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low-traveller of mine (who, in 1827, ascended Mont Blanc), has given, in his Narrative of the Ascent, a good view of it, with the glaciers and aiguilles, as taken from the Breven with a camera obscura; and also another from the Col de Balme; both of these convey a perfect idea of the perpendicularity of the stratification, though the former is out of proportion. Mr. De la Beche has the best view from the Breven, in his Sections and Views. Mr. Hawes, who ascended with Mr. Fellows, thinks Mr. Fellows's drawings rather too imaginative; and I think so too. The same remarks apply to Mr. Auldjo's views. J. R.'s sketches (figs. 70, 71.) are illustrative; and are, therefore, though not novel, worth preserving.

The granite of Mont Blanc is said to contain gold. Gold is very common in all soils and in most river beds; though in quantity too minute to be observable. It is universally distributed, and may be procured from decayed vegetable matter. It is obtained in small quantities near Simplon, on the route of that name: most alluvial deposits have traces of it. See the localities and river beds named by Leonhard and Phillips and Jameson. The washing of the sand of the Rhine at Baden produced, in 1827, 2317 kr. 531 gr. of gold; from 1828 to 1829, 2999 kr. 44 gr. (Allgemeine Handlung Zeitung, Oct. 1829.) Gold is also found in the rivers of the north of Moldavia; in the Goldbach near Audel, in Trèves; near Endkirch on the Moselle; and in the Guldenbach near Stromberg, in the neighbourhood of Coblentz. (Gruithuisen,

Analekten für Erd und Himmels-kunde, part iii. p. 36.)

The chloritic granite, of which J. R. has spoken, comes from the Col de Géant: the red granite from the Aiguille de Blaittière. A far more striking discovery would be that of sulphur in the granite, which has been, in some cases, found. -W. B. Clarke.

And stopp'd at once amidst their maddest plunge —
Motionless torrents! silent cataracts!

Who made you glorious as the gates of Heaven
Beneath the keen full Moon? Who bade the Sun
Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers
Of loveliest blue*, spread garlands at your feet? -
God! let the torrents like a shout of nations
Answer! and let the ice plains echo, God!
God! sing ye meadow streams with gladsome voice!
Ye pine groves, with your soft and soul-like sounds!
And they, too, have a voice, yon piles of snow,
And in their perilous fall shall thunder - God!

Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamonix.

Gentiana major [? acaúlis], which grows on the very edge of the ice. [See p. 249.]

TWISTED STRATA. The contortions of the limestone at the fall of the Nant d'Arpenaz, on the road from Geneva to Chamonix, are somewhat remarkable. [See fig. 75. in p. 651.] The rock is a hard dark brown limestone, forming part of a range of secondary cliffs, which rise from 500 ft. to 1000 ft. above the defile which they border. The fall itself is about 800 ft. high. The strata bend very regularly; except [at e and f], where they appear to have been fractured.-J. R. March, 1834. [J. R. sent with this communication a small neat copy of a sketch carefully taken on the spot; but as this did not exhibit the stratification so distinctly as one which the Rev. W. B. Clarke has since supplied (fig. 75.), we have only engraved the latter; into which we have endeavoured to introduce the letters e and f, in the points in which J. R. had, in his own sketch, exhibited them. The following remarks are by Mr. Clarke.]

Nant d'Arpenaz. — J. R.'s drawing is too indistinct to give an idea of the stratification. The curvature of the strata is a disputed point. Saussure first stated the circumstance; subsequently, Mr. Bakewell has considered the appearances an illusion produced by the cleavage. I am compelled to differ from him, and to adhere to Saussure; who mentions that the strata, being originally horizontal, are bent upwards, and then curved backwards. (See Bakewell's Travels, vol. i. p. 339.) In the year 1825, I spent two days, in July, in examining the whole of the strata on both sides of the Nant d'Arpenaz, and, in fact, all that side of the Valley of Maglanz from Cluse to St. Martin; and I confess that there are so many instances of contorted and perpendicular strata in the limestone, that I came to the conclusion that the rocks at Arpenaz, as well as at Nant d'Orli, are merely portions of a great range of strata, which, owing to vast pressure and elevation of the subjacent beds, have been forced out of their horizontal position.+ The falls, in both instances, rush over the face of the rock; where there is, evidently, a fissure, apparently caused by a crack upwards through the cliffs. The real curves in the beds are explained in the appended diagrams, which were made in 1825.

*Nant, in the language of the country, means a waterfall.

The following passage is also corroborative of Saussure's opinion upon the subject: "Ein schönes vielfaches Echo empfängt hier den Reisenden; weiterhin stürzt ihm zur Seite von einer Höhe von 800 Fuss der Gebirgstrom Arpenas (Nant d'Arpenaz) als Wasserfall herab, der auch bei geringerer Wasserfülle eins der sonderbarsten Schauspiele giebt, weil die gewaltige Felsenmasse, über die er hinabstürzt, eine concentrische Schichtenbildung hat, die auf das deutlichste in die Augen springt, wie Schaalen, die sich um einen gemeinsamen Kern aufsetzen, und zu bedeutender Höhe in S-förmiger Gestalt sich emporwinden." (Ritter's Beschre bung zu Kummer's Stereorama des Montblanc-Gebirges, Berlin, 1824, p. 31.)

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a, Highly inclined rock overhanging the river, under which there is a narrow walk and wall at b. c, The parapet of the bridge. d, A tongue of land jutting into the river. e, The river Arve, which comes from behind the rock; at the foot of which is the tongue of land and the town of Cluse; the latter represented by three gable roofs of houses, and a wall round. f, Trees feathering the whole surface of the rocks on the right-hand side. g, Roadway from Cluse to Bonneville.-N.B. The Valley of Maglanz is at right angles to the valley in which the country between it and Bonneville is situated.

At Cluse (fig. 73.), the rocks are so curved that they overhang the river and road; and, near Cluse, the mountains are split from top to bottom, forming the Vale of Reposoir; and the same singularities are remarked at various places throughout the Valley of Maglanz. It had been my intention to draw up a paper on this valley, as offering some peculiarly interesting geological features; but the design was abandoned, from a pressure of more serious matters. The remarks of J. R. have reminded me, however, of it, and I shall add a few observations from my note book. As confirmatory of the views I have taken on the point, I may quote, at once, the words of MM. Barbe and Robert; who travelled through Lorraine and Switzerland in 1830, and published their observations in the Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France, 16mo, tom. i. p. 89.:-"La montagne schisteuse est singulièrement repliée, d'où se précipite la cascade d'Arpenaz, la suivante, formée d'ardoise, enfin une troisième située entre elles, au fond d'une petite gorge, forment par les directions de leurs couches, répresentées par des lignes droites, un véritable triangle placé obliquement sur une de ses pointes." Nant d'Orli is the fall alluded to in the latter part of this observation; and the first grand variation from the horizontal position of the strata which occurs, is at Nant d'Orli. This is a beautiful cascade, which tumbles down the face of the rocks immediately behind the little village of Maglanz, from which it sometimes is called the Cascade of Maglanz. (fig. 74.) The height of the fall may be about 500 ft. it is not of any great breadth, but the water

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falls with sufficient volume and force to work a saw-mill, built across the rivulet which carries it to the Arve.

*

A vast mass of ruin is accumulated at the foot of the fall, the debris of the higher rocks, and on the summit of it there are growing pines of a great age. We might almost suppose that these fragments were hurled down by the catastrophe which caused the fault by which the cascade was formed, and the size of the fragments affords an additional proof; so vast are many of them, that some children who were climbing them in search of wild strawberries, cherries, &c., whose voices were long heard, and directed us to their situation, were some time invisible to us, being hidden under the shadow of these mighty "screes," as they would be called in Cumberland.

The strata here are bent downwards on either side of the fall, so as to form a crevice in the front of the rocks which presents the more backward strata in the regular order, over which the water is projected. Fig. 74. will explain this. On a first inspection, it seems as if the strata had been bent downwards, continued horizontally in a lower position, and then bent upwards again to their former level. The continued

["What a noble tree is a mighty pine! when growing in the situation it is intended for, on the mountain side; based on the solid rock, which its huge roots enfold, and, stretching deep, bind to the parent earth; its enormous trunk, unbent by storm or time, reaches towards heaven, lythe by degrees and beautifully less;' its dependent limbs, laden with persistent verdure, shake icy winter proudly from their crest. Truly the pine is the mountain forest king, as the oak is that of the plain."-Robert Mallet, Esq. in Gard. Mag., ix. 275.]

75

b, The road to St. Martin. c, The bridge over the

a a, The Nant d'Arpenaz [rather too much water is shown at the lower a in our engraving]. rivulet the latter crosses the road, and flows into the Arve. d, The Arve. e and ƒ, Fractures, apparently, in the bent strata.

This curious appearance in the strata is however only an

some places the thicker strata are uppermost. The thickness of the strata varies from 1 ft. to 20 ft., and in inclination of these strata would form a considerable angle.

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