ET. 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, ete. (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 
ortion, 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 
