Bakewell’s Travels in the Tarentaise, Sc. 
country he bad traversed, and of the 
money that might be gained by migrat- 
ing during the winter months, collected 
from the neighbouring hamicts and vil- 
lages ‘all the young people who wished 
to follow him. The fathers eagerly pre- 
sented their children to him, praising 
their intelligence, health, and acquire- 
ments. The old man, like a skilful re- 
cruiter, examined attentively the shape 
and limbs of the boys, and interrogated 
them on their knowledge of business, or 
their capacity for service or labour, and 
finally he fixed the sums that he would 
engage to give tu the respective parents, 
for the services of their children during 
the time of theirabsence. Boys, from 
eighteen to twenty years of age, were to 
‘have thirty-six franes, those from four- 
teen to sixteen, twenty francs, and the 
fathers of those who were only twelve 
years old, were to receive twelve francs. 
When the terms were agreed on, all the 
boys were put under the authority of this 
travelling merchant, and were com- 
manded by their parents to obey and 
respect him, and to give bim an exact 
account of all the moncy they gained. 
The parents also exhorted their children 
to practise the duties of religion, and to 
return to their native villages, free from 
reproach, in the spring. 
“The person who takes the charge of 
the boys lets them out by the week or 
day, and reccives their wages. When 
they are in large towns,. like Paris, the 
wages go fo a common fand, and a strict 
system of police and subordination is 
maintained. The necessary expences of 
travelling are paid out of this common 
fund, and after the parents have received 
the stipulated sums, the residue is the 
property of the leader or contractor.” 
Mons. Grillet also gives the following 
account of their return home, 
“ The return of the boys was aunounc- 
_ ed to the villages by the repeated firing of 
pistols : the carayan, out of their moderate 
gains, had bought an ornament for the 
parish church; they presented them- 
selves and their offering, first to the curé, 
who received it with the most lively 
gratitude, and on the following Sunday 
it was displayed upon the allar, and 
became an object of emulation to the 
children who were yet too young to 
migrate. In this manner the churches 
in the mountains are supplied with orna- 
ments and sacred vessels for their altars,” 
CHAMBERRY. 
We arrived at Chamberry late in the 
evening, and lighted at the Hdtel de la 
» Poste, one of the dearest and worst inns 
583 
we met with on the continent. Ona 
second visit to Chamberry, we were at 
the Hdtel de la Parfaite Union, opposite 
the cathedral, and were well satisfied 
with our quarters. ‘The next morning, 
at four o’clock, | heard mach noise and 
bustle in the streets, and, on looking out 
of the window, I was surprised to see 
the shops open, and the streets thronged 
with people, all eagerly engaged in talk- 
ing with their neighbours. No cause can 
be assigued for opening the shops at so 
very early an hour, unless it be to enable 
the inhabitants to discharge a portion of 
the talking fluid, which may haveaccu- 
mulated to a painful excess during the 
silence of the nigut. The Savoyards are 
eertainly the greatest talkers in Europe. 
Volney tells us that the Mrench settlers 
in America do not thrive, for instead of 
building their houses on their farms, to 
be near their work, they pack them to- 
gether for the convenience of talking: 
he adds, that a Frenchman will rise at 
four o’clock in the morning, in order to 
go round to his neighbours, and talk 
about ‘it all the rest of the day. The 
shopkeepers at Chamberry cannot be 
actuated by this species of vanity, for 
where all do the same, there can be 
nothing to boast of. 
AIX LES BAINS. 
Aix les Bains, in Savoy, has been 
eclebrated for its thermal waters from 
the time of the Romans. It was ealled 
Aque Allobrogum, and Ayue Gratiane. 
The latter is said to be from the empe- 
ror Gratian, who is supposed to have 
repaired these baths during his abode 
in the country of the Allobroges, when 
he also built Grenoble. 
Aix being aname given to many dif- 
ferent places in Europe where there are 
mineral springs, we cannot doabt that it 
is a contraction of the Latin accusative 
Aquas, probably pronounced as the 
moderns pronounce Aix. 
The two thermal springs rise within 
about 390. yards of each other. The 
upper spring, or Source de St. Paul, 
improperly called the Alum Spring, 
gushes from the rock beneath an antique 
archway. It bas nearly the same tem- 
perature as the lower or sulphur spring, 
and is taken by some of the patients as 
a gentle aperient. It is occasionally 
used for douches, It flows in a stream, 
sufficiently large to turn a mill, and 
supplies a large bath or reservoir below, 
now used for the purpose of douching 
horses that have the lumbago or stiffness 
of the joints. ‘The poor animals stand 
very quictly under the stream, which 
falls 
