metal has escaped, and these pyrites appear in the form of large scales. The threads are often vertical, but the threads affect no particular direction. They sometimes cross each other, and the groups of auriferous pyrites, in the interfection, are large and rich. The expence is estimated at 46800 livres per annum, and the income at 59800livres. M.Teftoni, whose mines are the fubject of this estimate, clears therefore about 13000 livres, about 540l. per annum. It is supposed, however, that on account of the proportion paid to the lord of the foil and to the king, the profits are diminished; and, on the other hand, it is said that the richer veins, which appeared to be the more superficial ones, are exhausted. In all gold mines the profit has been generally exaggerated. The mode of extracting the metal is not peculiar, nor very scientific; but it seems sufficiently exact. The high pics of Mount Rose are inaccessible, it feems, from the fide of Macugnaga; but one of these of a leffer height is accessible on this side. On account of the snow with which it was conftantly covered, it is styled Pizze Blanco-the White Pic: our travellers set out on the 30th of July, and encamped on the Alp of Pidriolo, for the Alps " retain their original Celtic fignification in this country, as well as the German part of Switzerland: it fignifies the pafturage of the mountain." After encamping on these meadows, they began to measure the highest pics of Mount Rofe, and found the highest 2430 toises above the level of the fea, and the lowest 2398; the highest is, therefore, within twenty toises of the height of Mount Blanc. "We passed the night (fays M. Saussure) under our tent, in a fituation truly delicious. We were encamped in a meadow, covered with the the close turf of the highest Alps, enamelled with the most beautiful flowers. These meadows were terminated by the Glaciers and the pics of Mount Rofe, the magnificent out-lines of whose highest cliffs were seen to advansage, against the azure vault of heaven. Near to our tents flowed a rill of the freshest and clearest water. On the other fide was a cavern, under whose shelter we burned the rhodo. dendron, the only wood which grows at this height, and whose fire served to warm our foup, and to defend usagainst the sharp freshness of the evening. The night was magnificent; and I was too fond of contemplating it, for from the cold I felt fome inconvenience, which delayed my journey a little the next morning. This journey was indeed very painful; we pasfed with some difficulty over the hanging precipices of broken rocks, which were very steep: we occafionally too met with an avalanche of snow, folid and very rapid, which it was dangerous to pass; then the snow in our way, though recent, was hard, frozen on the furface, and dangerous from the declivity; and to finish the list of dangers, cliffs of rocks, which crumbled under the feet, and remained in the hand when we trusted to their fupport, were to be surmounted." After five hours travelling, they reached a point, which was a part of the white pic, though about forty toises below the highest precipice; but they were feparated from this higher region by a steep ravine, which they must have defcended over a very dangerous precipice of snow, to ascend again over another not more practica ble. Our author, whose spirits were perhaps repressed by the cold of the former night, resisted the inclinations of his fon to go farther; and on this fpot they rested, about 2400 toises above the level of the sea. All the former mountains which our author had ascended, he tells us, were either infulated like Ætna, or ranged in strait lines like Mount Blanc and its collateral pics. Mount Rose, on the contrary, is compofed of uninterrupted series of gigantic points, nearly equal, forming a vait circle, which includes the village of Macugnaga, its hamlets, its pastures, the glaciers which bound them, and the steep cliffs which reach almost to the tops of these majestic Colossuses. In Mount Rose the strata are horizontal, or nearly so; in Mount Blanc they are vertical: in the former it is the veined granite and foliated rocks of different kinds, which conftitute the bulk; in the latter, granite in mass. The latter only occurs occafionally, and to appearance accidentally, in Mount Rose. It has been supposed, that the veined granites, gneiss, and other rocks of this kind, are only the ruins of the massy granites, but here they constitute immenfe masses: and tho' we for a moment suppose it poffible that these pics are the accumulated ruins of a still higher mountain, we should at least expect to find the base of such a mountain. Even the interior walls of the circus are not composed of vertical strata, and the foundation is of the same nature with the extremities. Our author finds alfo that the mountains which form the summit of Mount Rose are extended outwards to a very great distance, fo that together they form a mafs incomparably more vast than that which would have filled the whole of the interior part of the circle, and this must confequently have been the place of this supposed original mountain. Yet the horizontal direction of the strata, so different from that of high mountains, is a strong argument in favour of this mountain being the result of a decomposition of mafly granite. The different pics of which this group is composed, are of different heights, and from their situation they may be likened to a racket, of which the mountains that terminate the vale of |