Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2Jefferson, Thomas
History
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
_Antibes, Nice_. From Napoule the road is generally near the sea,
passing over little hills or strings of vallies, the soil stony, and
much below mediocrity in its quality. Here and there is a good plain.
There is snow on the high mountains. The first frogs I have heard are
of this day (the 9th). At Antibes are oranges in the open ground, but
in small enclosures; palm trees also. From thence to the Var are
the largest fig trees and olive trees I have seen. The fig trees are
eighteen inches in diameter, and six feet stem; the olives sometimes
six feet in diameter, and as large heads as the largest low-ground apple
trees. This tree was but a shrub where I first fell in with it, and
has become larger and larger to this place. The people are mostly in
villages. The several provinces, and even cantons, are distinguished
by the form of the women’s hats, so that one may know of what canton a
woman is by her hat.
_Nice_. The pine-bur is used here for kindling fires. The people are in
separate establishments. With respect to the orange, there seems to
be no climate on this side of the Alps sufficiently mild in itself
to preserve it without shelter. At Olioules they are between two high
mountains; at Hieres covered on the north by a very high mountain;
at Antibes and Nice covered by mountains, and also within small, high
enclosures. _Quære_. To trace the true line from east to west, which
forms the northern and natural limit of that fruit? Saw an elder tree
(sambucus) near Nice, fifteen inches in diameter, and eight feet stem.
The wine made in this neighborhood is good, though not of the first
quality. There are one thousand mules, loaded with merchandise, which
pass every week between Nice and Turin, counting those coming as well as
going.
April 13. _Scarena. Sospello_. There are no orange trees after we leave
the environs of Nice. We lose the olive after rising a little above the
village of Scarena, on Mount Braus, and find it again on the other side,
a little before we get down to Sospello. But wherever there is soil
enough it is terraced, and in corn. The waste parts are either in
two-leaved pine and thyme, or of absolutely naked rock. Sospello is on
a little torrent, called Bevera, which runs into the river Roia, at the
mouth of which is Ventimiglia. The olive trees on the mountain are now
loaded with fruit; while some at Sospello are in blossom. Fire-wood here
and at Scarena costs fifteen sous the quintal.
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