^T. 28.] JOURNAL. 183 



now and then a snowstorm, just to keep winter in re- 

 membrance. But I must not forget that I have seen 

 snow also to-day. The summit of Mont Ventoux, 

 which we have had in full sight since twelve o'clock, is 

 covered with snow, its brilliant whiteness contrasting 

 finely with the craggy brown mountains of lesser ele- 

 vation, as with the green fields and tender foliage of 

 the valleys. There is nothing very grand in the 

 scenery of the Rhone from Lyons to this place. The 

 upper portion is very much like the Hudson between 

 New York and the Highlands, but I think scarcely as 

 fine, if you make due allowance for the effect of the 

 old villages, etc. (not half so comfortable as ours 

 surely, but much better adapted to improve the beauty 

 of the landscape), with now and then a gray ruin, 

 which is a vast improvement. But from Tournon 

 quite to Avignon, the scenery quite surpasses the 

 Hudson, and exhibits such variety, moreover, that you 

 are charmed continually : now bold and magnificent 

 even; again, picturesque, particularly where the ba- 

 saltic rocks, for it is wholly a volcanic country, form 

 parapets like the Palisades, but much more curious and 

 diversified, the more friable material being worn away 

 in places, leaving columns and salient portions in all 

 fantastic shapes. And again, especially in the lower 

 portion, we see the hills widely separated, leaving most 

 beautiful broad valleys between, with high mountains 

 for a distant background. At St. Esprit we passed 

 under the curious old bridge built in the eleventh cen- 

 tury, which is still in as perfect a state apparently as 

 if finished but yesterday. It is three thousand feet 

 long, and is said to be the longest bridge in Europe ; 

 it consists of twenty-six arches, and each abutment 

 has also a little arch above it. We passed other 



