JULY 375 



of endless scientific investigations, no explanation has 

 ever been arrived at to account for the wonderful colour 

 of the Ehone water. A few miles below the town, as we 

 all know, the Arve rushes down from the valley of Cha- 

 mounix, muddy in tone and charged with solid matter, 

 and it colours for miles the blue waters of the Ehone. At 

 length the Arve gains the mastery, and the Bhone, once 

 polluted, does not recover its purity before reaching the 

 sea. So remarkable a freak of Nature, however often one 

 has heard of it, strikes one afresh with its obvious allegory. 



Instead of all the things I wished to see in Geneva, 

 the one and only thing I did see was the new museum with 

 its newly planted grounds, a short drive from the town, 

 and called (goodness knows why) Ariana. The building 

 is commodious and light, and well suited for its object. 

 It is a pleasure to visit a museum with all the windows 

 wide open ; they are generally such airless, stuffy places. 

 But one cannot help being severe on modern buildings on 

 one's return from Italy. Local museums always have an 

 interest, and one generally finds something one could 

 have seen nowhere else. In this case it was a most 

 instructive and comprehensive collection of old china, 

 very well arranged, named, and dated. Several specimens 

 and manufactories were quite new to me which is not 

 astonishing, as I kno.w so little about china. A tea service 

 with butterflies and beetles on a white ground, catalogued 

 ' Nyon 1780 to 1800, ' struck me as exceedingly pretty. 

 Also some Charlottenburg of 1790 was rough in shape* 

 but beautifully painted, clear and clean. The only really 

 ugly china was that of about the middle of this century. 



There were some curious old pictures, interesting 

 rather chronologically and historically than from any 

 artistic reason. A picture of the ' Boi de Borne,' at about 

 twelve years old, stated to be by Gerard, was curious, and if 

 authentic would be a joy to a Napoleonic collector. Otto 



