rt it in that form. They have good cattle,
and in good number, mostly cream-colored; and some middle-sized sheep.
The streams furnish speckled trout.

April 20. _Novara. Buffalora. Sedriano. Milan_. From Vercelli to
Novara the fields are all in rice, and now mostly under water. The
dams separating the several water-plats or ponds, are set in willow. At
Novara there are some figs in the gardens in situations well protected.
From Novara to the Ticino it is mostly stony and waste, grown up in
broom. From Ticino to Milan it is all in corn. Among the corn are
willows, principally, a good many mulberries, some walnuts, and here
and there an almond. The country still a plain, the soil black and rich,
except between Novara and the Ticino, as before mentioned. There is very
fine pasture round Vercelli and Novara to the distance of two miles,
within which rice is not permitted. We cross the Sisto on the same
kind of vibrating or pendulum boat as on the Po. The river is eighty
or ninety yards wide; the rope fastened to an island two hundred yards
above, and supported by five intermediate canoes. It is about one and a
half inches in diameter. On these rivers they use a short oar of twelve
feet long, the flat end of which is hooped with iron, shooting out
a prong at each corner, so that it may be used occasionally as a
setting-pole. There is snow on the Apennines, near Genoa. They have
still another method here of planting the vine. Along rows of trees,
they lash poles from tree to tree. Between the trees, are set vines,
which, passing over the pole, are carried on to the pole of the,
next tree, whose vines are in like manner brought to this, and twined
together; thus forming the intervals between the rows of trees,
alternately, into arbors and open space. They have another method also
of making quick-set hedges. Willows are planted from one to two feet
apart, and interlaced, so that every one is crossed by three or four
others.

April 21, 22. _Milan_. Figs and pomegranates grow here, unsheltered,
as I am told. I saw none, and therefore suppose them rare. They had
formerly olives; but a great cold, in 1709, killed them, and they have
not been replanted. Among a great many houses painted _al fresco_, the
Casa Roma and Casa Candiani, by Appiani, and Casa Belgioiosa, by Martin,
are superior. In the second, is a small cabinet, the ceiling of which
is in small hexagons, within which are cameos and heads painted
alternately, no two the