in motion several others, both above and below the bridge. It is fed from secret reservoirs within the mountain, and is probably to be identified with some of those singular streams which bury themselves in various places among the cavernous range of the Jura. About 3 miles farther is Columbier, once the seat of the Scotch Marshal, Keith, the friend and general of Frederick the Great he was governor of Neuchâtel. Cortaillod, by the water-side, produces one of the best wines in the canton. 3 3/4 St. Aubin-(Inn: Couronne ;) -a village half-way to Yverdun. Near it are the castles of Gorgier and Vaumarcus. An excursion may be made from this over the hills to the Creux de Vent (Route 49). It was with the view of relieving the unimportant fort of Yaumarcus, in which some of his councillors and friends were besieged by the Swiss, that Charles the Bold of Burgundy abandoned his strongly fortified camp behind Grandson, and marched his forces down to the narrow strip between the lake and the mountains, where there was not space to deploy a third part of them, and where his cavalry and artillery were useless. The advanced guard of the Swiss, who came from Neuchâtel, was posted near Concise (a village in Canton Vaud), and their batteries on the heights did great execution upon the Burgundians. Here, falling on their knees in prayer, as was the custom of the Swiss at the opening of a battle, they received on their lances the charge of the Burgundian horse, who mistook their attitude for one of submission. From the hills above, later in the day, echoed the war-horns of Uri and Unterwalden, announcing the arrival of reinforcements from those cantons, and spreading dismay in the hearts of Charles and his forces. The scene of the battle lies between Concise-(Inn: L'Ecu de France, comfortable)-and 2 3/4 Grandson - Inns: Lion d'Or; Croix Rouge, not good;)-a town of 890 inhabitants, with a venerable castle, now converted into a snuff-manufactory, on an eminence above the lake. It is historically remarkable because before the battle of Grandson it resisted for 10 days the assaults and artillery of the Burgundian army. When at length the garrison, reduced by famine and invited by the offer of free pardon, by a spy or deserter who had entered the castle by stealth, surrendered it, Charles, with a ferocity peculiar to his character, caused them to be stripped and hung by hundreds on the surrounding trees, and as many more to be drowned in the lake. But two days after, on the 3rd of March, 1476, he expiated this atrocious crime, and experienced the vengeance of the Swiss in the memorable defeat of his host 50,000 strong, by the army of the confederates, amounting to not much more than 1/3 of that number; and was himself compelled to fly for his life across the mountains, with but five followers. The spoil of his camp, which fell into the hands of the victors, included 120 pieces of cannon, 600 standards, all his jewels and regalia, costly hangings, and military chest; on that day gold and diamonds were dealt out to the Swiss by handfuls. The Church of Grandson is very ancient; Farel preached the reformed doctrines from its pulpit. There is a path over the hills from Grandson to Motiers Travers. 1 Yverdun (German Ifferten)—(Inns : H. de Londres, good but dear; La Maison Rouge, also good, and said to be more reasonable)-a town of 3248 inhabitants, at the S. extremity of the lake Neuchâtel, at the spot where the Orbe (thenceforth called Thiele) falls into it. It is built upon the site of the Roman Ebrodunum, whose name, with a little change, it still inherits. The Castle, built in the 12th century by Conrad of Zähringen, became the school-house and residence of Pestalozzi, from 1805 to 1825. Although the founder of a system of education, and of many schools both in Europe and America, he was a very bad practical schoolmaster himself; and this establishment, the head-quarters as it were of his system, turned out a signal failure. A very delightful excursion may be made from this up the Val Orbe to the Lac de Joux (Route 50). The road hence to Geneva passes through Val Orbe. Diligences go to Lausanne, and a steam-boat to Neuchâtel from Yverdun daily. About a mile S. of the town, at the extremity of an avenue of poplars, a mineral bath is passed the water is warm and sulphureous. 12/3 Essertines. 1 2/3 Echallens, a village on the river Talent, with 714 inhabitants. 2 2/3 LAUSANNE (in Route 56). ROUTE 48, NEUCHATEL TO LA CHAUX DE FONDS AND LOCLE. 6 stunden-19 3/4 Eng. miles. Diligences daily. The high road to Vallengin is at present carried over the steep hill at the back of Neuchâtel; a new line is proposed, which will conduct it directly through the profound chasm of the Seyon (see p. 168). 1 1/4 Vallengin-(Inn Couronne)-is the principal place in the fertile Val de Ruz. Its Castle (now a prison) is in part as old as the 12th century its base is washed by the Seyon. A steep and long ascent up the Tête de Rang leads, through uninteresting country, to 3 La Chaux de Fonds-(Inn: Lilie, comfortable)—a scattered village, of 6550 inhabitants, in a bleak, upland, and desolate valley, bare of wood, and, from its great elevation of 3070 ft. above the sea, capable of producing only a scanty crop of oats. After Locle, it is the chief seat of the manufacture of clocks and watches. This is not carried on in large factories, but in the separate dwellings of the workmen. -Each man usually makes only one particular piece of machinery, leaving even the finishing of it to others. An expert workman can easily earn 8f: a day, and the youngest apprentice 8 sous. There are two subterranean mills here, turned by the stream of the valley previous to its sinking underground; the rocks have been blasted to afford space for the mills; but those at Locle are even more curious. Instead of following the high-road to Locle, the pedestrian may take a foot-path (a walk of six hours) across the hills to the Saut du Doubs, or waterfalls of the Doubs-the river which separates Switzerland from France. It here traverses one of those singular gaps or rents in the rock, between 300ft. and 400ft. deep, which are common in the Jura. Numerous mills are turned by the force of the stream. Some large fragments of rock, which have fallen into the bed of the river, dam it up partly, and form what is called the Lac des Brennets. The scene is wild, and has been compared to a Welsh landscape, but its beauty has been exaggerated. Brennets is about 3 miles from Locle. There is a carriage-road direct from Chaux de Fonds to 1 3/4 Locle (Inn: Trois Rois)-another scattered village, occupied by an industrious population of 5886 souls-the men chiefly watch-makers, the women lace-makers. The little stream of the Bied, which traverses the valley, loses itself, at a short distance from Locle, in a chasm in the rock. This outlet, however, proved insufficient to drain the valley; and the district around the town was, in consequence, inundated at the season of the melting of the snows-and not much better than a morass at any time. To remedy this evil, a tunnel, 950 ft long, was pierced through the screen of solid limestone-rock which encompasses the valley, and this now effectually carries off into the Doubs the previously stagnant waters. At a short distance from this artificial drain or emissary, and about a mile from Locle, the river disappears in a natural opening, sinking into the heart of the mountain, through a vertical abyss, more than 100ft. deep. This waterpower, or privilege, as an American would call it, is not lost; but, in order to render it available, 3 or 4 mills have been constructed, one below the other, in the cavernous clefteach receiving, in turn, the stream which puts its wheels in motion. "You go down flights of broken and slippery stairs, cut in the rock, to these mills, placed one under another, in very frightful situations undoubtedly, but rendered more so to the imagination of the beholder from the circumstances of darkness and ignorance of the means by which the works are secured, by the noise, the unfathomable depth below," etc.Simond. There is an other road from Locle to Neuchâtel by La Chaux de Milieu, Les Ponts, the heights of La Tourne, and La Courcelle. ROUTE 49. PONTARLIER (IN FRANCE), TO NEUCHATEL, BY MOTIERS TRAVERS. 10 3/4 stunden-35 Eng. miles. A diligence daily. At Pontarlier-(Inns: La Poste, good-Lion d'Or)—the last town in France: an arrangement may be made with the postmaster to convey a carriage as far as Motiers, more than half way to Neuchâtel. The road first ascends by the side of the river Doubs, and through the pass of La Cluse, which may be called a mountain-gateway between France and Switzerland, to St. Pierre de Joux. The defile is commanded by the Château de Joux, situated on the summit of a precipice, at the foot of which the roads from Pontarlier and Salins, and those from Neuchâtel and Geneva, by Jougne, unite. This frontier-fort was the prison of the unfortunate Toussaint l'Ouverture, when treacherously carried off from St. Domingo by command of Napoleon. He ended his days here, some say by violent means; but the sudden transition from the climate of the tropics to that of the Jura sufficiently explains the cause of his death, without the need of violence. Between the villages of Verrières de Joux and 31/4 Verrières de Suisse, the French frontier is crossed. The Custom house regulations on this part of the French frontier are more than usually rigorous. In some places, there is a treble line of douaniers, which makes it advisable to have the luggage plombè at the first station. In some places the douaniers attend only during certain hours of the day, and persons arriving in their absence must await their return. Travellers should ascertain by previous inquiry what these hours are. The country now becomes exceedingly_romantic — The hills clothed with forests, the valleys carpeted with the richest Motiers Travers-Creux de Vent. 177 verdure, and sprinkled with neat cottages in the picturesque stile of architecture peculiar to the chain of the Jura and Alps. Cheese nearly as good as that of Gruyères, and sold under that name, is made on the upland pastures of the Jura. The descent from the summit of the ridge into the Val Travers is through another narrow gorge, called La Chaine, because the passage was at one time stopped by a massy chain drawn across the road, and fastened to staples in the rock. This primitive fortification is said to be a relic of the Burgundian wars, intended to arrest the artillery of Charles the Bold. At the village of St. Sulpice the river Reuse, which waters the Val Travers, rises out of the rock. This abundant source is said to be the outlet of the Lac d'Etalieres, situated about 10 miles off, among the hills. 3 Motiers Travers-(Inn: Maison de Commune)-is a village inhabited by watch and lace-makers, on the rt. bank of the Reuse, which has obtained some notoriety as the place of residence of Jean Jacques Rousseau after his banishment from Geneva. In the house occupied by him, his desk in shown, at which he wrote his celebrated "Lettres de la Montagne;" and up-stairs, in a wooden gallery, two peeping-holes, through which he could observe people out of doors without being seen himself. He quitted the place under the pretence of having been persecuted, and because the boys threw stones at his windows. During his residence here, Voltaire vented his bile against him in a satire, of which the following verses are a sample: "Dans un vallon fort bien nommé Travers Il fuit le monde et craint de voir le ciel." The Val Travers is highly picturesque. A few miles lower down it is bounded on the rt. by a remarkable mountain, called Creux de vent, 4800ft above the sea. "Its summit is hollowed out into a vast and profound cavity, 500ft. deep surrounded by an amphitheatre of limestone rock from the top to the bottom." It is more than 2 miles in diameter. "At times when a change of weather is impending, the |