to two, and finally reaches the
ground in a shower of spray. Shortly after we pass another cascade,
that of the Riftort, which also joins the Romanche, and marks the
boundary between the department of the Isere and that of the Hautes
Alpes, which we now enter.

More waterfalls--the Sau de la Pucelle, which falls from a height of
some two hundred and fifty feet, resembling the Staubbach--besides
rivulets without number, running down the mountain-sides like silver
threads; until we arrive at La Grave, a village about five thousand
feet above the sea-level, directly opposite the grand glaciers of
Tabuchet, Pacave, and Vallon, which almost overhang the Romanche,
descending from the steep slopes of the gigantic Aiguille du Midi, the
highest mountain in the French Alps,--being over 13,200 feet above
the level of the sea.

After resting some two hours at La Grave, we proceeded by the two
tunnels under the hamlet of Ventelong--one of which is 650 and the
other 1,800 feet long--to the village of Villard d'Arene, which,
though some five thousand feet above the level of the sea, is so
surrounded by lofty mountains that for months together the sun never
shines on it. From thence a gradual ascent leads up to the summit of
the Col de Lauteret, which divides the valley of the Romanche from
that of the Guisanne. The pastures along the mountain-side are of the
richest verdure; and so many rare and beautiful plants are found
growing there that M. Rousillon has described it as a "very botanical
Eden." Here Jean Jacques Rousseau delighted to herborize, and here the
celebrated botanist Mathonnet, originally a customs officer, born at
the haggard village of Villard d'Arene, which we have just passed,
cultivated his taste for natural history, and laid the foundations of
his European reputation. The variety of temperature which exists along
the mountain-side, from the bottom to the summit, its exposure to the
full rays of the sun in some places, and its sheltered aspect in
others, facilitate the growth of an extraordinary variety of beautiful
plants and wild flowers. In the low grounds meridional plants
flourish; on the middle slopes those of genial climates; while on the
summit are found specimens of the flora of Lapland and Greenland. Thus
almost every variety of flowers is represented in this brilliant
natural garden--orchids, cruciferae, leguminae, rosaceae, caryophyllae,
lilies of various kinds, saxifrages, anemones, ranunculuses, swert