rked on
Sunday; they told me it was to make up the time they lose
through wet and other causes. I saw some working with only
their trousers and shoes on, with a belt round their waist to
keep their trousers up. Their naked back was exposed to the
sun, and was as brown as if it had been dyed, and shone as if
it had been varnished. I asked if they had any hard-working
hearty old men. They answered me "No; the men were completely
worn out by the time they reached forty years." That was a
clear proof that they work against the laws of nature. I
thought to myself--Glory be to you, O Englishmen, you know
the Fourth Commandment; you know the value of the seventh
day, the day of rest!"]

As you pass through the country on Sundays, as on week-days, you see
the people toiling in the fields. And as dusk draws on, the dark
figures may be seen moving about so long as there is light to see by.
It is the peasants working the land, and it is _their own_. Such is
the "magical influence of property," said Arthur Young, when he
observed the same thing.

It is to be feared, however, that the French peasantry are afflicted
with the disease which Sir Walter Scott called the "earth-hunger;" and
there is danger of the gravel getting into their souls. Anyhow, their
continuous devotion to bodily labour, without a seventh day's rest,
cannot fail to exercise a deteriorating effect upon their physical as
well as their moral condition; and this we believe it is which gives
to the men, and especially to the women of the country, the look of a
prematurely old and overworked race.

CHAPTER II.

THE VALLEY OF THE ROMANCHE--BRIANCON.

The route from Grenoble to the frontier fortress of Briancon lies for
the most part up the valley of the Romanche, which presents a variety
of wild and beautiful scenery. In summer the river is confined within
comparatively narrow limits; but in autumn and spring it is often a
furious torrent, flooding the low-lying lands, and forcing for itself
new channels. The mountain heights which bound it, being composed for
the most part of schist, mica slate, and talcose slate, large masses
become detached in winter--split off by the freezing of the water
behind them--when they descend, on the coming of thaw, in terrible
avalanches of stone and mud. Sometimes the masses are such as to dam
up the river and form t