The concluding part of the season, as has been said, was spent by us in Nice, where, as well as in Paris subsequently, I found something to interest in the method of forming foot-pavements and roadways of a species of artificial stone, which was introduced a few years ago with perfect success into France. The material employed is a bituminous limestone rock ground to powder; the powder is heated, but not melted, in a caldron, after which it is laid evenly, as a sort of hot mortar, on a bed of concrete; lastly, it is pressed smooth with rollers, and is allowed a short time to cool and harden previous to being used. In the case of foot-pavements, after pressure, it is stamped with indentations to resemble sandstone. When finished, it is smooth, beautiful in appearance, hard, and more durable than any stone ordinarily employed. In Paris, it has latterly come extensively into use for the roadways, and is only now becoming known in London. The rock which furnishes this remarkable material is a hard limestone dug from mines in the Val-de-Travers, canton of Neufchâtel, Switzerland. The proportion of bitumen in the rock is eleven to twelve per cent., just sufficient to fuse the material when ground, and to take a firm consolidated form by pressure; on which account, it is a very different thing from the pitchy asphalt mixed with sand with which we are accustomed. Any one who is acquainted with the newer streets in Paris will recollect their smoothness, and the ease with which carriages are run upon them. The wonder is, how the invention should have been so long in making its way to England. -------------- My little tale is told. I have endeavoured to offer a fair outline of what may be experienced, and what seen, by a WINTERING AT MENTONE—extenuating nothing, overpraising nothing. More might have been said regarding the climate without trenching on the province of the physician; yet enough has been stated to shew invalids and health-seekers in advanced years that, with care, very considerable benefit may be experienced. It will have been seen that certain discomforts, possibly extortions, may have to be submitted to. The dreariness of exile in a place so unfortunately devoid of means for rational amusement as Mentone, will in itself be hateful. The inadequacy of various public arrangements may cause personal inconvenience and dissatisfaction. But seriously considered, what is all that and much more, when balanced against the probability of returning home with a reinvigorated constitution? My latest sojourn, not free from annoyances which are vanishing from memory, effected every desired end. On losing the last glimpse of the Mediterranean, I felt something like a pang of regret, though its noisy movements had at times been troublesome. Its pleasant sunny shores had restored the health that had been impaired on the banks of the Firth of Forth. [Illustration]