with very little interruption for about six or seven hundred miles, of which about 400 was through lofty Alpine mountains. In this great length of road, and variety of country, more than nine parts of ten, were exceeding fine, and remarkably white limestone, which mounted up the highest crags, and loftiest pinnacles of these mountains.

Any other rocks that appeared as a variation, were here and there thick beds of hard red granite; and in one place about ten miles south of Inspruct, a strong micaceous mountain rock, of a striated texture, or longitudinal grain, like timber, appeared by the road side for a mile or two, and then it was again succeeded by the prevailing limestone; and when I saw rock any where in the road all the way to Venice, it was always limestone of a fine light colour: however, it must be observed, that in some hills of a moderate height, situated north of the road from Verona to Padua, there are besides the limestone, considerable rocks of a friable blackith basalts alternately with the lime, with some pit coal, and several argillaceous strata of several colours; but without any freestone, as I have yet seen.

This immense quantity of limestone in one country, is a curious phenomenon in the history of the mineral kingdom. Much of this stone is nearly as white as chalk, and it is so fine and pure, that the lime made with it is as white as snow. I had often heard much about the great height of the Alps; but till I went through them, I had no idea of their being so very high as they really are. The road to Italy by Inspruct is undoubtedly the best pafsage through them. When I first entered among these stupendous piles of mountains, I expected to have much to ascend in the northern parts of them, and as much to descend again farther south; but to my great surprise, the

Dec. 18, first hundred miles of road was much upon a level, and though we now and then went a little up and down, in general, I thought we descended more than we ascended, till we came within two posts of Inspruct in Tyrole; and there I observed the post boy carried materials with him for locking a wheel; and he soon made use of it. We descended rapidly several miles down what might be called a great declivity, and I imagined we should soon have the tedious painful task of ascending as much and more; but to my great surprise and amazement, instead of climbing a hill, we were suddenly precipitated into a narrow steep road cut in the solid rock. The driver was a clever, stout young fellow. He had a pair of fine young horses, which he fearlessly drove with amazing velocity down this precipice. At first I was amused by the novelty of the scene; and being surrounded with woods, I had no apprehension of danger but after several zig zag turnings, and the wood growing thinner, to my great astonishment I discovered a valley at such an immense distance below me, that the eye could discern nothing distinct in it, though almost perpendicularly under me.

We continued to descend with still increasing velocity.

The valley seemed to sink to a more profound depth as we descended down towards it; but when the tall wood was vanished, and prodigious precipices appeared below me, with only a narrow road, cut out of the naked perpendicular rock, and the valley still at an immense distance below, though not timorous, the imagination and the mind were shocked to such a degree that I was incapable of minding any thing, but the awfulness and danger of the scene. If any the least article about the horses or carriage had broken, good night to all. Men and horses must have tumbled down a precipice many thousand yards, and be dashed to ten thousand atoms before

we reached the bottom. None fhould ride down here. At last the driver was obliged to stop in a siding (cut in the rock for the purpose) to let a waggon pass that was going up. I gladly embraced the opportunity to go out, and then I could look about, and contemplate the several objects around me. The valley now appeared nearer r; and it was beautiful indeed, and adorned with numerous villages, and rich in the various productions of a warm and salubrious climate; but the principal object of my attention was the amazing height from which I had descended. When I came to the bottom, and was at a due distance from the foot of the rocks, the hills I came down from were of vast altitude, as I then judged, more than a mile and an half of perpendicular height above the valley. This appeared to me at first highly proble matical; however, I was at last obliged to have recourse to the true explanation of the mystery, which is this. I had without knowing it, been gradually ascending all the way through Flanders, Brabant, Leige, and Germany; and when I thought myself low in the plains of Augsburg, which continued nearly on a level far into the Alps, I was then on an elevated plain, about two miles of perpendicular height above the level of the sea. I was afterwards confirmed in this idea, when I considered that the Danube has more than two thousand miles to run from Augsburg to the Black sea. When I left the fine valley of Inspruct, we ascended gradually three posts, which I judged not half the perpendicular of what we descended from the north, and here we began to descend rapidly towards the south, along with the source of the river Adige, which at first was scarce big enough to water a horse; however by the addition of collateral streams, it soon became a large river, and our road continued parallel to it, to our great annoyance, as it roared and foamed below us in its

precipitous course, above 100 miles, till we reached Egna, in the Italian Tyrole, and there I was confident of being near a mile lower than at Inspruct; but I thought from the placid appearance of the river here, that I was now nearly as low as the plains of Italy. In some excursions from Egna, I was about two miles of perpendicular height above the valley and river Adige, and from thence I saw high mountains westward, towards the Grizon's country, entirely covered with snow in October, when there was very little on the highest mountains of Tyrole. When I left Egna, to my great surprise, the Adige soon began to afsume its former rapidity; and it continued to fall with precipitation all the way to Verona, above 100 miles, and even there its stream is still rapid. I had no means of finding the real altitude of the Alpine mountains, but from all these circumstances I judge, that the highest I saw near the Grizons are about five miles of perpendicular height above the sea. EXPLORATOR.

To CORRESPONDENTS.

THE Editor has once more to exprefs his most grateful acknowledgements to his much esteemed correspondent Arcticus for some farther valuable communications just received, to which he wishes it may be in his power, to do that justice they deserve.

The hints from a respectable and reverend subscriber respectiug the poor laws, are gratefully received, and would have been more fully' noticed here, if the room had permitted.

Acknowledgements to several other correspondents deferred from

the same cause.

*** The Editor is sorry to find that during his absence several typographical errors have been allowed to escape in some late numbers, which he hopes his readers will excuse; they will be noticed in the errata at the end of the volume.