GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN FRANCE. 505 



plants, some of them rare. On the ground accumulated at 



the foot of the Encrenaz, above lake Saxonnex, grows the 



alpine poppy, remarkable for its iDeautiful milk white petals, Alpine popflP^ 



and its agreeable smell of vanello, particularly when the . ? 



flower first opens. 



On the east of this chain is the valley of 1e Reposoiry ^^5^^^^ ^® " 

 which on the opposite side is bounded by another calcareous 

 chain of very lofty mountains. A convent of Carthusians 

 here is an excellent station for a naturalist, who would wish 

 to explore the neighbouring mountains, which are in many 

 respects interesting. Having ascended mount Meiri to Point- ^^unt Meiri, 

 de-Chateau, one of the loftiest summits, the eye takes in the 

 whole chain of the Alps, and looks down upon the vale of 

 the Arve beneath. The highest point however is a little far- 

 ther west, and is called the mountain du Four, or de Pierre 

 percee, because its ridge is perforated. This mountain is 

 seen from every part of the Alps,, and at a distance appears 

 inaccessible, though it is not so. Had it been later in the 

 year I would have ascended it, but I was there in July. 



The road from St. Martin to Servoz passes at the foot of 

 a chain of mountains, the base of which is composed of slate, 

 or a brown calcareous stone in thin leaves^ intersected by- 

 veins of calcareous spar or quartz. You then ascend to the 

 pleasing lake Chede; soon reach the fragments of a mOun- Lak^ChMe. 



tain, the summit of which fell down in 1751 ; cross leNant- Fr/gments of 

 ^T • 11'. -1 n 1 • 1 p 1 • 1 • '^ fallea moun- 



JNon-; and, havmg passed a forest, the sou ot which is a tain. 



yellowish tufa, reach Servoz, where we meet with a few per- 

 sons afflicted with the bronchocele, owing probably to its Cretins. 

 southern aspect, and being sheltered from the nOrth winds. 



Ascending toward the point called P Aiguille de Varens, Peak of Va- 

 we meet with petrifactions in a transition limestone about 

 1200 toises above the level of the sea. It has no impressions 

 of, vegetables, but a large species of turbinite \yis]i and a 

 bivalve of which frequently nothing but the edges remain. 

 The real summit of the mountain is higher than this peak, 

 but cannot be seen from the bridge of Sallenches, being be- 

 hind the peak, which, as well as many others, is separated 

 from the mountain by a kind of circus of considerable depth. 

 On the summit of Varens is an extensive bed of numismal 

 stones, and some hundred toises below, among the mattei's 

 [^ Vol, XVIII.— Dec. I807. X that 



rens. 

 Peirifections, 



