These quays, nearly to the number of thirty, are faced with stone, and crowned with parapets breast high, which, in eighteen or twenty different spots, open to form watering-places. The Seine, being thus confined within its bed, the eye is never displeased here by the sight of muddy banks like those of the Thames, or the nose offended by the smell arising from the filth which the common sewers convey to the river. The galiot of _St. Cloud_ regularly takes its departure from the _Pont National_. Formerly, on Sundays and holidays, it used to be a very entertaining sight to contemplate the Paris cocknies crowding into this vessel. Those who arrived too late, jumped into the first empty boat, which frequently overset, either through the unskilfulness of the waterman, or from being overloaded. In consequence of such accidents, the boats of the Seine are prohibited from taking more than sixteen passengers. Not many years ago, an excursion to _St. Cloud_ by water, was an important voyage to some of the Parisians, as you may see by referring to the picture which has been drawn of it, under the title of "_Voyage de Paris à Saint Cloud par mer, et le retour de Saint Cloud à Paris par terre_." Following the banks of the Seine, towards the west, we next come to the PONT DE LA CONCORDE. This bridge, which had long been wished for and projected, was begun in 1787, and finished in 1790. Its southern extremity stands opposite to the _Palais du Corps Législatif_; while that of the north faces the _Place de la Concorde_, whence it not only derives its present appellation, but has always experienced every change of name to which the former has been subject. The lightness of its apearance is less striking to those who have seen the _Pont de Neuilly_, in which PERRONET, Engineer of bridges and highways, has, by the construction of arches nearly flat, so eminently distinguished himself. He is likewise the architect of this bridge, which is four hundred and sixty-two feet in length by forty-eight in breadth. Like the _Pont National_, it consists of five elliptical arches. The span of the centre arch is ninety-six feet; that of the collateral ones, eighty-seven; and that of the two others near the abutments, sixty-eight. Under one of the latter is a tracking-path for the facility of navigation. The piles, which are each nine feet in thickness, have, on their starlings, a species of pillars that support a cornice five feet and a half high. Perpendicularly to these pillars are to rise as many pyramids, which are to be crowned by a parapet with a balustrade: in all these, it is intended to display no less elegance of workmanship than the arches present boldness of design and correctness of execution.