two days after, on the 3rd of March, 1476, he 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 of that number; and was himself compelled to fly for his life across the mountains, with only 5 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. In this battle, however, as in those of Morat and Nancy, the Swiss were invading the then territories of the Dukes of Savoy or of Burgundy. The scene of the battle lay between Concise and Corcelles; but the final rout of the Burgundians was at the little river between the battlefield and Grandson.

The Church of Grandson is of 10th or 11th centy. The prior's stall of wood is worth notice. Farel preached the reformed doctrines from its pulpit. There is a path over the hills from Grandson to Motiers Travers.

The rly. skirts the lake and crosses the Thiele.

by the side of the lake, and the town is sufficiently picturesque.

A very delightful excursion may be made from this up to the Lac de Joux (Rte. 52).

Diligence to Ste. Croix, noted for the manufacture of musical boxes (50,000 in a year).

From Yverdun the rly. proceeds through a fertile and thriving country, along the valley of the Thiele, with fine views of the Jura range to the W., and often a view of snow-peaks to the S. and E. Before coming to Chavornay Stat. the fine castle of Champmont will be observed on the rt. [From Chavornay Stat. branch rail to Orbe (Rte. 52).] Soon after this the rly. passes by two short tunnels through the low range of hills which separates the valley of the Thiele, or Orbe, from that of the Venoge, and descends the valley of the Venoge. The ch. of Cossonay is prettily situated on a height, and the rly. passes through a fine country to

Bussigny Junc. Stat., whence one branch of the rly. goes to Morges and Geneva (Rte. 53), the other through some green and pleasant valleys, without any extensive view, to

LAUSANNE JUNCT. STAT. (Rte. 55).

ROUTE 50.

NEUCHATEL TO CHAUX DE FONDS

AND LE LOCLE.

About 20 m. Railway by La Chaux de Fonds to Le Locle in about 3 hrs. Diligence from Neuchâtel to Le Locle by Les Ponts.

[The high-road to Chaux de Fonds runs directly through the profound chasm of the Seyon (Rte. 48).

is

Vallengin - (Inn: Couronne) the principal place in the fertile Val de Ruz-430 Inhab. Its Castle (now a prison) is in part as old as the 12th century: its base is washed by the Seyon. The Church, a perfectly regular Gothic structure, was built by a Count of Vallengin, on his return from the crusades, in consequence of a vow made to the Virgin in a storm at sea that he would build a church upon the water; accordingly the stream of the valley is conducted under the building.

A steep and long ascent up the Tête de Rang leads to Hauts Geneveys.]

On quitting Neuchâtel Stat. the rly. (1600 ft. above the lake) commands fine views 1. over to the Alps. It crosses the Seyon and near the viaduct over the valley of Serrières penetrates a tunnel 1850 ft. long. Fine Alpine view on emerging.

Corcelles Stat., 2 short tunnels. Chambrelieu Stat. See from it the line to Pontarlier (Rte. 51), nearly 1000 ft. below. The direction of the line is now reversed from S.W. to N., passing over the 2 small tunnels just mentioned.

Hauts Geneveys Stat. (Hôtel Reybaud), 2944 ft. above the sea, the summit level of the line.

rt. grand view of Mont Blanc.

Through a tunnel under the Col des Loges, which the high-road surmounts; close to it is

Convers Stat. Another tunnel before

Its

Chaux de Fonds Stat.-(Inns; Fleur de Lys, Balances, Lion d'Or, all indifferent)-a town of 18,000 Inhab., in a bleak, upland, and desolate valley, bare of wood and nearly destitute of water, and from its great elevation of 3070 ft. above the sea, capable of producing only a scanty crop of oats. The village covers an area not less than that of the city of Oxford, each cottage being an isolated cube, surrounded by a croft or garden half an acre or an acre in extent; it was, however, burnt in 1794. inhabitants are reputed to be very rich. 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. The number of persons here and at Locle, and in the neighbouring district, engaged in different branches of watchmaking is about 12,000; the wages vary from 24 fr. to 10 fr. a day. The number of gold and silver watches made in Locle in 1861 was 216,830. This is not the actual number made, which amounted to 600,000. In 1774 the total number of watches made was 300. 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. Diligences to Porentrui;-to Sonceboz, by the Val St. Imier.

The Doubs, which separates Switzerland from France, traverses one of those singular fissures common in the Jura limestone, and descends in a fall (le Saut du Doubs) 80 ft. high. Above the fall the river, dammed up by rocks, spreads out into a sort of lake; below, for the space of nearly 6 m., it runs between rocks 800 or 1000 ft. high, presenting to the pedestrian both here and lower down, as far as Goumois

and St. Ursitz, many scenes of beauty and interest.

The Rly. makes another bend to reach

Le Locle Stat.—(Inn: Trois Rois)— another scattered village, occupied by an industrious population of 9336 souls; the men chiefly watchmakers, the women lacemakers; rebuilt since a fire which consumed it in 1833.

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 limestonerock which encompasses the valley in 1802-6, and this now effectually carries off into the Doubs the previously stagnant waters. At Col des Roches, 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 100 ft. deep. This water-power, or privilege, as an American would call it, is not lost; but, in order to render it available, waterwheels have been constructed within the cavernous cleft, whose powerful machinery, impelled by the falling stream, moves a corn and saw mill. “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, &c."-Simond.

An excursion to Saut du Doubs can be made in two ways. 1. A pretty char-road leads from La Chaux de Fonds to the Planchettes; thence to Moron in hr., and to the Saut hr., along the bank of the river, returning by Les Brenets and Le Locle. 2. A

good carriage-road goes from La Chaux de Fonds to the Locle, thence to the mill of the Col des Roches, La Roche Fendue, the elegant village of the Brenets.

A special festival, called the Fête du Saut du Doubs, is celebrated on the first Sunday of the month of July, and draws thither sometimes 100 boats with music and feasting.

La Roche Fendue is an aperture bored in the rock, dividing Switzerland from France, commenced 1779, and only lately finished, by which the road to Besançon is shortened by 6 m. it opens a singular view over the Val de Doubs.

There is another road from Locle to Neuchâtel, by Chaux de Milieu, Les Ponts, the heights of La Tourne, and Corcelles.

ROUTE 51.

PONTARLIER (IN FRANCE) TO NEUCHÂTEL, BY MOTIERS TRAVERS. About 32 Eng. m. Railway (FrancoSuisse) opening the most direct communication between Paris and W. Switzerland; 3 trains daily in 23 hrs. It passes through scenery of great interest.

Pontarlier (Inns: H. National; La Croix Blanche)-the last town in France. [See Handbook of France].

The Railroad first ascends by the side of the river Doubs, and through the pass of La Cluse, a mountain gateway, fortified and capable of being closed, between France and Switzerland, to St. Pierre de Joux. The defile is commanded by (rt.) 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. The pass has been strengthened by a detached fort on a still higher rock (1.). 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 a dank dungeon on the heights of the Jura sufficiently explains the cause of his death, without the need of violence. Here also was confined, previously, another remarkable prisoner, Mirabeau, who was sent hither by virtue of a lettre de cachet obtained by his father, “l'Ami des Hommes," as he called himself, and the tyrant of his own family, as he proved himself. Mirabeau, having by his insinuating manners obtained leave from the governor to visit the town of Pontarlier

on parole, made love to Madame de Monnier, the young wife of an old magistrate there, and eloped with her to Holland. She was the Sophie to whom he addressed some of his obscene writings.

Between the villages of Verrières de Joux and Verrières de Suisse, the French frontier is crossed. The Custom-house regulations on this part of the French frontier are more than usually rigorous. Passengers by rly. avoid this inconvenience.

The country now becomes exceedingly romantic the hills clothed with forests, the valleys carpeted with the richest verdure, and sprinkled with neat cottages in the picturesque style 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 Chaîne, 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 have been 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'Etalières, situated about 10 miles off, among the hills.

Fleurier (Inn Couronne, good) (2600 Inhab.), built on both sides of the Reuse, thrives by the manufacture of watches.

Bovaresse Stat., Travers Stat. Here is a tunnel.

Couvet Stat. Omnibus to Motiers. Diligence daily to Le Locle by Les Ponts. Distilleries of Kirschwasser. At Presta, on the 1. bank of the river, is a mine of asphalte worked by a Parisian company. Stratum 12 ft. thick. Far down, on the opposite side of the valley lies

Motiers Travers-(Inns: Hotel de Ville, good; Maison de Commune)—

a clean, thriving village inhabited by watch and lace makers, on the rt. bank of the Reuse. It was the place of residence of Jean Jacques Rousseau after his banishment from Geneva. In the house occupied by him his desk is 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.

The Val Travers is highly picturesque.

It

Noiraigue Stat. [From this the ascent of the Creux de Vent, 4800 ft., may be made in 1 hr.; descent by St. Aubin or Boudry. "Its summit is hollowed out into a vast and profound cavity, 500 ft. deep, surrounded by an amphitheatre of limestone rock from the top to the bottom." is more than 2 m. in diameter. "At times, when a change of weather is impending, the crater of the mountain is seen to become suddenly filled with a cloud of white vapour, working and rising and falling with an easy but perceptible motion, until the whole hollow presents the appearance of an immense cauldron of boiling vapour, which seldom rises above the edge. If any escape, it is by the opening towards the defile; and I have seen it repeatedly issue in a thin white line, and float gradually down the centre of the valley till imperceptibly diminished and dissipated."-Latrobe.

The echo produced by firing a gun within the Creux de Vent is like a scattered fire of musketry, or a succession of discharges from a battery; and the hollow may be called the very cradle of the winds, which appear to be perpetually blowing from it.]

The view now opens of the Lake of Neuchâtel, rt.; far below is seen the viaduct of the Yverdun Railway, while high up overhead is the Stat.

of Chambrelieu of the Chaux de Fonds Rly.

Auvernier Junct. Stat. Here we meet the Neuchâtel and Yverdun line (Rte. 49), and the two run side by side. Near this fine views of the Lake and the Alps. Gradual ascent to the lofty viaduct over the gorge of Serrières. Above the gorge the Castle Beauregard is seen.

The rly. line along the valley of the Reuse has encountered and overcome very considerable engineering difficulties. 3 viaducts and 11 tunnels occur in a space of 21 m.

NEUCHÂTEL JUNCT. STAT. and Terminus (Rte. 48), high up above the lake. By shady walks the pedestrian may descend to the lake into the town, avoiding the dusty road.