which has been destroyed by the French. He was a son of the Family, and now lived at home, at his ease-amusing himself, occasionally, with his beads and .prayer-book.

In the dusk of the evening, the Wives and Daughters of the village collected together in a humble chapel, scarcely distinguishable from the neighbouring thatches, as the house of prayer; and began to chaunt even-song, with such penetrating fervor, that I could not forbear to join the little Congregation, and was surprised to find that there was no Priest to direct their devotion-by the glimmering twilight of a single lamp.

A few Men attended, in a corner, who joined in the responses with languid indifference,

L

difference, apparently between sleeping and waking. But the superior devotion of the gentle Sex is nothing new; and perhaps the cause might be found in the difference of their constitutions, and mode of living. The active part which Men are fitted, and obliged, to take, in the perplexing affairs of life, naturally absorbs the attention, in a greater degree, than the tranquil round of Female occupations; which, however necessary, or laborious, in domestic economy, leave the mind more at liberty to dispose itself, for the duties of religion.

In this secluded valley-shaded by frowning ridges from the noon-day sun, trees degenerate into bushes, and the litrye or barley that is only ripened with unremitting attention, must be dried ra

tle

ther

ther by cold than heat, upon crossed poles, which raise the scanty harvest to the searching winds.

On our return to Andermat, the weather became cold and rainy, and we gladly embraced the first opportunity to make our escape out of the uncomfortable valley-over which Winter lowers, in whelming fogs, eight or nine months of the year.

A rough ascent of six or seven miles, during which we passed, at intervals, through dripping clouds, that magnified the savage horrors of perpendicular precipices, and leaping cataracts, brought us to the craggy summit of St. Gothard, or rather to the stony level six thousand feet high, on which is the Hospice, surround

ed

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