were
thrown--and solemn fir forests clothing the broad declivities. The
farm-houses placed on these heights, instead of being of brick or stone,
as in the plains and valleys below, were principally built of wood;
the second story, which served for a barn, being encircled by a long
gallery, and covered with a projecting roof of plank held down with
large stones.

We stopt at Venas, a wretched place with a wretched inn, the hostess
of which showed us a chin swollen with the goitre, and ushered us into
dirty comfortless rooms where we passed the night. When we awoke the
rain was beating against the windows, and, on looking out, the forest
and sides of the neighboring mountains, at a little height above us,
appeared hoary with snow. We set out in the rain, but had not proceeded
far before we heard the sleet striking against the windows of the
carriage, and soon came to where the snow covered the ground to the
depth of one or two inches.

Continuing to ascend, we passed out of Italy and entered the Tyrol. The
storm had ceased before we went through the first Tyrolese village, and
we could not help being struck with the change in the appearance of the
inhabitants--the different costume, the less erect figures, the awkward
gait, the lighter complexions, the neatly-kept inhabitations, and the
absence of beggars. As we advanced, the clouds began to roll off from
the landscape, disclosing here and there, through openings in their
broad skirts as they swept along, glimpses of the profound valleys below
us, and of the white sides and summits of mountains in the mid-sky
above. At length the sun appeared, and revealed a prospect of such
wildness, grandeur, and splendor as I have never before seen.

Lofty peaks of the most fantastic shapes, with deep clefts between,
sharp needles of rock, and overhanging crags, infinite in multitude,
shot up everywhere around us, glistening in the new-fallen snow, with
thin wreaths of mist creeping along their sides. At intervals, swollen
torrents, looking at a distance like long trains of foam, came
thundering down the mountains, and crossing the road, plunged into the
verdant valleys which winded beneath. Beside the highway were fields
of young grain, prest to the ground with the snow; and in the meadows,
ranunculuses of the size of roses, large yellow violets, and a thousand
other Alpine flowers of the most brilliant hues, were peeping through
their white covering.

We stopt to breakfast at a