of the Water of the Rhine, 439 



it enters the Lake of Geneva, after having received the tor- 

 rents descending from the mountains of the Valais, is fouled 

 with mud, or white with the calcareous matter which it holds 

 in solution* Having deposited this in the Lake Leman * 

 (thereby gradually forming an immense delta), it issues from 

 the lake perfectly pure, and flows through the streets of Ge- 

 neva so transparent, that the bottom can be seen 20 ft« below 

 the surface, yet so blue, that you might imagine it to be a 

 solution of indigo. In like manner, the Rhine, after purify- 

 ing itself in the Lake of Constance, flows forth, coloured of a 

 clear green ; and this, under all circumstances, and in all 

 weathers. It is sometimes said that this arises from the tor- 

 rents which supply these rivers generally flowing from the 

 glaciers, the green and blue colour of which may have given 

 rise to this opinion; but the colour of the ice is purely optical, 

 as the fragments detached from the mass appear simply white. 

 Perhaps some correspondent can afford me some information 

 on the subject. J. R. 



March, 1834. 



I CANNOT say that I think the Rhine is so extremely clear 

 and pellucid as J. R. states. In its passage through Germany, 

 where it receives the tributary streams of many districts, it 

 is, in places, very far from transparent ; and few persons who 

 have made the passage from Mainz to Cologne in the steamers, 

 can have failed to remark the shower ofdirty calcareous matter 

 which is constantly falling over the deck of the vessel, from 

 the steam, as it is condensed in the air. At the junction of the 

 Nahe with the Rhine at Bingen, the waters of the two rivers 

 may be traced a considerable way in separate unmingled cur- 

 rents, by the red tint of the former, which gains its hue from 

 the red-sandstone country whence it flows. The Rhone, also, 

 clear as it is immediately after leaving Geneva Lake, is, where 

 it goes underground near Carouge, of the colour and appear- 

 ance of pea soup. As to the colour of the Rhine waters, 

 after leaving the Lake of Constance, that doubtless depends on 

 causes similar to those which have given that well-known 

 cerulean tint to the Rhone at Geneva ; arising from some un- 

 known property of matter derived from the parent snows and 

 ice of the mountains, which acts upon light, so as to reflect 



* [This lake, however, if the poet have spoken truly, is not very fecu- 

 lent : — 



" Lake Leman wooes me with its crystal face. 

 The mirror where the stars and mountains view 

 The stillness of their aspect in each trace 

 Its clear depth yields of their far height and hue." 



Byron.] 



F F 4 



