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Tillières, Tillières on the Arve, if it were left in its ancient state, would be an almost ideal border-fortress. It is close indeed on the border. When Wace describes Alençon, he tells us that one side of the water was Norman and the other side was Mansel. So here at Tillières one side of the water was Norman and the other side was French.

Some tourists tell us, that, Naples and Constantinople excepted, no city in Europe can be compared to Geneva in point of situation, and those who have ascended the towers of its cathedral, will feel disposed to admit, that the prospect of the lake, the junction of the river Rhone with the Arve, the number of villas dispersed on all sides, the scene of cultivation which the nearer mountains present, almost to their summits, and the imposing effect produced by the more distant Alps, whose bases rest in Italy, and whose tops, covered with perpetual snow, seem to unite with the clouds, present a spectacle which it would be indeed difficult to surpass.

On the right the Arve was seen winding through a cultivated and luxuriant valley; on both sides, hills and rooks rose to a considerable elevation, and behind, the mountains of the Jura range closed in grandeur the delightful view. We passed through a succession of peaceful villages, and at length reached by a long avenue of elms the little town of Bonneville on the Arve.

Now a little of the turbid Arve forces its way into the clear blue Rhone, to lose there its identity in the surrounding waters. The interchange goes on, increasing with the distance until, miles below, the two-rivers mingle as one. No longer is it the Arve or the old Rhone, but the new Rhone. In Japan there is going on to-day a process unique in the history of the human race.

For a short space of time I remained at the window watching the pallid lightnings that played above Mont Blanc and listening to the rushing of the Arve, which pursued its noisy way beneath. The same lulling sounds acted as a lullaby to my too keen sensations; when I placed my head upon my pillow, sleep crept over me; I felt it as it came and blessed the giver of oblivion.

Holiday, "that the coming in of the turbid torrent of the Arve into the clear blue waters of the Rhone is a very pretty spectacle, and I should like very much to see it; but it is rather too far to go." "O, no, father," said Rollo; "let us go." "How far is it?" asked Mrs. Holiday. "About a mile, I should think, by the map," said Mr. Holiday; "but there seems to be no carriage road to the place.

Often they pitch their tent on the ice, and then cut such holes through it, using ice-chisels of metal when they can get copper or iron, but when not, employing tools of flint or hornstone. The great accumulation of gravel at St. Acheul has taken place in part of the valley where the tributary streams, the Noye and the Arve, now join the Somme.

The Campagne at Champel, where we were passing the summer, is washed for half a mile by the Arve. In hot August days I walked slowly by the river-bank, with cloak on, till a moderate perspiration was induced, then jumped in, and out as quick! for the river, though it had run sixty miles from its source, seemed as cold as when it left the glacier of the Arveiron at Chamouni.

The waters of the Rhone are at least three times greater than those of the Arve, and are of a transparent blue colour, whilst those of the Arve are of a milky hue, something like the appearance of the Rhone when it first enters the Lake of Geneva, where it leaves the tint it acquired from the mountain snows and torrents.

Peter, twice rebuilded since Clotilda's time, overlooks the quaint city, the beautiful lake of Geneva, and the rushing Rhone, and sees across the valley of the Arve the gray and barren rocks of the Petit Seleve and the distant snows of Mont Blanc.