ed proprietors of the mountains, and the wants of men were fatisfied without the effufion of blood; here the woods appear, ed facred to folitude and filence.

-Where the rude axe with heaved stroke.
Was never heard the nymphs to daunt,
Or fright them from their hallowed haunt.

In leaving St. Pierre the track dividesthat to the left, opening into the Valforey; that to the right, conducting to St. Bernard. From these oppofite directions iffue two ftreams, which are feverally denominated from the Valforey and the St. Bernard; and which uniting a little below, form that torrent which pours along the valley of Entremont. St. Pierre is the laft village of the Valais in this route; and from this to the Convent of St. Bernard, they cftimate three leagues or hours. Soon after leaving the village, we entered upon a coarse and rugged plain, ftrewed with fragments of ftone, which had been washed down from

the

the heights; and from this we continued to afcend over rocks of shapeless afperity. In paffing these I was indebted to my mule, whofe dexterity in running up the steep declivities excited my aftonishment, and I ought to add, my gratitude. The most

provoking property of these animals is, that they will always coaft upon the precipice. I more than once laboured to force mule to abandon this dangerous fyftem, my but he taught me acquiefcence, by either making a full stop, or, if I perfifted, in betaking himself to a fit of kicking. I am perfuaded that no one ever reached the heights of St. Bernard in this mode of travel, without having learnt more of paffive obedience and moral refignation, than he would ever have acquired from Sir Robert Filmer, or the Whole Duty of Man.

We had now climbed about two leagues and a half over a very rugged and flinty track, discovered rather by the industry of our guides and the recollection of our mules,

than

NTILE

than by any veftiges of former footsteps.

We at length croffed the torrent which takes its rife a little above us, and now entered upon the most dreary and melancholy fcenes. The mountains on every fide were rugged and naked, except where the fnow continued undiffolved the whole of the year, nearly a quarter of a league. Before we reached the Convent, we paffed through a track of fnow, many parts of which were more than a foot deep. This fnow liquidates very flowly : it is a part of the mountain exposed to the north, and which enjoys but for a few moments the rays of the fun. A few years past it continued undiffolved the whole of the fummer; and the pious fathers began to feel alarm, left it should accumulate and form a Glacier.

We arrived by three o'clock at the door of the Convent. Our guide demanded admittance, when one of the order came to the door, and invited us to enter and partake of the refreshment of their " pauvre hofpice."

hofpice." He was indeed particularly forry it should have been a day of penance, and feared left the kitchen could not afford us a fuitable repaft. He accompanied us over the Convent, fhowed us the feveral apartments, library, chapel, &c. We were feated in a gloomy faloon, after due obfervation of the rarities of the place; and a very frugal meal was served up, -the brother of the order himself waiting upon us. We urged him to partake with us-he excused himself, by faying-that he had dined at their usual hour of half past ten. We entreated him not to ftand; he refifted our entreaties, by affuring us-that it became him, and fupplicating us to receive the hofpitalities of the Convent" au nom de "Dieu"

O'

LETTER L.

UR venerable hoft had, in the interval

of preparation for dinner, conducted us round the environs of the Convent, and wretched indeed was the fcenery which furrounded these pious fathers. The whole mountain is of fo obdurate and untractable a nature, that no art or labour can render it a fubject of cultivation. There were two or three small interftices between the rocks, in which thefe induftrious men had difpofed fome mould imported from the foil of St. Pierre; by means of which-with the greateft difficulty-they raise a few vegetables. The whole crop would have scarcely filled an ordinary plate: but elevated into thefe regions of cold and folitude, they have recourse to any little expedient which may Occupy their hopes, and diffipate the ennui of perpetual imprisonment. Theirs is indeed a fate,