Memoir of M. D'Aubuisson de Voisins. 13 



partments of Doira and Sesia was entrusted to him. This 

 was, no doubt, an anomaly, according to the existing rules ; 

 all that we can say on the subject is, that this anomaly could 

 not be justified by more real and special merit, by greater 

 scientific services in the past, and better guarantees for the 

 future. It was what I may call an extra-legal piece of good 

 fortune for the Administration of Mines, on which we may 

 freely congratulate ourselves, for an example attended by 

 such a concurrence of circumstances and of merit could not 

 be a dangerous precedent, 



M. D'Aubuisson remained five years in Piedmont ; and he 

 spent them in continual activity, in the midst of numerous 

 forges, the metalliferous mines of the sub-alpine country, and 

 the high belt of mountains which bounds it. From time to 

 time, however, he returned to Paris for the publication of his 

 scientific labours, which were never for a moment interrupted, 

 and for which he rendered the advantages of his position, in 

 the interesting localities around him, immediately available. 

 The depai'tments which he had to inspect, and which he may 

 be said to have had to organise in a mineralogical point of 

 view, were situated on the declivity of the Great Alps ; and 

 of this situation he availed himself for geological study on 

 the one hand, and on the other for experiments of the highest 

 interest on the important subject of the measurement of 

 heights by the barometer. 



His geological observations have been summarily stated 

 in a memoir inserted in the Journal of Mines, vol. xxix., 

 under the title of Statistique Miner alogique du Departement de 

 la Doire. Independently of the interest which always attaches 

 to the study of a little-known country, the composition of this 

 work, and the important generalities it contains, recommend 

 it to attention. It is by no means confined to mineralogical 

 observations, but embraces, so to speak, all the details of the 

 physical and climatological constitution of this side of the 

 Alps ; he describes, in a picturesque style, the disposition 

 of the valleys, the structure and aspect of the mountains, 

 the nature of the soil and cultivation ; gives the heights of the 

 principal summits, many of which had been measured by 

 the author himself ; he likewise states the result of his own 



