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[Page 200]

I will not attempt to describe its beauties nor the
perpetual interest which the quantity of beautiful
mountain flowers afforded me, nor the magnificent
views of Mont Blanc and the lake of Geneva from
the pass where it crosses the last ridge of the Jura
at about 4500 high, the highest part of Dole being
about 1000 ft. higher. We reached Geneva at 4 p.m.
This city has greatly changed, and I should have had
difficulty in recognising it. Roses of immense
sprays houses built in various places & partly
upon land recovered from the lake a change
in the look of the people have quite altered it from
what it was. I left the next morning and
came on here per Steamer (4 hours). There are
5 Steamers which ply at various hours between
here & Geneva daily or rather between Villeneuve
& Geneva calling at all the various towns or
villages on the [indecipherable] side. This is a magnifi-
cent establishment fronting the lake (part of it
like having once gained from it) on the La Tour
de Peil and of Vevey where an old castellated
house used to stand & not 100 yards from the
Hotel de Ville. Nothing can exceed the kindness
of Monnet & his wife. They are evidently most
gratified at the recollection I have preserved
of the place. They talk of it so that I am become
a little sort of Lion [?]. Names of places & mountains
the very existance of which I had ceased to
remember come back to me so oddly the moment
I see them and this recollection surprises them
although it is only natural after all. Of all [Continued on Page 201]

[Cross-hatched writing]

and returned here in the afternoon in a Char a banc bringing a
whole basket full of flowers. I am drying some of them to send to
the girls but could have collected twice as many sorts but for
the flies & heat. But for the careful use of my umbrella my face
would have become quite peeled, or blistered. I do not believe the thermometer
was over 80° in the shade. The people say the prevalence of the flies
betokens a storm and it certainly feels & looks like one. I
certainly never saw any country or spot to be [indecipherable] with this
neighbourhood in beauty. I seem as if I could never tire in
looking out upon the mountains. The lake itself scarcely appears to be
so blue and limpid as it used. I remember the same of the
Rhone at Geneva. I am sure I am not mistaken whatever
may be the cause. Weather permitting I am thinking
of proceeding en diligence to Martigny tomorrow. Thence
the next day mule back via the Col de Balme to Chamonix 24 miles to visit the Mer
de Glace &ca.