young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

5

The delicious effluvia given to the reft of the houfe, in fo hot a climate, may be conjec-tured : rifing into the kitchen and the chambers, it there meets with fuch a variety ofother unfavory effences, as to form compounds fufficient to puzzle the moft dextrous ofthe aerial philofophers to analize. All their white wine here is boiled. Defcend moun-tains terraced for olives, which grow well on rocks, but add no beauty to them; info-much that cloathing a country with the moft ugly of all trees adds nothing to the plea-fure of the eye.

Pafs in fight of St. Roma, and crofs a diftridt of fhells, and a large wafte entirely co-vered with lavender.

Pafs up a hill which commands a vaft profpedt of diftant mountains, W. S. W., theyare in Arragon ; very high ; and feen one beyond another to a great diftance; alfo thefnowy ones of the Pyrenees which we have left. Following the road, we fee it openingto an immenfe view of what at firft appears to be a plain, a great range of countrytowards the fea; but it is all broken in mountainous ridges, which feem low, merelyon comparifon with the greater heights from which we view. The Pyrenees in onegreat chain to the left, and the mountains of Tortofa to the right. Defcend to Fulca,where we flop for the night at an inn kept by a confiderable farmer, and meet, forSpain , with tolerable accommodation. We had here, in the evening, a moft tremen-dous tempeft. The lightning which I have feen in England has been a mere glim-mering, compared with the dreadful corrufcations of this ardent and eledfric attnof-phere. A range of the Pyrenees was in fight for one hundred miles in a line; theforked flafhes of the lightning darted in ftreams of fire to the length of half that extent,and much of it from an immenfe height. The colour was of the brighteft whitenefs ;the fcene was great, awful and fublime.-28 miles.

The 14th. In the morning the hemifphere was all heavy with clouds, and fomerain fell; we expreffed apprehenfions of being wet, but our landlord laid we fhoukbhave a very fine day ; we had confidence, and it proved a clear burning one.

Here I may obferve, that in above one hundred miles in Catalonia , we have feenbut two Iioufes that appeared decidedly to be gentlemen’s, one the governor’s atViella, and the other in the town of La Pobla; and in the fame line of country not'more than one acre probably in two hundred is cultivated. Thus far, therefore, wehave experienced an entire difappointment in the expedtation of finding this province agarden.

Pafs the fide of a mountain covered with rofemary, box, and brambles, and defcendinto a rich vale to the town of Pous. Crofs the river Segre by a moft commodiousferry boat, much better executed and contrived for carriages and horfes, than any Ihave feen in England. I have crofted the Thames, the Severn , and the Trent, butnever faw any in which the horfes were not forced to leap through a narrow cutin the fide of the boat to the imminent danger of being lamed : and I have knownboth cows, oxen, and horfes killed in the operation. A carriage may be driven inand out of this ferry boat without taking off a horfe, or a perfon moving from his feat.The boat croffes the river by a great rope palling over a lanthorn wheel. The careand attention given to irrigation here cannot be exceeded. Much filk winding.

They threlh their corn by driving mules in the oriental method on a circular floor ofearth in the open air; a girl drives; three or four men turn the ftraw, move it away,and fupply the floor.

Pafs a wafte of marie, with ftrata of talc in fome places clear and tranfparent, Alin-ing, and breaking into thin flakes.—Deferts for feveral miles. Pafs Ribelles, a vil-

vol., iv,. p lage