JOURNEY OVER MOUNT GOTTHARD. J If 



and level vale, befprinkled with flowers of various hues, 

 where a univerfal ftill'nefs reigns, the feat of repofe and 

 the mildeft fenfations. No fooner are you got through 

 the arched paiTage than you are at once in the midft. of 

 a fcene, noify and terrific beyond any thing the ima- 

 gination can frame ; the roaring found of a large body 

 of water ruflhing; down from a monftrous height in 



o o 



numberlefs directions ; a very narrow cleft in the rock 

 of a tremendous depth ; hundreds of rocky fragments 

 to all appearance threatening immediate deftruction to 

 the trembling traveller ; a road hewn in the perpendi- 

 cularly riling rock, high over the abyfs through which 

 the river rulhes impetuouily down, that makes the road 

 appear to be fufpended in the air ; and, laftly, a fmall 

 bridge leading acrofs this dreadful abyfs at a prodigious 

 height. 



This is the famous Devil's bridge, which muft be 

 palled in order to get upon the above-mentioned road 

 hewn through the folid rock. On this bridge one is 

 ftunned by the noife of the furious torrent of water, 

 giddy from the amazing height, and wet through with 

 the fpray darning from the rocks, and driven about 

 with the wind. The horror of the fcene is beyond all 

 defcription ; and one is at a lofs to conceive how people* 

 could have refolved on making a road through fuch a 

 place, 



From hence one has yet about five and twenty miles 

 aimer!: in a flrait line to defcend, and generally pretty 

 fteep, before we get to the plain at the foot of the 

 mountain. The road runs through a cleft which the 

 river in a long courfe of time has worn through the 

 mountain ; for the oppoiite mountains are divided only 



by 



