It is a superb drive of five or six hours by the
valley of the Bienne and Oyonnaz, a little town which is the seat of an
important comb-manufactory. Keeping by the river, here so intensely
clear that every pebble may be seen in the water, we gradually quit the
severer characteristics of the Jura for its milder and more smiling
aspects. Traversing a savage gorge, we soon come to the marble quarries
of Chassal and Molinges, also, at the former place, ochre quarries. The
red and yellow marbles of the Jura, so richly veined and ornamental,
will, doubtless, constitute a great source of wealth in the Department
as soon as there are improved means of transport. In that rich marble
region, we find only box trees and other dwarf shrubs, with abundance of
romantic little cascades, grottoes, rivulets, and mountain springs. All
this bit of country, indeed, is most interesting, picturesquely,
industrially, and geologically, and on this perfect day, the second of
October, every feature is beautified by the weather; large cumuli
dropping violet shadows on the hills, deep ravines showing intensest
purple, golden mists veiling the verdant valleys. We are soon in a
pastoral country, and, as we pass chalets perched on some far off ridge,
little girls run down from the mountain sides with letters in their
hands, which the conductor drops into his little box attached to the
diligence.
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