of a recent Continental Tow. 23 



probably but the pinnacle of an immerged mountain ; two or 

 three bushes grow on it, nevertheless : it is nearly opposite 

 the rocks of La Meilleraye. 



It was a morning of exulting sunshine and loveliness when 

 we sailed from Geneva for Villeneuve, and so for some time 

 it remained ; but alas ! fine weather, that most essential of all 

 comforts to the traveller, soon deserted us. Behind the 

 snowy Alps, that relieved themselves in dazzling whiteness, 

 against the clear blue sky, a colossal nimbus, dark as despair, 

 gradually rose, with ragged, whitish, thundery-looking rack 

 sweeping about beneath it. Up it rose, and, with the rapidity 

 of the lowering of the footlights in a theatre, it threw a cold 

 gloominess over the before sunny landscajie. The clear blue 

 lake became black as ink. The great cloud now covered the 

 whole heaven. The rack seemed violently agitated over the 

 crest of Jura. A few large heavy spitting drops of rain fell 

 upon the deck of the steamer; a bright blinding flash of light- 

 ning, and almost instantly a deafening thunder, that seemed 

 to shake the very timbers of the ship, burst above us, and 

 rumbled away in reiterated reverberations from crag to crag. 



Quo maxima motu 



Terra treniit, fiigcre feras, ct mortalia corda 

 Per gcntes Immilis stravit payor." 



" Earth feels the motions of her angry god: 

 Her entrails tremble, and her mountains nodj 

 And flying beasts in forests seek abode : 

 Deep horror seizes every lunnnn breast; 

 Their pride is humbled, and their fear confess'd." 



DryderHs trans. 



Down came the rain ; and such rain as, in force and heaviness, 

 I never saw equalled ; — 



" Fervetquc fretis spirantibus aequor." 



" And rocks the bellowing voice of boiling seas rebound." 



DrydeiUs trans. 



After about an hour, its extreme violence subsided; the 

 clouds descended gradually to about within 100 ft. of the 

 surface of the lake, and there they hung for the rest of 

 the day, coj)iousiy distilling a thick, small, drenching rain, 

 something of the Scotch mist order. 



However, underneath this pluviose canopy, and that of an 

 umbrella, we were enabled to sec, though not to advantage, 

 the many pictm-esque chateaus and villages past which we 

 swept : — Copet, Lausanne, Vevay, Clarens ; names ever asso- 

 ciated with the imdying fame of De Staiil, Gibbon, and Rous- 

 seau. 



a 1' 



