SECRETARY'S REPORT. 258 



which there are no less than seven tlionsand here. They are 

 lofty buildings of many stories filled with hand looms from top 

 to bottom. The workmen very politely showed us the process 

 of weaving silks and velvets, and how the beautiful figures are 

 wrought in. Among others, a life-likeness of Abraham Lincoln 

 was shown us as just finished. 



A lofty hill rises above the city, on the top of which stands 

 an old, celebrated convent. It was in the ascent to this beau- 

 tiful spot, just before the setting of the sun that the glorious 

 form of Mont Blanc first burst in all its majesty upon our view, 

 and I could not help shouting out, in true sophomoric style, the 

 well known apostrophe of Coleridge, so often repeated as a 

 college declamation, beginning — 



"Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star 

 In his steep course ? So long he seems to pause 

 On thy bald, awful head, O Sovereign Blanc ! " 



The atniospliere was clear, and the sun lingered upon and 

 lighted up the eternal snow and ice of the grandest mountain 

 peak in Europe, tinging it with red and pink, so that, though 

 many miles otf, it seemed but a short distance from us. 



A beautiful incident occurred here, which illustrates the 

 respect for the dead so common among many European nations. 

 Just before arriving at the summit, our driver exclaimed, 

 " c' est le ci me Here,'' that is the cemetery, in a peculiarly hushed 

 and subdued tone, which indicated the reverence which he felt 

 for the ol)ject to which he called our attention. This is akin 

 to the respect the Frenchmen manifest by always stopping and 

 raising the hat on the passing of a funeral procession. 



When Julius Caesar led his Roman legions across the moun- 

 tains for the conquest of Gaul, Lyons was so small and insigni- 

 ficant that he did not even name it. He halted and pitched his 

 camp upon this hill, and left such permanent marks here that 

 the lapse of nearly twenty centuries has not effaced them. The 

 Gauls were then divided into many petty nations or tribes. 

 Caesar conquered many of them, and after his death, one of his 

 friends, together with many soldiers who had fought under him, 

 founded a colony at the foot of the hill, at the confluence of the 

 two rivers and built up the city, which became a sort of centre 

 of communication of the great military roads that Agrippa 



