the Rhone and is sometimes on one side of the river and sometimes on the other, communicating by bridges; from the sinuosity of the road and the different points of view presented by the salient and re-entering angles, of the mountains the scenery is extremely picturesque, grand and striking, and as sometimes no outlet presents itself to view, you do not perceive how you are ever to get out of this valley but by a stratagem similar to that of Sindbad in the Valley of Diamonds.  At St Maurice is a remarkable one-arched bridge built by the Romans.  We stopped at Martigny to pass the night; within one mile of Martigny and before arriving at it, we perceived the celebrated waterfall called the Pissevache; and the appellation, though coarse, is perfectly applicable.  From Martigny a bridle road branches off which leads across the Grand St Bernard to Aoste.  The next morning we arrived at Sion, called in the language of the country Sitten, the metropolis of the Valais; it is a neat-looking and tolerably large town, and which from its position might be made a most formidable military post, as there is a steep hill close to it which rises abruptly from the centre of the valley, and commands an extensive view east and west.  Works erected on this height would enfilade the whole road either way and totally obstruct the approach of an enemy.  There is besides a large castle on the southern paroi of mountains which hem in this valley, which would expose to a most galling fire and take in flank completely those who should attempt to force the passage whether coming from St Maurice or Brieg.  We stopped two hours at Sion to mend a wheel and this gave me time to ascend the mountain on which the castle stands.  There were several masons and workmen employed in the construction of a church which they are erecting at the request and entire expense of His Sardinian Majesty.  I could not ascertain what were the reasons that induced the King to build a church in a foreign territory.  I did not observe either on the road or in any of the village thro’ which we passed any striking specimen of Valaisan female beauty; but I often remarked the prominent bosom that Rousseau describes as frequent among them.  We met with several cretins or idiots, all of whom had goitres in a greater or less degree.  These souls of God without sin, as the cretins are called, are very merry souls; they always appear to be laughing.  They seem to have adopted and united three systems of philosophy:  they are Diogenes as to independence and neglect of decency and cleanliness; Democriti as to their disposition to laugh perpetually; and Aristippi inasmuch as they seem to be perfectly contented with their state.  They are in general fat and well fed, for the poorest inhabitants give them something.  They have a good deal of cunning, and many curious anecdotes are related of them which shews that they are endowed with a sort of sagacity resembling the instinct of animals.  I recollect one myself mentioned by Zimmermann in his Essay on Solitude, of a cretin who was accustomed to imitate with his voice the sound of the village clock whenever it struck the hours and quarters; one day, by some accident, the clock stopped; yet the cretin went through the chimes of the hours and quarters with the same regularity as the clock would have done had it been going.