mals, who come down from the mountain to commence their bathing season, so soon as the human invalids retire from the place: but whether it was yet too early, or whether the noise of our invasion at that unseasonable time and hour, put the few valetudinarian quadrupeds who had yet arrived, to flight, certain it is, that we had not the fortune of seeing any of those visitors.

We made out the night in the best way we could; one of the party, who had a Brazilian hammock, swinging in it most comfortably; while the rest, wrapping themselves in their cloaks, disposed of their bodies on certain venerable, yet suspiciouslooking chairs and tables; and what between the cold which was already severe in this elevated region, and the resentment shown by the little black ants, etc., etc.; the ordinary occupants of the said chairs and tables, at our intrusion, we were glad enough to leave our uncomfortable couches, even before break of day.

When we rose, the heavens were perfectly serene, the stars looked down upon us with all their eyes from mansions of the purest blue; but the lower world was enveloped in a dense fog. When the morning light had opened the prospect more distinctly, the level surface of the mist which covered the valley became apparent, and the hill tops, which rose through it in almost every direction, looked like islands in a white, silent, and placid ocean. We gazed with delighted imagination over this novel

and fairy scene, so full of sublimity in itself, and, from the sober twilight in which it appeared, so much like the creation of fancy in the visions of a dream. The trees, and rocks of the nearer of these islands began to develope their forms; more distant ones were disclosed to view, various in size and shape, and variously grouped; but all were wild, desolate, and still. We felt as if placed in a vast solitude, with lands and seas around us, hitherto undiscovered by man.

While we looked with increasing admiration on this splendid scene, and were endeavouring to stretch our vision into the dusky regions far away, our attention was suddenly attracted by sparks of dazzling brilliancy shooting through the pines on the distant ridges to the eastward. In the olden time, when Jupiter's thunderbolts were forged in the caverns of Etna, never did such glittering scintillations fly from beneath the strokes of the giant forgehammers of the Cyclops. It was the sun, darting his first rays over the mountain, and dispersing their sparkling threads of light through the pure serene of the atmosphere.

The fancied isles around us soon caught the splendid hue of the luminary, and shone on their eastern edges like burnished gold and as their

bright sides alone appeared in the midst of the white sea of mist, we could fancy that they were the islands of the happy where the spirits of the good reposed in the balmy light of an eternal spring.

But the pleasing illusion was soon dissipated. The surface of the mist, hitherto lying still, became agitated like a boiling cauldron -- Every where light clouds arose from it, and melted away. Then the lower hills of the country began to show their tops, as if they were emerging from this troubled sea, and after the sun had displayed his full orb of living fire, the vapoury commotion increased, and in a little while, the features of the low country began to be unveiled. The first audible sounds from the living world, the barking of a farmer's dog, arose from the vale beneath, and completely broke the enchantment of the twilight scene: when the sun was an hour high, the fog marked but the deep and curvilinear bed of the river.

The prospect of the country around now yielded a pleasure not inferior in degree, though it differed in kind, from that which we had enjoyed in beholding a scene, rare and beautiful in itself, and embellished by mist and twilight, with the visionary charms of fancy! The country appeared beneath, and around us to the utmost extent of vision -. On the diversified surface of the valley below, houses and farms were distinctly visible in every variety of situation; some in the low vales, where winding streams had begun to shine in the glancing sunlight; some presenting their yellow harvest fields among the green woods, and wavy slopes of hills; and here and there, others perched aloft, among the primeval forests, and antediluvian rocks of the mountains.

In the south-west, the less hilly country towards Povoa de Lanhoso extended itself like a large level of bluish green, bounded by the rugged serra de Sta-Catharina; and stretching along the eastern horison, rose the lofty heads of the mountains, among which the peaks of Vieira were prominently conspicuous, while behind and above us, line after line, ridge after ridge, towering and peering one over the other, stood out those of the mighty Gerez.

When we had sufficiently gratified our eyes with the changing panorama we have been endeavouring, not to describe, but to give some idea of, we set off on an excursion of discovery to find out the ruins of the Roman city of Calcidonia, said to have existed among these mountains. It was not without great trouble, and frequently retracing our steps, that we discovered its reputed site; but at last, after many enquiries, almost each of which elicited contrary information to the one preceding it, we reached the little hamlet, or collection of huts called Barzes-near Sta-Marinha de Covide; and on that branch of the Gerez, called the serra de Lamas, we were shown the remains of a rude wall, which had formely surrounded the summit of one of the peaks, having within its enclosure, some vestiges of the foundations of small buildings, and this we were told was Calcidonia! But neither from the size of the enclosure, nor from its situation could this have been the site of the city; for the hill on which it exists is exceedingly steep, the wall, (which

has but one entrance) merely goes round the summit, and the enclosed part is still full of huge masses of rock and stone (some of which even form part of the wall) just as they were left there by the hand of nature. The only argument in favor of this place having been the ancient Calcidonia, is its proximity to the Roman road which from Braga, went direct to Orense, and which passed at about a mile's distance; but we should think that the city, if city there ever were in the vicinity, must have been rather at the foot of the hill, at the place now called Barzes, near which many indubitably Roman remains have been discovered, and which is not only agreeably « located » as the Yankees would say, but traversed by the Roman road before mentioned; and the ruins that we saw are probably those of some « castrum » or fortification, thrown up as a place of refuge for the surrounding inhabitants, in case of any sudden irruption of the barbarian tribes in the neighbourhood. In fact, some of the party doubted that these ruins were Roman at all, from the rudeness of construction which they exhibited.

But if we were disappointed in our visit to Calcidonia, we were more than repaid, by the magnificence of the scenery which displayed itself to us at every step of our progress; and though the Gerez may not contain all those objects which a lover of antiquities might expect to meet with, yet the man addicted to botanical research would there find an ample field on which to employ himself, for the whole