* *

We spent a Sunday in the comfortable parsonage at Guillestre. There
was divine service in the temple at half-past ten A.M., conducted by
the regular pastor, M. Schell, and instruction and catechizing of the
children in the afternoon. The pastor's regular work consists of two
services at Guillestre and Vars on alternate Sundays, with
Sunday-school and singing lesson; and on week days he gives religious
instruction in the Guillestre school. The missionary's wife is a true
"helpmeet," and having been trained as a deaconess at Strasbourg, she
regularly visits the poor, occasionally assisting them with medical
advice.

Another important part of the work at Guillestre is the girls' school,
for which suitable premises have been taken; and it is conducted by an
excellent female teacher. Here not only the usual branches of
education are taught, but domestic industry of different kinds.
Through the instrumentality of Mr. Milsom, glove-sewing has been
taught to the girls, and it is hoped that by this and similar efforts
this branch of home manufacture may become introduced in the High
Alps, and furnish profitable employment to many poor persons during
their long and dreary winter.

By the aid of a special fund, a few girl boarders, belonging to
scattered Protestant families who have no other means for the
education of their children, are also received at the school. The
girls seem to be extremely well taken care of, and the house, which we
went over, is a very pattern of cleanliness and comfort.

* * * * *

The route from Guillestre into Italy lies up the valley of the Guil,
through one of the wildest and deepest gorges, or rather chasms, to be
found in Europe. Brockedon says it is "one of the finest in the Alps."
M. Bost compares it to the Moutier-Grand-Val, in the canton of Berne,
but says it is much wilder. He even calls it frightful, which it is
not, except in rainy weather, when the rocks occasionally fall from
overhead. At such times people avoid travelling through the gorge. M.
Bost also likens it to the Via Mala, though here the road, at the
narrowest and most precipitous parts, runs in the _bottom_ of the
gorge, in a ledge cut in the rock, there being room only for the river
and the road. It is only of late years that the road has been
completed, and it is often partly washed away in winter, or covered
with rock and stones brought down by the torrent. When Neff travelled