76 A CONTINENTAL TOUE. 



was a bit the worse of it. After some time, they were 

 both rehoisted on the unconscious beast, and reached 

 their destination in safety, as happy as 'before the fall/" 



THE SCOTSMAN AND THE SWISS. 



" Oct. 11. — During our walk this day we were fortunate 

 enough to engage Jacques Balma (cles dames), a celebrated 

 guide who ascended with Saussure to the summit of Mont 

 Blanc, as our conductor on the following day. He is a 

 tall, hardy-looking man, with a dark complexion, a little 

 bent by age, as he must be now upwards of sixty. Yet he 

 scales the glaciers with all the activity of a man in the 

 prime of life. I had a good deal of conversation with 

 another very entertaining and intelligent countryman, with 

 whom I walked for four or five miles. He informed me at 

 some length regarding the state of agriculture in the val- 

 ley, and what was more interesting to me, the manners 

 and customs of people like himself. From everything 

 that I heard from him, as well as from others, and from 

 my own observation, I conceive the national character of the 

 Scots and Swiss to be very similar. They agree in a spirit 

 of independence and integrity, in contentment with their 

 situation in life, acuteness of intellect and extent of infor- 

 mation, a lively sense of religious duties, and in many of 

 their local usages, manners, and superstitions. For every 



