some workmen had constructed wooden clocks with weights, taking for their model the parish clock which was placed in the church of Locle in the year 1630. It must, however, have been at best but a clumsy machine, for the idea of using springs in such structures had not, at that time, been entertained. But, towards the close of the same century, a Swiss mountaineer, returning from a long voyage, brought with him the first watch that his countrymen had ever beheld, and on its requiring to be repaired, he committed it to a skilful workman named Richard.

Richard fully justified his confidence; he repaired the watch, and still further, after accurately examining its mechanism, formed the purpose of constructing a similar article. Nor was this any ordinary task; for not only was he compelled to fabricate all its movements, but the tools that were necessary to assist him in his labours. The result of his skill and perseverence excited great attention, and led several ingenious and energetic men to follow his example. Thus the inhabitants of the mountains, hitherto exercising no other trade or profession than those which were strictly necessary to their

daily wants, had the art of watch-making introduced among them, which has been productive of many and great advantages.

Obliged for a number of years to import their tools, they gradually surmounted this disadvantage, learning to make and improve upon them. As, too, the art of watch-making became more developed, several of the artizans went to Paris to perfect themselves in it, and contributed on their return greatly to advance the general skill. It is not more than eighty or ninety years, since a few merchants began to collect together small parcels of watches, in order to sell them in foreign markets. The success which attended these speculations encouraged the population of Switzerland to devote themselves still more to this manufacture, so that it has been embraced by a large number of persons. Musical boxes and jewellery also contribute to the commercial prosperity of Geneva; for the production of which in good years, 75,000 ounces of gold, 5,000 marks of silver, and precious stones of the value of 1,000,000 of francs, is said to be used. A syndic, with a committee of master workmen, is charged by the government to inspect every article, and zealously to guard against any deterioration of the staple manufactures.

CHAPTER IV.

LAKE LEMAN-A VOYAGE ON IT-LAUSANNE-VEVAY-FESTIVAL OF THE VINE-DRESSERS-THE CASTLE OF CHILLON, AND ITS PRISONERS-VILLENEUVE-FIRST SIGHT OF MONT BLANC-LAKE LEMAN IN A CALM, AND IN A STORM-PORT DU SEX AND BOVARET-MEILLERIE -BONS-PASS OF DES ORMONDS-BOLTIGEN-FREYBURG-NEUCHATEL-LAKE OF BIENNE.

THE eye is delighted, and various pleasant feelings arise in the bosom, at the sight of the blue and placid waters of Lake Leman, extending in the form of a crescent from east to west, between Switzerland and Savoy. The breadth of this lake, which is one of the largest in Europe, is between eight and nine miles in the middle; but for a space of

fourteen miles in length it is called the Little Lake, and, more especially, the Lake of Geneva. Its surface, which seldom or never freezes, is 1,150 feet above the sea, but in summer it rises to a still greater height, from the meltings of the Alpine snows. The Rhone, coming from the Valais, enters the lake at the south-eastern extremity, where the waters are turbid, and issues forth again at Geneva, where they reflect a bright azure tinge like that of the Mediterranean. Steam-boats leave Geneva and Villeneuve at the two extremities of the lake twice a day, and make the voyage from one end to the other in about five hours. The boats on its blue waters having latine sails, like the craft of the Mediterranean, are highly picturesque as they pass along its placid waters. Its ample bed receives not only the waters of the Rhone, but those of forty streams.

The mists were rising from the lake in the distance, and from the low grounds along the shore; clouds enveloped most of the mountains to the right, but the sky was clear overhead; and on the left the Jura range was resplendent with the rays of the rising sun,—when we commenced our voyage on its waters, so perfectly clear and intensely blue. The eye speedily discerns the strip of well-cultivated land which extends on either side between the mountains and the lake for about thirty miles. Here and there are slopes covered with vines; while numerous white mansions, embosomed in trees, or seated on slight eminences, show how many are allured from the turmoil and battle of life, to seek a domicile surrounded by the grand and beautiful.

Lausanne, situated at a short distance from the shore of the lake, crowning a steep

ascent with its cathedral and its mossy castle tower, which give it an antique and romantic effect, is the capital of the Pays de Vaud. Here it was that Gibbon retired to finish his work, the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." Not a little elated by what he deemed a high compliment of Burke in one of his speeches on the celebrated trial of Warren Hastings, he said to a friend who left Westminster Hall with him, "Did you observe what Burke said of me?" "Why, what was it ?" was the naive reply. The rejoinder was immediate-" The luminous Gibbon!" But what followed must have checked, if it did not turn the tide of feeling: "O! I beg your pardon, Burke said, "The voluminous Gibbon!" A hotel occupies the site of the historian's house. The chief peculiarity in the cathedral of Lausanne is, that no two of its many columns are alike.

Vevay is the second town of the Canton of Vaud; it is celebrated for its vines, which it is believed were first planted by the Romans, while a stone that has been discovered, inscribed "Libero Patri Colliensi," shows that they had reared a temple to Bacchus at Collium, now known as the little village of Cully, situated on the margin of the lake, between Vevay and Lausanne.

A society of some antiquity exists at Vevay, called "L'Abbaye des Vignerons," which takes the significant motto, "Ora et labora." It is designed to promote the culture of the vine; and with this view, it sends every spring and autumn qualified persons to survey all the vineyards of the district, and on their testimony, awards medals and pruning-hooks as prizes to the most diligent and skilful of the vine-dressers.

"La Fête des Vignerons" is celebrated at Vevay once in fifteen or twenty years. Tradition ascribes its origin to the fêtes of the Athenians in honour of Ceres and Bacchus. The last festival commenced on the 7th of August, 1851, and is estimated to have been attended by 40,000 persons. The principal scene was in the market-place; the two most successful of the vine-dressers during nine years, were rewarded with a crown and a medal of honour; fifty other vine-dressers, who were prosperous during six years, were rewarded with a prize and a medal; while prizes were also bestowed on those who had been successful during three years.

"It seems to be a fact," says Mr. Reach," that everybody, every beast, and every bird, whatever may be his, her, or its nature in other parts of the world, when brought amongst grapes, cats grapes. As for the peasants, their appetite for grapes is perfectly preposterous. Unlike the surfeit-sickened grocers' boys,who, after the first week, loathe figs, and turn poorly whenever sugar-candy is hinted at, the love of grapes appears literally to grow by what it feeds on. Every garden is full of table vines. The people eat grapes with breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper. The labourer plods along the road munching a cluster. The child in its mother's arms is hugging away with its toothless gums at a bleeding bunch; while as for the vintagers, male and female, in the less important plantations, heaven only knows where the masses of grapes go to which they devour, labouring incessantly at the metier, as they do from dawn till sunset."

After leaving Vevay, the mountains seem to rise immediately from the lake. There is indeed only room for a road, and a few houses at the edge of the water; but the lower part has been worked into terraces, and well-stocked with vines; above these are steep and apparently almost inaccessible pasturages, with their châlets, and still higher are bare ragged rocks pointing to the sky.

About half a mile from the village of Clarens-the residence of Rousseau-we recalled the words of Byron:

And again:

"And then there was a little isle,
Which in my very face did smile,
The only one in view ;

A small green isle, it seemed no more,
Scarce broader than my dungeon-floor ;
But on it there were three small trees,
And o'er it blew the mountain breeze,

And by it there were waters flowing,

And in it there were young flowers growing,
Of gentle breath and hue."

"Lake Leman lies by Chillon's walls;

A thousand feet in depth below

Its mossy waters meet and flow;

*Claret and Olives."

Thus much the fathom-line was sent
From Chillon's snow-white battlement,
Which round about the wave enthrals:
A double dungeon wall and wave
Have made and like a living grave,
Below the surface of the lake
The dark vault wherein he lay,
We heard it ripple night and day.
In Chillon's dungeons deep and old
There are some columns mossy and grey,
Dim with a dull imprisoned ray,
A sunbeam which hath lost its way,
And through a crevice and the cleft
Of the thick wall is fallen and left,
Creeping o'er the floor so damp,
Like a marsh's meteor lamp."

The castle is built on a flat rock, near the shore of the lake, from which there is access by a wooden bridge. The first view of it we give exhibits it clearly, with Villeneuve, and the Dent du Midi in the distance.

It was in that castle that the Duke of Savoy, the oppressor of the Genevese, incarcerated in its dungeons the champions of their independence, among whom was François de Bonnivard. Determined to crush the Reformation by a hostile force, his tyranny and persecution aroused the assailed to arms. Intent on starving the Genevese into submission, by stopping their supplies, they boldly fitted out five boats, each one manned with eighty soldiers, crossed the lake, and procured provisions, even on his own territory. As they were afterwards aided by 7,000 Bernese, the duke's position soon became desperate, and the last place that held out for him was the Castle of Chillon. It was invested both by land and water, and the imprisoned Swiss heard the cannon of their victorious countrymen battering the walls in which they had long suffered a grievous incarceration, and from which they were now to be released.

In allusion to these circumstances it was that Byron says, in one of his sonnets,

"Chillon! thy prison is a holy place,

And thy sad floor an altar; for 'twas trod

Until his very steps have left a trace,
Worn, as if the cold pavement were a sod,

By Bonnivard! May none those marks efface!

For they appeal from tyranny to God."

Bonnivard is said to have laid the foundation of a library at Geneva by the gift of his own books and manuscripts in 1551; and is supposed to have died twenty years after that date.

On our landing at Villeneuve, the breeze enjoyed on the deck of the vessel could not be felt, while on us were shining the meridian beams of the sun in July. The hour and half allowed before the return of the steamboat was therefore occupied in sauntering in the shade, and surveying the glorious panorama by which we were surrounded. One object should, however, be noticed: for a little way up the valley of the Rhone, and behind the range of mountains bounding it on the further side, arose the Dent du Midi. At first it was almost entirely concealed by clouds; but afterwards they began to move lower down, until at length that vast pile stood out entirely alone, its snow-covered sides and peak glittering in the sunbeams, and revealing some of its awful ravines, where sports "The avalanche-the thunderbolt of snow."

On our return,

"Once more upon the waters,"