85 



THE RHONE 



Is a large river in the south of Europe; it rises in the central and highest 

 part of Switzerland, from the glacier of Furca, and runs across the 

 Valais, to the lake and city of Geneva, after which it separates Bresse 

 from Savoy and fromDauphiny as far as Lyons; then turning southward, 

 it enters Lyonnois and Languedoc, which are on the west, and 

 Dauphiny with Provence lying to the east, and thence proceeds into the 

 Mediterranean. This river is computed to be 510 miles in length. 



THE NEVA. 



" This glorious river," says a modern traveller, "is, perhaps, the 

 only object in St. Petersburg whose beauty and grandeur are wholly 

 unmixed with meanness and bad taste. To drink the waters of the 

 river, is worth a journey to Russia of itself. It is the most delicious 

 draught imaginable, and has, besides, a medical property, favourable to 

 most constitutions; it is found, on analysis, to contain much carbonic 

 acid, without any metallic parts, except a scarcely perceptible quantity 

 of common salt." The waters of the Neva are perfectly blue and 

 transparent. The river at its broadest part is about three quarters of 

 a mile wide, and is deep enough to bear ships of moderate bulk, but a 

 bar across it prevents vessels, drawing more than 7 feet, from going higher 

 up. On one side is a quay of granite, ten feet above the level of the 

 water, and two miles and a half in length. The ice on the Neva seldom 

 breaks up before the 25th of March, and never later than the 27th of 

 April ; the earliest period of its freezing is the 20th of October, and 

 the latest the 1st of December. In its course it sends out two broad 

 arms on the right shore, the former being called the Nevka, and the 

 next, more westward, called the Little Neva. The Great Neva is 

 traversed by two bridges of Pontoons, the largest is Isaak's bridge ; it is 

 130 fathoms long, and rests on 120 barges, built expressly for this 

 purpose, each being held in its place by a couple of anchors. To let 

 ships through, two bridges are made, which are opened only at night. 

 The mechanism of these bridges is so simple, that on the coming down 

 of the floating ice in Autumn they can be taken to pieces in less than 

 two hours, and the public is deprived of the use of them only a very 

 short time before the freezing of the Neva. As soon as the ice is fixed, 



