SPIRIT OF THE ENGLISH MAGAZINES. BOSTON, OCTOBER 1, 1822. (English Magazines, July and August.) SIMOND'S TRAVELS IN SWITZERLAND. IT has often been remarked that England is famous for the colonies of tourists which, in an interval of peace, she sends forth to overrun every habitable (and sometimes indeed, uninhabitable) part of the globe; in addition to which, the mania for writing on their return is so strong, that it is seldom that less than a description in quarto of their journey can content the active travellers, even should their peregrinations have extended no farther than to Ostend or Boulogne. In short, since 1815, our country has been inundated with Voyages, Travels, Tours, Itineraries, Journals, Diaries, Letters to Friends, &c. &c. &c. various in their degrees of merit. These publications are not yet failing in number; and our neighbours on the other side of the Straits of Dover, though in numerical proportion still far behind, seem in some degree infected with the cacoethes, and to be fast treading in our steps; and our present attention is called to an account of a Journey in Switzerland, professing on the title-page to be from the pen of the Author of The Tour of a French man in England." His Tour begins at Fontainbleau, on the 30th May 1817: "At the palace strangers are shewn the staircase by which the Emperor descended to pass in review, for the last time, the remains of an army from which he was about to separate; the small table also, on which he signed his 2 ATHENEUM VOL. 12. abdication, is exhibited, as well as the mark of a kick which he inflicted on it." Our author relates, too, the story of the sale of a pen to almost every John Bull traveller, as that with which Buonaparte signed his renunciation of the throne. Of course he laughs at the buyers of these "real pens of abdication." Proceeding northward the traveller crosses the Rhine, and shortly enters Germany near Waldshut : "The bridge which crosses the Rhine at Sekingen is built of wood, and covered with a roof. The seven arches, which are reckoned at about fifty or sixty feet each, would give a breadth to the river of near four hundred feet. M. Ebel says, that at Basle it is but 280 feet broad, where it is probably much deeper than here. We crossed two leagues farther on by the bridge of Luffenbourg, venerable from its age, but so elevated, and apparently so decayed, as to induce us to alight from our carriage in going over. It is built on rocks, through which the Rhine forces a passage with such violence, that only empty boats pass, and those by means of ropes which hold them back, and afford time to guide them. A young Englishman (Lord Montague) met his death here a few years since, by impru dently attempting to conduct his boat without these precautions. By a singu lar combination of misfortunes, his seat in England (Cowdray Castle) was burnt down the same day on which he was drowned in the Rhine." The exploits of the Chamois hunters sometimes enliven the pages of the present volume. Their unwearied perseverance joined to the skill and activity which they display in their pursuits, call for the author's meed of praise; and he gives an anecdote of one, while engaged in a different course, strikingly descriptive of their firmness :- "The lammergeyer, the largest of the birds of prey after the condor of America, measuring 16 feet across when the wings are extended, frequents the north of Switzetland; it sometimes carries off the young kids, and even large dogs. M. Ebel relates a story of a chasseur of this country (Joseph Schoren) who having discovered a nest belonging to one of these terrible birds, and killed the male, crept along the jut of a rock, his feet bare, the better to keep himself firm, in hopes of catching the young ones. He raised his arm, and had already his hand upon the nest, when the female pouncing on him from above, struck her talons through his arm and her beak into his loins. The hunter, whom the smallest movement would have precipitated to the bottom, lost not his presence of mind, but remained firm, rested his fowling-piece, which fortunately he held in his left hand, against the rock, and with his foot directing it full on the bird, touched the trigger, and she fell dead. The wound which he had received confined him for several months. These hunters are men from whom the savages of America might learn lessons of patience and courage, in the midst of dangers and privations. The greater part come to a tragical end. They disappear, and the disfigured remains which are now and then found, alone inform us of their fate." Near this relation of the lammergeyer, may be placed an anecdote of the vulture of Muotta-Thal. This place had been the scene of many bloody combats between the Russians under Suwarrow, and the French; and "Armies passed by narrow footpaths where the Chamois hunters themselves take off their shoes, and cling by their hands to escape a fall. They fought on the edges of the most frightful precipices, and peopled the icy re gions of the higher Alps with the Dead. When in the following spring, the snows which had covered the bodies disappeared, the vultures, surfeiting on this abundance of human prey, became so delicate, that, to make use of my guide's expression, they would select nothing but the eyes for the nurture of their young." Our extracts must be limited at this time, or we should have been glad to have given the account of the Chamois hunting itself, which is interesting and well described; we must, however, pass it by. The fall of the great mountain of Rossberg gives M. Šimond occasion to furnish his readers with a minute description of the dreadful calamity, which but for a similar reason, we should certainly copy. The number of our fellow countrymen to be met with in every city of the Continent, often calls for the remarks of M. Simond, (who, by the bye, never speaks in an unfriendly way of the proud Islanders) and at Geneva he of course finds no want of Englishmen :— "The Genevese are naturally well disposed towards the English; religion, government, and manners, are bonds of sympathy and mutual friendship; and besides they are not neighbours, an indispensable negative condition to the good understanding of nations. Formerly, many young Englishmen received part of their education at Geneva, and there formed friendly connexions which lasted their lives. A still greater number of Genevese went to England, with a view to fortune or to instruction; and the greater part of well-born persons here understand the language. Buonaparte, who did not like the Genevese, once in discoursing of them said, "They speak English too well for me."-Under these circumstances, one should have thought that on the arrival of the English, after a forced separation of twenty or five and twenty years, there would have been a simultaneous attraction of these sympathetic elements. indeed some little warmth, but very litThere was tle connexion; and the English who swarm at Geneva, as every where else on the Continent, not only do not mix |