The Byzantine Greek Element In Ecclesiastical Edifices.

the Greek cross , consisted of a nave finished by a semicircle ; of side aisles terminated by little chapels and octagon towers standing on either side of the church towards the apsis end . Thus it is seen that the numerous churches scattered over the countries of the East that were influenced by Greek Christianity wore built upon the same principlesthough

, presenting endless modifications of the peculiar features of the Byzantine element , and that that influence at a later time was exercised over the ecclesiastical architecture of modern Europe- — -including , independently of Spain and Sicily , Italy , Germany , France , England , and Russia . From the sixth to the eleventh centuries the Byzantine

style exhibited its finest features , a fresh inspiration having been given to its design by the building , as already mentioned , of Santa Sophia . One of the first results was the multiplication of domes , ancl the second an attempt to conciliate the Greek church with the Latin , by giving to the former the external expression of the latter system of roof .

Sketches From A Traveller's Journal.

SKETCHES FROM A TRAVELLER'S JOURNAL .

AVALANCHES AND JI 0 USTAI 5 T SLIPS . DURING a summer ramble in Switzerland , who has not been charmed with the wild beauty of tho mountain land . Its lofty peaks , glacier-laden , flashing in the sunshine , and gleaming ancl glowing like jewels against the clear blue sky , while countless streams come leaping in silver cascades down

their steep sides , clothing them with verdure , and adding to the volume of the deep blue lakes , which sleep so tranquilly at the mountain bases , and faithfully mirror the mi ght and beauty of the peaks to which they owe so much ? And who has not gazed in admiration on the white chalets , or dairy farms , perched high on the green swells , or the

picturesque villages that nestle lower down in the most sheltered nooks along the mountain sides 1 Aud who , if the world pressed upon him , has not half envied the peace and tranquillity , which , like the mountain air and the sunshine , seem to rest on those secluded hamlets , and to be the birthri "lit of their simple inhabitants , whose care free song echoes so gaily among the mountain glens , and whose flowery fetes and rustic dances have inspired the pencils of so many artists ?

But we think not of the reverse of the picture ; how , the brief summer over , the wild storms of those elevated regions shriek among the mountains , and come sweeping down upon them , laden with the heavy snow drift , which buries everything beneath its icy mantle . For clays together these storms continue with a violence that we in our more level country

etm scarcely comprehend . And all this time the Switzer dares not venture out ,. but sits beside , his fire , busily engaged by its light in making his . simple articles of husbandry , or in the rude wood carvings and the straw-platting , whoso sale during the following summer will aid in purchasing the warm clothing he stands so much in need of .

The storm once over , the Switzer ventures abroad a "'ain , but he must first dig away the snow from his own door ; ancl when he gets out on the mountain side he finds the snow so thick , and drifted so unequally , that the whole face of tho country is changed , and he no longer knows where lie the chasms , or can discern the brinks of the snow-clad

precipices . And though his steps are supported and guarded by the long alpensloch , or mountain stafij many is the peasant who goes from his hut to return no more , save perhaps on the shoulders of his fellow villagers , who at the risk of their own lives havo rescued his . But . most generally when an accident befalls him , the snow forms both shroud and grave , ancl he is not discovered until it

has melted away . Again and again are these storms repeated , until the snow lies piled to an immense depth among the higher spurs and peaks ; and I hen . commence the greatest clangers of an Alpine winter : None can know how wildly the storms rage at that season among the mountain , peaks , \ Ye can only

judge them by their consequences ; the ; most disastrous of Avhich is when loosening those masses of dense snow , generail ) '' very many tons in weight , they send them speeding down the mountain side , gathering force , size , and hardness with every fathom , until at length they reach some village that lies in their path , and crushing it by their weight , are

frequently themselves broken by tho resistance , and spread over the ruins with a depth of snow which completes the devastation they had wrought . In cases where but part of a hamlet has been overwhelmed by an avalanche , the sufferers are frequently dug out alive ; but where a whole village has been buried , it is rarely that any lives are saved . And those who have seen ifc describe ifc as a most jiainful sight , on the melting of the snows , the gradual uncovering of the ruined habitations and the drawing

to light of the yet fresh bodies of those who perished months before . Tlie descent of an avalanche is a truly splendid , though an appalling sight , even when we know no human life is endangered by it . None who has once seen can ever forget the first appearance of that huge spotless mass , as , like some mighty engine of warit is sent forth by the mountain

, fortress of g laciers , and comes speeding on its errand of destruction , snapping asunder dark mountain pines , leaping precipices , and bounding down steep declivities , until with a crash , that awakens a thousand echoes , it falls into some deep chasm , there gradually to melt in the heats of summer , and send another stream to join the nearest lake .

But there is another , aucl yet more dreaded visitation fo which the mountain land is liable , ancl one at whose very name the hardy Swiss turns pale ; that is , the ovaille , or mountain slip ; when loosened by the intensity ofthe winter frosts , or disturbed by some volcanic influence , whole tracts of land slide from their places , or are cast down , sometimes changing the aspect of an entire district , and entombing lis inhabitants in their buried homes .

Small slips frequently take place among the mountains , of which the world never hears , save when some calamity accompanies them . Yet each is terrible to the Switzer , for he feels that his own cabin might have stood on the doomed spot ; and as they sit beside the winter fire , tales ofthe terrible ovailles alternate with those of avalanches , until they listen to the howling storm in fear ancl trembling of what it

may bring forth . Though more than two hundred years have since passed , there is scarce a peasant in the canton of Valoiswho cannot tell the tale of the destruction of the village of Corberil , when Che ovaille in its ruthlessness left but one house standing , a witness of the most fearful event Avhich ever darkened the

history of the canton . But there is not a child in Vaud who does not hold up his hand to the rugged chain of the Diablerets , which form the mountain barrier between Vaud and the neighbouring canton of Valois , and pointing to its three bristling teeth , as the Alpine peaks are appropriately calledtell liow in the

, beginning of the last century they numbered five , and how one fell ere the age was far advanced , and the other about its centre , and how great was the havoc those ; enormous masses of earth committed .

In connection with the second of these events was an extraordinary incident , which it has not been left to tradition to perpetuate , but has been recorded in detail in the chronicles both of Vaud and Valois . Never did truth verify ihe adage that fact is stranger than fiction , more than does this narrative , every tittle of ivhich , if we are to believe the gravu Swiss chroniclersis as real and trustworthy as fche mountain

, bases beneath their feet . " The village of Aven , in the Canton of Vaud , is small , ' ' writes one of these historians , " yet in it there abode not only love ( ivhich is nothing worse than foll y ) , but jealou .-e ,-ancl hatred , two ill guests for even populous cities . " 11 ! guests , indeed , and much evil did they bring , especially- t o