But the principal monument here, is an amphitheatre, the external portico of which is tolerably complete. How many porticos there were, cannot be seen: but at one of the principal gates, there are still five, measuring, from out to in, seventyeight feet ten inches, the vault diminishing inwards. There are sixty-four arches, each of which is, from centre to centre, twenty feet six inches. Of course, the diameter is of four hundred and thirty-eight feet; or of four hundred and fifty feet, if we suppose the four principal arches a little larger than the rest. The ground floor is supported on innumerable vaults. The first story, externally, has a tall pedestal, like a pilaster, between every two arches: the upper story, a column, the base of which would indicate it Corinthian. Every column is truncated as low as the impost of the arch, but the arches are all entire. The whole of the upper entablature is gone, and of the Attic, if there was one. Not a single seat of the internal is visible. The whole of the inside, and nearly the whole of the outside, is masked by buildings. It is supposed there are one thousand inhabitants within the amphitheatre. The walls are more entire and firm than those of the amphitheatre at Nismes. I suspect its plan and distribution to have been very different from that.

Terrasson. The plains of the Rhone from Arles to this place, are a league or two wide: the mould is of a dark grey, good, in corn and lucerne. Neither wood, nor inclosures. Many sheep.

St. Remis. From Terrasson to St. Remis, is a plain of a league or two wide, bordered by broken hills of massive rock. It is grey and stony, mostly in olives. Some almonds, mulberries, willows, vines, corn and lucerne. Many sheep. No forest, nor inclosures.

A laboring man's wages here, are one hundred and fifty livres, a woman's half, and fed. Two hundred and eighty pounds of wheat sell for forty-two livres. They make no butter here. It costs, when brought, fifteen sous the pound. Oil is ten sous the pound. Tolerably good olive trees yield, one with another, about twenty pounds of oil. An olive tree must be twenty years old before it has paid its own expenses. It lasts forever. In 1765, it was so cold, that the Rhone was frozen over at Arles for two months. In 1767, there was a cold spell of a week, which killed all the olive trees. From being fine weather, in one hour there was ice hard enough to bear a horse. It killed people on the road. The old roots of the olive trees put out again. Olive grounds sell for twenty-four livres a tree, and lease at twenty-four sous the tree. The trees are fifteen pieds apart. But lucerne is a more profitable culture. An arpent

yields one hundred quintals of hay a year, worth three livres the quintal. It is cut four or five times a year. It is sowed in the broadcast, and lasts five or six years. An arpent of ground for corn, rents at from thirty to thirty-six livres. Their leases are for six or nine years. They plant willow for fire wood, and for hoops to their casks. It seldom rains here in summer. There are some chateaux, many separate farm houses, good, and ornamented in the small way, so as to shew that the tenant's whole time is not occupied in procuring physical necessaries.

March 25. Orgon. Pontroyal. St. Cannat. From Orgon to Pontroyal, after quitting the plains of the Rhone, the country seems still to be a plain, cut into compartments by chains of mountains of massive rock, running through it in various directions. From Pontroyal to St. Cannat, the land lies rather in basons. The soil is very various, grey and clay, grey and stony, red and stony; sometimes good, sometimes middling, often barren. We find some golden willows. Towards Pont

royal, the hills begin to be in vines, and afterwards, in some pasture of green sward and clover. About Orgon are some inclosures of quickset, others of conical yews planted close. Towards St. Cannat, they begin to be of stone.

The high mountains are covered with snow. Some separate farm houses of mud. Near Pontroyal is a canal for watering the country; one branch goes to Terrasson, the other to Arles.

March 25, 26, 27, 28. Aix. The country is waving, in vines, pasture of green sward and clover, much inclosed with stone, and abounding with sheep.

On approaching Aix, the valley which opens from thence towards the mouth of the Rhone and the sea, is rich and beautiful; a perfect grove of olive trees, mixed among which, are corn, lucerne and vines. The waste grounds throw out thyme and lavender. Wheat bread is three sous the pound. Cow's milk sixteen sous the quart, sheep's milk six sous, butter of sheep's milk twenty sous the pound. Oil, of the best quality, is twelve sous the pound, and sixteen sous if it be virgin oil. This is what runs from the olive when put into the press, spontaneously; afterwards they are forced by the press and by hot water. Dung costs ten sous the one hundred pounds. Their fire wood is chene-vert and willow. The latter is lopped every three years. An ass sells for from one to three louis; the best mules for thirty louis. The best asses will carry two hundred pounds; the best horses three hundred pounds; the best mules six hundred pounds. The temperature of the mineral waters of Aix, is 90° of Farenheit's thermometer, at the spout. A mule eats half as much as a horse. The allowance to

an ass for the day, is a handful of bran mixed with straw. The price of mutton and beef, about six and a half sous the pound. The beef comes from Auvergne, and is poor and bad. The wages of a laboring man are one hundred and fifty livres the year, a woman's sixty to sixty-six livres and fed. Their bread is half wheat, half rye, made once in three or four weeks, to prevent too great a consumption. In the morning they eat bread with an anchovy, or an onion. Their dinner in the middle of the day, is bread, soup, and vegetables. Their supper the same. With their vegetables, they have always oil and vinegar. The oil costs about eight sous the pound. They drink what is called piquette. This is made after the grapes are pressed, by pouring hot water on the pumice. Ou Sunday they have meat and wine. Their wood for building comes mostly from the Alps, down the Durance and Rhone. A stick of pine, fifty feet long, girting six feet and three inches at one end, and three feet three inches at the other, costs, delivered here, from fifty-four to sixty livres. Sixty pounds of wheat cost seven livres. One of their little asses will travel with his burden about five or six leagues a day, and day by day; a mule from six to eight leagues.*

March 29. Marseilles. The country is hilly, intersected by chains of hills and mountains of massive rock. The soil is reddish, stony, and indifferent where best. Wherever there is any soil, it is covered with olives. Among these are corn, vines, some lucerne, mulberry, some almonds and willow. Neither inclosures, nor forest. A very few sheep.

On the road I saw one of those little whirlwinds which we have in Virginia, also some gullied hill sides. The people are in separate establishments. Ten morning observations of the thermometer, from the 20th to the 31st of March inclusive, made at Nismes, St. Renny, Aix and Marseilles, give me an average of 52 1-2° and 46° and 61°, for the greatest and least morning heats. Nine afternoon observations, yield an average of 62 2-3 and 57° and 66°, the greatest and least. The longest day here, from sunrise to sunset, is fifteen hours and fourteen minutes; the shortest eight hours and forty-six minutes; the latitude beingThere are no tides in the Mediterranean. It is observed to me, that the olive grows no where more than thirty leagues distant from that sea. suppose, however, that both Spain and Portugal furnish proofs to the contrary, and doubt its truth as to Asia, Africa, and America. They are six or eight months at a time, here, without rain. The most delicate figs known in Europe, are those

I

* It is twenty American miles from Aix to Marseilles, and they call it five leagues. Their league, then, is of four American miles.

growing about this place, called figues Marcelloises, or les veritables Marcelloises, to distinguish them from others of inferior quality growing here. These keep any length of time. All others exude a sugar in the spring of the year, and become sour. The only process for preserving them, is drying them in the sun, without putting any thing to them whatever. They sell at fifteen sous the pound, while there are others as cheap as five sous the pound. I meet here a small dried grape from Smyrna, without a seed. There are few of the plants growing in this neighbourhood. The best grape for drying known here, is called des Panses. They are very large, with a thick skin, and much juice. They are best against a wall of southern aspect, as their abundance of juice require a great deal of sun to dry it. Pretty good fig trees are about the size of the apricot tree, and yield about twenty pounds of figs when dry, each. But the largest will yield the value of a louis. They are sometimes fifteen inches in diameter. It is said that the Marseilles fig degenerates when transported into any other part of the country. The leaves of the mulberry tree will sell for about three livres, the purchaser gathering them. The caper is a creeping plant. It is killed to the roots every winter. In the spring it puts out branches, which creep to the distance of three feet from the centre. The fruit forms on the stem, as that extends itself, and must be gathered every day, as it forms. This is the work of women. The pistache grows in this neighbourhood also, but not very good. They eat them in their milky state. Monsieur de Bergasse has a wine-cellar two hundred and forty pieds long, in which are one hundred and twenty tons, of from fifty to one hundred pieces each. These tons are twelve pieds diameter; the staves four inches thick, the heading two and a half pouces thick. The temperature of his cellar, is of 9 1-12° of Reaumur. The best method of packing wine, when bottled, is to lay the bottles on their side, and cover them with sand. The 2nd of April, the young figs are formed; the 4th we have Windsor beans. They have had asparagus ever since the middle of March. The 5th, I see strawberries and the Guelder rose in blossom. To preserve the rasin, it is first dipped into ley, and then dried in the sun. The aloe grows in the open ground. I measure a mule, not the largest, five feet and two inches high. Marseilles is in an amphitheatre, at the mouth of the Vaune, surrounded by high mountains of naked rock, distant two or three leagues. The country within that amphitheatre is a mixture of small hills, vallies and plains. The latter are naturally rich. The hills and vallies

are forced into production. Looking from the Chateau de Notre dame de la garde, it would seem as if there was a Bastide for every arpent. The plain lands sell for one hundred louis the carterelle, which is less than an acre. The ground of the arsenal in Marseilles, sold for from fifteen to forty louis the square verge, being nearly the square yard English. In the fields open to the sea, they are obliged to plant rows of canes, every here and there, to break the force of the wind. Saw at the Chateau Borelli, pumps worked by the wind.

April 6. From Marseilles to Aubagne. A valley on the Vaune, bordered on each side by high mountains of massive rock, on which are only some small pines. The interjacent valley is of small hills, vallies and plains, reddish, gravelly, and originally poor, but fertilised by art, and covered with corn, vines, olives, figs, almonds, mulberries, lucerne, and clover. Theriver is twelve or fifteen feet wide, one or two feet deep, and rapid. From Aubagne to Cuges, Beausset, Toulon. The road, quitting the Vaune and its wealthy valley, a little after Aubagne, enters those mountains of rock, and is engaged with them about a dozen miles. Then it passes six or eight miles through a country still very hilly and stony, but laid up in terraces, covered with olives, vines, and corn. It then follows for two or three miles, a hollow between two of those high mountains, which has been found or made by a small stream. The mountains then, reclining a little from their perpendicular, and presenting a coat of soil, reddish and tolerably good, have given place to the little village of Olioules, in the gardens of which are oranges in the open ground. It continues hilly till we enter the plain of Toulon. On different parts of this road, there are figs in the open fields. At Cuges, is a plain of about three fourths of a mile diameter, surrounded by high mountains of rock. In this, the caper is principally cultivated. The soil is mulatto, gravelly, and of middling quality, or rather indifferent. The plants are set in quincunx, about eight feet apart. They have been covered during winter by a hill of earth a foot high. They are now inclosing, pruning, and ploughing them.

Toulon. From Olioules to Toulon, the figs are in the open fields. Some of them have stems of fifteen inches diameter. They generally fork near the ground, but sometimes have a single stem of five feet long. They are as large as apricot trees. The olive trees of this day's journey are about the size of large apple trees. The people are in separate establishments. Toulon is in a valley at the mouth of the Goutier, a little river of the size of the Vaune; surrounded by high mountains of naked rock,

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