Mr. Bakewell on the Thermal Waters of the Alps. 17 



St. Maurice at the foot of the Little St. Bernard ; but owing to 

 the difficulty of access to it, I did not visit it, to ascertain its 

 temperature. 



Beside the above thermal waters in the Pennine Alps, va- 

 rious thermal springs were discovered in the adjacent Alps, 

 near Grenoble, in the year 1 820 : and it seems probable, that 

 a series of these springs might be found, were proper search 

 made, extending westward to the thermal waters of the Py- 

 renees ; for in this line we should approach the southern bor- 

 der of the volcanic district of France. On the Italian side of 

 the Pennine Alps there are also thermal waters : the warm 

 baths of Cormayeur and of St. Didier are situated almost im- 

 mediately under the southern escarpment of Mont Blanc. I 

 was prevented by the weather from examining the geological 

 position of these springs : their temperature is stated to be 94>° 

 of Fahrenheit *. 



The inference that may be drawn from the geological posi- 

 tion of these thermal waters near the junction of the calcareous 

 beds with mica-slate, or the dark schist which passes into mica- 

 slate, is, that the waters do not rise from the upper strata, but 

 spring out of the lower or primary rocks ; and as they break 

 out near the feet of the highest range of the Alps, that extend 

 from the northern side of the Simplon through the Valais 

 -and Savoy into France, we may with much probability infer, 

 that these mountains are situated over or near to one com- 

 mon source of heat, by the agency of which they were ori- 

 ginally elevated, and their beds placed in a position nearly 

 vertical. This inference is in some degree supported by the 

 well attested fact, that the districts where the hot springs are 

 situated are subject to great and frequent convulsions, parti- 

 cularly in the upper valley of the Rhone. In the year 1755 

 and 1756, at Brieg, Naters, and Leuk, the ground was agi- 

 tated by earthquakes every day from the 1st to the 27th of 

 February ; some of the shocks were so violent, that the 

 steeples of the churches were thrown down, the walls split, 

 and many houses rendered uninhabitable : many of the 

 springs were dried up, and the waters of the Rhone were ob- 

 served to boil. At three different times the inhabitants aban- 

 doned their houses and fled for safety into the fields. It has 

 been before mentioned, that the mountain above the warm 

 spring at Naters opened during the time of the great earth- 

 quake at Lisbon, and threw out hot water ; at the same period 



* Nearly all the thermal waters in the Alps emit sulphureous vapours, 

 and are slightly saline, except the waters of Leuk, which have the highest 

 temperature, and are inodorous and free from saline impregnation. 



New Series. Vol. 3. No. 13. Jan. 1828. D the 



