Summary irfihe Rain, Sfc, at Geneva. 



101 



SUMMARY OF THE RAIN, &C. AT GENEVA, AND AT THE ELE- 

 VATED STATION OF THE PASS OF GREAT ST BERNARD, FOR 



A SERIES OF YEARS. FroM the BibHotJieque Universelle for 

 March 1828. with observations on the same. By 

 John Dalton, F.R.S. ■ ^- 



Geneva is situated in latitude 46° \9! N. and about 6° E. 

 longitude from London ; its elevation is 450 yards above the 

 sea ; its distance from the Atlantic is 360 miles, and from the 

 Mediterranean 160 miles. The high mountains of the Alps 

 form an immense amphitheatre from Geneva, extending more 

 than 100 miles to the eastward. The mountain Great St 

 Bernard is one of the higher Alps, over which is a public road 

 or pass into Italy. It is about sixty miles to the south-east of 

 Geneva. There is an inn or convent at the pass for tlie conve- 

 nience of travellers ; in summer the road is practicable without 

 much danger; in winter it is impassible; in spring and autumn 

 the traveller is oft^n in danger, and sometimes perishes by the 

 sudden and unexpected falls of snow, by the descent of masses 

 of ice and snow from the sides of the mountains, or by extreme 

 cold. The height of the pass above the level of the sea is 

 2720 yards, which is between two and three times the height of 

 Snowdon. 



The scientific gentlemen of Geneva have very laudably availed 

 themselves of the opportunity which the situation at St Bernard 

 afforded them, of ascertaining the meteorological phenomena at 



