CONTINUATION OF LYONS.
D E P A R T U R E F ROM THAT CITY.
THOUGH the plan of the present work does not require me to enter into a regular
and minute detail of the various objects merithig notice, to be found in the cities,
towns, and villages, included within the line of my projected route, yet I cannot prevail
on myself entirely to pass over those things which persons who travel for information
ought to explore. With the philosophic observations contained in this tour I wish to
blend something of a lighter kind. Perhaps, after this explanation and apology, I may
be allowed to proceed to a general description of Lyons—a city which cannot be
surveyed without exciting admiration, and which travelers have repeatedly praised.
I t s quays and wharfs in particular must arrest attention ; for as the major part of the
city is built between the Saone and the Rhône (rivers which are both navigable for
miles previous to their junction), these public works, for beauty, execution, and high
preservation, not only equal, but surpass, I may venture to assert, most of the kind in
- Europe. It is likewise impossible for me to speak too highly of those constructed on
t h e Rhône, deemed che/s-d'oeuvres in their line, and as much admired for the perfection of
their workmanshi p (which being of free-stone, gives them a noble and cleanly appearance)
as for their regularity and extent , most of them being one hundred feet in width,
and the whole extending from four to five miles in length, including the works on the
Perrache *.
* A part of Ihe city wlilcli stands at the extremitj of the Delta, noticcci by Polybius, wliich takes Its name
from ail individual, who. about thirty years ago, undertook to build a new town on what had till then been only
a swampy unwholesome tract of land ; a plan which would doubtless have succeeded, and done infinite honor
to its ingenious promoter (several of the houses being already completed in 1730). had not the trade of that
great commercial city been soon after totally annihilated by the unfortunate causes before stated, which occasioned,
for a tiine, tlie buildings to be delayed, and at last entirely suspended. The mills situated on the same
spot, contiguous to the junction of the Saone and the Rhône, are likewise worth seeing, on account of tlieir
curious construction.