The Chinese are very quiet and orderly; and no wonder, because they are afraid of the great bamboo stick.
The mandarins (or rulers of towns) often sentence offenders to lie upon the ground, and to have thirty strokes of the bamboo. But the wooden collar is worse than the bamboo stick. It is a great piece of wood with a hole for a man to put his head through. The men in wooden collars are brought out of their prisons every morning and chained to a wall, where everybody passing by can see them. They cannot feed themselves in their wooden collars, because they cannot bring their hands to their mouths; but sometimes a son may be seen feeding his father, as he stands chained to the wall. There are men also whose business it is to feed the prisoners. For great crimes men are strangled or beheaded.
CASCADE DES PELERINES.
There is a waterfall in Chamouni which no traveller should omit going to see, called the Cascade des Pelerines. It is one of the most curious and beautiful scenes in Switzerland. A torrent issues from the Glacier des Pelerines, high up the mountain, above the Glacier du Bossons, and descends, by a succession of leaps, in a deep gorge, from precipice to precipice, almost in one continual cataract; but it is all the while merely gathering force, and preparing for its last magnificent deep plunge and recoil of beauty. Springing in one round condensed column out of the gorge, over a perpendicular cliff, it strikes, at its fall, with its whole body of water, into a sort of vertical rock basin, which one would suppose its prodigious velocity and weight would split into a thousand pieces; but the whole cataract, thus arrested, at once suddenly rebounds in a parabolic arch, at least sixty feet into the air; and then, having made this splendid airy curvature, falls with great noise and beauty into the natural channel below. It is beyond measure beautiful. It is like the fall of divine grace into chosen hearts, that send it forth again for the world's refreshment, in something like such a shower and spray of loveliness, to go winding its life-giving course afterwards, as still waters in green pastures. The force of the recoil from the plunge of so large a body of water, at such a height, is so great, that large stones, thrown into the stream above the fall, may be heard amidst the din striking into the basin, and then are instantly seen careering in the arch of flashing waters. The same is the case with bushes and pieces of wood, which the boys are always active in throwing in, for the curiosity of visitors, who stand below, and see each object invariably carried aloft with the cataract, in its rebounding atmospheric gambols. When the sun is in the right position, the rainbows play about the fall like the glancing of supernatural wings, as if angels were taking a shower-bath. If you have "the head and the legs of a chamois," you may climb entirely above this magnificent scene, and look out over the cliff right down into the point where the cataract shoots like the lightning, to be again shot back in ten thousand branching jets of diamonds.
INTERESTING INCIDENT CONNECTED WITH THE BAROMETER.
In navigation, the barometer has become an important element of guidance, and a most interesting incident is recounted by Capt. Basil Hall, indicative of its value in the open sea. While cruising off the coast of South America, in the Medusa frigate, one day, when within the tropics, the commander of a brig in company was dining with him. After dinner, the conversation turned on the natural phenomena of the region, when Captain Hall's attention was accidentally directed to the barometer in the state-room where they were seated, and to his surprise he observed it to evince violent and frequent alteration. His experience told him to expect bad weather, and he mentioned it to his friend. His companion, however, only laughed, for the day was splendid in the extreme, the sun was shining with its utmost brilliance, and not a cloud specked the deep blue sky above. But Captain Hall was too uneasy to be satisfied with bare appearances. He hurried his friend to his ship, and gave immediate directions for shortening the top hamper of the frigate as speedily as possible. His lieutenants and the men looked at him in mute surprise, and one or two of the former ventured to suggest the inutility of the proceeding. The captain, however, persevered. The sails were furled; the topmasts were struck; in short, everything that could oppose the wind was made as snug as possible. His friend, on the contrary, stood in under every sail.