almost round the city. The
great elevation of the city--seventeen hundred feet above the sea--gives
it quite an appearance on approaching it. Then the houses are all built
upon arched pathways, and they form arcades, very much like the old city
of Chester, in England. We noticed several watch towers, evidently very
ancient; and one in the town, near our hotel, has a queer clock, which,
like that at Strasburg, is mechanical. On striking, out comes a cock and
flaps away with his wings, and then little images appear, and bears pass
by a puppet, seated on a throne. Bears seem to be the guardian angels of
the place, and are the arms of the town. We were very much pleased with
an extensive prospect of the Bernese Alps, from a terrace overhanging
the rapid river. I cannot tell you how many peaks we saw covered with
snow. Our panorama, purchased here, enumerates more than a dozen; and
among these are the Wetterhorn, Stockhorn, and Jungfrau. We greatly
enjoyed a fine sunset from this spot. The Cathedral is a noble
structure, built between 1421 and 1573, and from designs by the son of
the architect of the Cathedral at Strasburg. Some of the work here is
exceedingly fine. The great entrance is very imposing, and has rich
sculptures. Here, too, are some beautifully-painted windows--one
describing the pope grinding the four evangelists in a mill, out of
which comes wafers, is very curious. The organ is very fine, and the
case one of the richest in Europe. It has four rows of keys and
sixty-six stops. The font is of black granite, and has the date of 1525,
which is three years previous to the church reformation in this canton.
It has some finely-sculptured images of the Trinity, Virgin Mary, and
St. Vincent, the patron saint of the church. We were pointed out the
communion table, of marble, which is an immense block, and before the
reformation it was an altar at Lausanne. There are some fine monuments,
having great antiquity.

In the choir we were delighted with the old prebendal stalls, over which
were figures of Christ and his apostles, and on the opposite side
prophets, all in carved wood. One of the prophets was a capital likeness
of Luther.

As we were leaving this noble edifice, we met a minister coming in; he
wore a short, black gown, and had a deep white ruff on his shoulders.

The library of the town embraces about forty-five thousand volumes--and
well assorted, too. What a reproach it is to us that, excepting in
Providen