286 On the Seklies of the Lake of Geneva. 



where it is chiefly remarkable, at an early period excited the 

 attention of the naturalists of Geneva. About the commence- 

 ment of the eighteenth century, Fatio de Duilliers, a mathema- 

 tician and accurate observer, described it in a memoir which was 

 inserted in the second volume of Spon's History of Geneva, and 

 was entitled Remarqiies sur VHisloire Naturelle des Environs du 

 Lac. Shortly after. Professor Jallabert alluded to it in the Me- 

 moires de VAcademie des Sciences, Finally, M. Serre in the 

 Journal des Savans, Professor Bertrand in an academic disser- 

 tation which has not been published, and M* de Saussure in the 

 fifth volume of his Voyages aucc Alps^ have successively alluded 

 to it. 



Three of these observers have attempted to furnish an expla- 

 nation. The first is Fatio de Duilliers, who imagines that strong 

 breezes of wind driving the waters towards the town of Geneva, 

 there more or less alter their level, which they do not at 

 once resume, but only after many oscillations. Jallabert having 

 remarked that the hypothesis of Fatio could not explain those 

 Seiclies which occurred in calm weather, attributes the pheno- 

 menon to sudden rises of the river Arve, retarding the course of 

 the Rhone, and consequently forcing it back on the waters of 

 the lake. Professor Bertrand having refuted both of these sup- 

 positions, proposes a third, in which he alleges that the Seiches 

 are produced by electrical clouds, which, attracting the waters of 

 the lake, produce pulsations, the effect of which is more apparent 

 where the opposite sides of the lake approach the nearest. 



The contrariety of these explanations, which moreover were not 

 based on any series of observations, only excited (says Vaucher) 

 my curiosity. In truth, I thought less of discovering the causes 

 of the phenomenon, than of appreciating the value of the differ- 

 ent solutions which had been given of it ; whilst, at the same 

 time, it appeared to me almost a disgrace to our city, and more 

 especially to our scientific Society, that so singular a circum- 

 stance should occur every day under our eyes, without an en- 

 deavour to determine its true cause ; and sometimes I regretted 

 that Saussure himself, to whom the explanation almost of right 

 belonged, had never undertaken it. 



There is almost an invincible interest in seeking after causes, 

 which often leads us away almost in spite of ourselves ; and 

 there was in this singular phenomenon even more than the usual 



