averns
of snow, was occasioned by this want of caution. It is appalling, said Dr.
Clarke, to be carried over an abyss of unknown depth, slung upon cords and
drawn over. On arriving at the summit of Mont Blanc the toils are amply
repaid. Language cannot depict the scene before the traveller. The eye
wanders over immeasurable space. The sky appears to recede, and the vision
possesses double power. The Alpine scenery here is awfully grand, and the
alternate thaw and freezing (for when the sun is down it freezes rapidly)
produces the most grotesque figures. The only living creature found on the
summit of Mont Blanc is a small white butterfly (the _ansonia_,) which
flits over the snow. The chamois is found 10,000 feet above the level of
the sea; Mont Blanc is 15,500 feet above the Mediterranean. Specimens were
exhibited of the compositions of all the mountains round Mont Blanc.
Periodically an immense quantity of snow falls down from the summit of the
Mont, enough, as the guide said, to crush all Europe like flies. "On
throwing stones down the precipices, thousands of feet deep, the traveller
feels an almost irresistible desire to throw himself after them!"--
_Monthly Magazine_.

* * * * *

FURIOUS DRIVING.

In going upon the road, in the United States, it is looked upon as a sort
of slur on one, if another pass him, going in the same direction; and this
folly prevails to as great a degree as amongst our break-neck coachmen;
and you will see an old Quaker, whom, to look at, as he sits perched in
his wagon, you would think had been cut out of stone a couple of hundred
years ago; or hewed out of a log of wood, with the axe of some of the
first settlers--if he hear a rattle behind him, you will see him gently
turn his head; if he be passing a tavern at the time he pays little
attention, and refrains from laying the whip upon the "creatures," seeing
that he is morally certain that the rattler will stop to take "a grog" at
the tavern; but if no such invitation present itself, and especially if
there be a tavern two or three miles a-head, he begins immediately to make
provision against the consequences of the impatience of his rival, who, he
is aware, will push him hard, and on they go as fast as they can scamper,
the successful driver talking of the "_glorious achievement_" for a week.--
_Cobbett_.

* * * * *

VILLAGE BELLS.

------'To the heart the so