10

SWITZERLAND ILLUSTRATED.

presents a striking contrast to the turbid mass in which it first enters the Lake at Villeneuve.

The various combinations of picturesque buildings harmonizing with theexquisitely beautiful scenery of the Lake , render this the most interestingportion of the city ; but with which the march of improvement now threatens tointerfere. Great alterations are in progress: a new bridge and a commodiousquay, both of elegant design, are in a state of great forwardness ; and these, withother artificial embellishments—whatever they may evince as to the prosperity ofthe canton—will soon, it is feared, obliterate many features in the picturesque andancient character of the city. To the utilitarian this will be a gratifying report;but by the poet, the painter, and tourist, it will be viewed as an irretrievableloss. The grand and imposing features which enclose the Lake , however, areunchangeable by any process of art, and on these all future travellers may reckonwith confidence. The houses of Geneva are generally lofty, but to the fastidiouseye of taste and experience, they shew, with a few exceptions, but little elegancein design or execution. The Rue Basse, which is the seat of commercial activity,extends the whole length of the city, and offers a grotesque picture in its longrows of wooden shops and sheds which connect the houses with the street.Opposite the Place Metard, where the buildings are lofty and imposing, immensewooden coverings, of singular construction, project from the walls. From thispoint many diverging streets lead to the upper town, on which the cathedral,the Hotel-de-Yille, and other public buildings, confer especial distinction. Thecathedral is a noble gothic structure, very commanding, and the great ornamentof the city. Its modern portico is much admired, and its towers, particularlythat called la Clemence, enjoy unrivalled prospects of the Alps, of Faucigny , andChablais; the Pays de Yaud and Gex; the Lake , and the hill of Coligny whichborders it with a rich garniture of orchards and vineyards, sprinkled with whitevillas, and rising in progressive stages like the grades of an amphitheatre. Inthe immediate vicinity of this is the promenade de la Treille, which runs alongthe ancient fortifications—once bristling with cannon, but now richly plantedwith trees, shrubs, and flowers—and opens in charming vistas upon the valleyof the Rhone, the undulating ridge of the Jura , the Saleves, and the mounts ofSion and Vorrache. Here are the Botanic garden, the new Museum , and anelegant line of buildings, called Corraterie, which give quite a patrician air to thisportion of the city.

Among the names in theology, philosophy, and science, which have thrownsuch lustre upon Geneva , we need only cite those of Calvin, Beza, Calderini,Pictet, Saussure, and Rousseau . That predilection for science which conferred