Scenery, &c- of some paris of EFrance. 169 
Nismes has some antiquities in excellent preservation. 
The amphitheatre is much more entire than the Coliseum, 
but it is much smaller as it could contain but 17000 peo- 
ple, while it is believed that 107,000 could at once witness the 
exhibitions in the latter. ‘The * Maison Sarcée’ is a beautiful 
temple, which is dedicated to Caius and Lucius adopted sons 
of Augustus. Ithas thirty fluted Coriathian columns. The 
Pont du Gard, about twelve miles from Nismes, is part of an 
aqueduct, which formerly supplied it with water, from a dis~ 
tance, measured by the windings of the water course, of 26 
miles. It extends across ariver from one high hill to anoth- 
er. It has three rows of arches one above another, and rises 
to the height of 150 feet. Its greatest length is more than 
seven hundred. 
The face of the country in Provence is very different from 
that in Languedoc. Instead of the fertility which had every: 
where surrounded us, we found, after crossing the Rhone, 
barren stones, and rocks most thickly scattered about, and 
sometimes rising into bleak desolate mountains. These 
hardly support a few blades of grass, though formerly they 
were covered with forests. Probably when the wood was 
cut down, the soil was dried up and blown away. Marseilles 
is a beautiful city, scarcely, if at all inferior to Bordeaux, but 
I have not room te give you any account ef it. 
Vou. X.—No. f. 
ao 
Se 
