considerable size comes down
the mountain, leaping from crag to crag till within forty or fifty feet
of the bottom, where it is caught in a hollow rock, and flung upwards
into the air, forming a beautiful arch as it falls out into the valley.
As it is whirled up thus, feathery curls of spray are constantly driven
off and seem to wave round it like the fibres on an ostrich plume. The
sun shining through, gave it a sparry brilliance which was perfectly
magnificent. If I were an artist, I would give much for such a new form
of beauty.

On our first day's journey we passed through two terrific mountain
gorges, almost equalling in grandeur the defile of the "Devil's Bridge."
The Ticino, in its course to Lago Maggiore has to make a descent of
nearly three thousand feet, passing through three valleys, which lie
like terraces, one below the other. In its course from one to the other,
it has to force its way down in twenty cataracts through a cleft in the
mountains. The road, constructed with the utmost labor, threads these
dark chasms, sometimes carried in a tunnel through the rock, sometimes
passing on arches above the boiling flood. The precipices of bare rock
rise far above and render the way difficult and dangerous. I here
noticed another very beautiful effect of the water, perhaps attributable
to some mineral substance it contained. The spray and foam thrown up in
the dashing of the vexed current, was of a light, delicate pink,
although the stream itself was a soft blue; and the contrast of these
two colors was very remarkable.

As we kept on, however, there was a very perceptible change in the
scenery. The gloomy pines disappeared and the mountains were covered, in
their stead, with picturesque chesnut trees, with leaves of a shining
green. The grass and vegetation was much more luxuriant than on the
other side of the Alps, and fields of maize and mulberry orchards
covered the valley. We saw the people busy at work reeling silk in the
villages. Every mile we advanced made a sensible change in the
vegetation. The chesnuts were larger, the maize higher, the few
straggling grape-vines increased into bowers and vineyards, while the
gardens were filled with plum, pear and fig-trees, and the stands of
delicious fruit which we saw in the villages, gave us promise of the
luxuriance that was to come.

The vineyards are much more beautiful than the German fields of stakes.
The vines are not trimmed, but grow from year to year o