74 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. [May. 



ralley, where they are accumu- 

 lated against the line of rocks 

 over which they precipitate them- 

 selves in cascades. The bed of 

 the Drance is completely con- 

 cealed, and this river, formed by 

 the waters from the more distant 

 glaciers, appears below this mass 

 of ice and snow. 



These masses of ice have 

 singularly increased since 1815. 

 The kind of vault or of natural 

 gallery, under which the Drance 

 once found its passage, was 

 closed up during the last winter, 

 and the waters, finding no passage, 

 have accumulated behind the 

 barrier of ice, and now actually 

 form a considerable lake. 



This barrier traverses the 

 breadth of the valley, and rests 

 upon the opposite sides of the 

 two mountains. Its length, mea- 

 sured in the higher part, is about 

 500 feet; its breadth, taken at 

 the base, is at least 900 feet ; and 

 its height, at the lowest part 

 near the side of Mauvoisin, is 

 about 220 feet, but it is much 

 more considerable on the side of 

 Mont Pleureur. 



The lake, on the 14th instant, 

 was 7,200 feet in length, about 

 360 feet in breadth, and its 

 greatest depth 1 80 feet, and the 

 waters are daily augmenting. 

 On the 10th and 11th of May 

 they have increased 8 inches in 

 Si hours. 



The Government of the canton 

 of Valais have wisely ordered 

 measures of precaution to be 

 taken in the places most exposed 

 to danger. These measures, 

 which are alone practicable in 

 the existing state of things, con- 

 sist in cutting a passage about 

 .50 feet below the snow of the 



lake, that time might be had to 

 effect this work before the waters 

 rise to this height. 



24. Bank of England. — It ap- 

 pears, from the accounts just pre- 

 sented to the House of Commons, 

 that the amount of the sums paid 

 by the public to the Bank, as a 

 remuneration for receiving the 

 contributions on loans, indepen- 

 dently of the annual expense of 

 management, from the year 1793 

 to 1816 inclusive, is 397,086/. 

 75. 3c?. : that the number of notes 

 discovered by the Bank to have 

 been forged, from the 1st of 

 June, 1812, to the 10th of April, 

 1818, distinguishing those from 

 \l. to 20/. and upwards, is one 

 hundred and thirty-one thousand 

 three hundred and sixty-one: that 

 the total expense of prosecutions 

 for forgeries, or uttering forged 

 notes, from the 1st of March, 

 1797, to the 1st of April, 1818, 

 amounts to the sum of 148,370/. 

 95. 3a?. : that the nominal value of 

 the notes, of which payment was 

 refused, from the Jst of January, 

 1816, to the 10th of April, 1818, 

 is 74,760/. ; and that the nominal 

 value of forged notes paid by the 

 Bank for the same period, which 

 was afterwards recovered on the 

 forgeries being detected, amount- 

 ed only to 75/. To show the 

 great and alarming increase of 

 forgeries of Bank of England 

 notes, the whole expense of their 

 prosecutions in the year 1797 was 

 only about 1,500/. ; while, in the 

 first three months of the present 

 year, it amounted to the enormous 

 sum of nineteen thousand eight 

 hundred and ninety pounds. 



The Royal yacht arrived at 

 six o'clock on Monday evening 

 25th at Dover, from Calais, with 



their 



