sea-sickness were very numerous. The few who were well enough to pace the decks having received a drenching from the waves, took shelter below, and only when Dieppe was announced did they again venture out. Even before landing, it is easy to see that Dieppe is very unlike an English town; and, indeed, some of the chief characteristics of the French nation are here prominently seen. A large wooden crucifix overlooks the harbour, and proclaims that Popery is predominant there; scores of shabby-looking, under-sized soldiers, who lounge about the pier, remind the traveller that he is now in a military country; and the number of women in large white caps, who help to pull the vessel into harbour, and who act as common porters, is a strong indication of the low position that females in Francegenerally occupy. Formerly English travellers were obliged to show their passports the same as other foreigners; but since the 16th December, 1860, that nuisance has been abolished, so far as our own countrymen are concerned.

Dieppe was a town of considerable importance a thousand years ago; and during the long period in which the English and French considered each other as natural enemies, Dieppe frequently suffered, and was several times burnt by the English. From Dieppe to Rouen the distance is thirty-four miles, and to a railway traveller things look very much as they do in England. Two or three points of difference do, however, engage the attention. At the various stations long lines of gang-waggons stand loaded with wood for fuel; hundreds of rafts of firewood are floating towards Paris; and wherever the railway runs near the highway waggons similarly loaded are constantly met with. This arises from the scarcity of coal in France. Though that country is more than four times as great as England, its annual production of coal is less than one-seventh of our own. About 17,000,000 of acres, or one-eighth of the whole country, is covered with wood. In this part of France girls and women were ploughing, loading and unloading carts, and doing work which

clearly belongs to the stronger sex. Later in the evening they mounted the weary horses, and rode leisurely home.

Generally trains travel more slowly in France than in England, and in passing the little village churches it is easy to see that the graves which surround them are nearly all surmounted with crosses of wood or stone. These are in every stage of decay, and help again to remind the traveller that France is a Catholic country. Rouen stands on the right bank of the Seine. It was the ancient capital of Normandy, and it has historical associations of great interest to the English student. It is now a great centre of manufacturing industry.

From Rouen to Paris the Seine winds so much in the sixtyeight miles which separate the two cities, that the railway crosses it many times. On approaching the capital the vines begin to attract attention; they cover the sides of the hills; and as they rise higher and higher in regular lines and carefully distinguished plots, they present a view very different from anything to be seen in England. Paris is the second city in Europe in population, but in splendour and attractiveness it undoubtedly stands first. It extends along both sides. of the Seine for nearly five miles, the two parts of the city being joined by twenty-three bridges. My friend and guide through this wonderful city was a Parisian gentleman, to whom the chief attractions were well known. He was a devout Roman Catholic, and we had some earnest talk respecting the privileges which he supposed he enjoyed in having a priest to read the Word of God for him, and thus to leave him the more time to attend to his secular business. He took evident pleasure in pointing out the gorgeous decorations of the churches, and it was only after leading me through eight of the chief of them that he agreed to take me to some places of historical interest. These are exceedingly numerous in Paris, but those which specially took my attention were those connected with the great Napoleon. The Arc de Triomphe was designed by

him to commemorate the glory of the French armies, and so was that wonderful brazen column in the Place Vendome. Two of the bridges over the Seine had the same origin. One is of stone, and is called the Pont de Jena; and the other of iron, and bears the name of the Pont d'Austerlitz. At the time of my visit the remains of Prince Jerome Bonaparte, the youngest brother of the great Napoleon, were lying in state, and immense numbers of Parisians were patiently waiting for a view. A mere list of the sights of Paris must necessarily be very uninteresting; and as very little else could be expected in such a limited sketch as this, my next remarks shall refer to my journey to Savoy.

The direct line from Paris to Chambery, the capital of Savoy, is through Melun, Fontainebleau, Montereau, Dijon, and Macon. All these places were noted in Napoleon's history, as being specially connected with his return from Elba. The Powers of Europe had conquered and imprisoned the restless spirit which for above twenty years had disturbed their peace; but after a few months he left his island empire and returned triumphantly to Paris, passing on his way all the towns above mentioned, and which now form the chief railway stations on that line. For above 200 miles the changes of scenery are not numerous or striking. Woods and forests largely prevail; little villages, in which every house seems to have been newly whitewashed and newly roofed with red tiles, are numerous, and near them are plots of ground laid out for the cultivation of the vine. We crossed the Saone at Macon, and the scenery became gradually more romantic. After leaving Amberieu the country became decidedly mountainous, and the line on which our train ran seemed to have a very dangerous decline and a great number of sharp curves. To a person used only to railway travelling in England, matters would doubtless appear worse than they were; but it was no small comfort to know that a gracious Providence was watching over us. A sense of the dangers that attend travellers in this wild region seems to have induced the Roman Catholics to

supply an extra number of crucifixes and chapels by the wayside; and in one specially dangerous part an image of St. Rambert, who has taken that district under his special care, is placed on a dangerous elevation. The wildness continues with few intermissions to Culoz, which is only twenty-two miles from Chambery. One more difficulty remains, and that is the crossing of Lake Bourget, which is only a few miles from Chambery. A small arm of the lake is cut off by an embankment, over which the train passes; it then enters a short tunnel close to the lake, and on emerging is on the very edge of the water; again a tunnel receives it; and again, on escaping from it, another arm of the lake has to be crossed. This is done, and no further difficulties lie between us and Chambery. It is right to add, that the line from Culoz to Chambery was constructed by an English company, and the difficulty of crossing Lake Bourget was overcome by an English engineer.

W. H.

On Making Gold.

BERNARD of Trèves was born in the year 1406. His father left him in possession of a magnificent estate, but he was not contented with his wealth, and nourished the ambitious idea that he was destined to discover the secret, so long sought after in vain, of extracting gold from baser substances. His first experiments cost him two thousand crowns-a very considerable sum in those days-and he was speedily surrounded by knaves, who, pretending to give him information and assistance, lived on him, and swindled him out of large sums of money. One told him to try what highly rectified spirits of wine would do; another recommended alum and copperas; while a third informed him confidently that the mighty ocean was the mother of gold, and advised him to try sea-salt. This last experiment occupied him a year. Being now nearly fifty years of age, and as far from the great secret as ever, Bernard determined to

travel. He travelled through Germany, France, and Spain, seeking out all the alchymists on his way, and trying experiments of all kinds at their suggestion. A monk recommended the essence of egg-shells; but, strange to relate, even this proved abortive. An attorney proposed vinegar and copperas, on which he tried experiments until he nearly poisoned himself-in vain.

At length, a great genius took him in hand at Vienna, and so delighted him that they swore eternal friendship. He was induced by this friend to place a quantity of gold, with a collection of those substances which had proved so useless in his former experiments, into a crucible. This he did in conjunction with some other alchymists, and left the mixture three weeks; at the end of which period two-thirds of the gold had vanished, but nothing more satisfactory resulted. From Vienna he travelled to Rome, and from thence to Madrid, Gibraltar, Messina, Cyprus, Greece, Constantinople, Egypt, Palestine, Persia; then back again to Messina, France, and England.

In his voyages, however, he succeeded only in spending his gold, the secret of making it being still hid from him. His journey to Persia alone cost him thirteen thousand crowns, and he at length returned to Trèves to find himself little better than a beggar. His former friends refused to see him in his extremity. They said he was mad; so he hid himself in the island of Rhodes, and lived there in great poverty.

At the expiration of a year, a merchant who knew his family advanced eight thousand crowns on the last remnant of his once large estate. He immediately recommenced his experiments, and his last crown went into the crucible, never to return. It is further recorded, that in his penniless old age he made the great discovery that "the secret of philosophy is contentment with our lot."

There is a German legend concerning an old withered woman, who lived in a tiny cottage on the skirts of a forest. In chopping sticks one day to light her fire she cut her hand,