which afford a passage to liivers. 33 



to opposite declivities do not cut across tlie axis of the princi- 

 pal chains." * 



The fact is, that this peculiarity, — undoubtedly a very 

 marked one, — is met with in many mountain-chains in all the 

 four quarters of the vporld. 



To commence with Europe. — Our iirst example shall be 

 the Rhone, in the course it follows, to pass from the plain of 

 Geneva into that of Lyons. It fii'st crosses the passage of 

 I'Ecluse, which is an opening separating the first range of the 

 Jura from the mountain Vuache ; then it turns suddenly 

 westward, and escapes from the first range, when it recovers 

 its southward direction at Bellegarde. Between CuUes and 

 Chanaz, it crosses the second range without changing its di- 

 rection ; but at Pierre-Chatel, it turns suddenly to the west, 

 in order to travei'se an appendage of the second range ; it 

 then resumes its southern direction as far as St Genis d'Aoste, 

 Here the river describes an acute angle, and flows to the north- 

 east, to cross the third range between Grolee and St Sorlin, 

 and to escape entirely from the chain of the Jura. This place 

 is described by M. Jules Itier, in his manuscript memoir on the 

 asphaltic rocks of the chain of Jura. Amongst the numerous 

 and vast fractures which cut across that chain, " I shall cite," 

 he says, " the transverse valley which the Rhone follows in its 

 course from Cordon to St Sorlin ; it is evidently the result of 

 a displacement which has formed, on the right bank of the 

 Rhone, the escarpements of Glandieux at St Sorlin, and on 

 the left bank, those of Quirieux at Vertrieux, as well as the 

 narrow gorge of St Alban, in which the Rhone scarcely at- 

 tains the breadth of 75 metres." 



Our readers will peruse with interest, 1 doubt not, t)ie re- 

 flectitms made by Addison on the same subject, in 1702, in 

 his liemarks on several parts of Italy, Swit:serland, and the 

 Tyrol, page 309.f " As I have seen a great part of the course 

 of this river, I cannot but think it has been guided by the 

 particular hand of Providence. It rises in the very heart of 



* Bibliotheque Univ. de Geneve, No. 39. Mare 1839, p. 127. 

 t Remarks on several parts of Italy, &c. 12mo. H.igue 1718. 



VOL. XXVIII. NO. LY. — J.VNUARY 1840, C 



