356 Weafhe, hi Switzerland during Part of 1831. 



terially .injured as to display, in summer, a very different 

 appearance from that of my Berne friend's plants, which 

 attracted my attention, in his garden, by their remarkably 

 vigorous and healthy aspect. Both during the present and 

 last summer, which was much drier, I have seen nothing in 

 Switzerland of that clearness of the atmosphere, of which 

 some tourists speak ; the same haziness being in a greater or 

 less degree observable, which is usually complained of in 

 England. The distinctness with which the Alps may be often 

 seen at the distance of 40 or 50 miles proves little, as they 

 may be sometimes plainly seen 6ven when the atmospheric 

 haze is aO* great that the sun can scarcely pierce it. This 

 I have more than once observed, and I have no doubt that 

 mountains of as great height, and similarly covered with snow, 

 would be as distinctly seen, at the same distance, through an 

 English atmosphere. Whether the Alps can be seen or not, 

 from distant points of view which command them, depends 

 wholly v'U their being themselves free from clouds, or enve- 

 loped in them ; which last so often happens, that a traveller 

 may remain at Geneva for a week, or longer, without ever 

 obtaining a glimpse of Mont Blanc, or at Berne of the 

 Jungfrau : and they are often thus invisible in bright clear 

 weather, and become disclosed when a dull hazy atmosphere 

 prevails. 



Progress of Vegetation, — On the 1st of May, vegetation 

 at Geneva was about as far advanced as we had left it at 

 Pisa in the beginning of April, the leaves of oaks and ashes 

 being but half^expanded, and only here and there hawthorn 

 and apple blossoms out. Cherries, in small quantities, ap- 

 peared in the markets about the 20th of May, and goose- 

 berries the 25th. Most of the species of rose in the Botanic 

 Garden in flower, June 9. Wheat in bloom, Junp 11., and 

 haymaking general. Some wheat cut, July 11., in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Geneva; but at Berne (which is 1708 Paris ft. 

 above the level of the sea, while Geneva is but 1135 ft.) the 

 wheat was not generally got in till the beginning of August, 

 and the second crop of hay not till the middle and end of 

 the month. 



General Character of the Summer. — This has been un- 

 usually wet, cool, and variable. The Jura chain of mountains 

 did not wholly lose their snow till the end of June. Early in 

 August, at Berne, the evenings began to have a cool autumnal 

 feel; and, from the 17th to the 25th of the month the ther- 

 mometer was never higher than from 53° to 57° at 8 a.m., 

 and on the 19th, after heavy rain, was as low as 51°, with 

 very thick fogs, in the mornings, till 7 o'clock. What, for- 



