CATARACTS, ANT) INUNDATIONS. 169 



disorders of the stomach, fluxes, and even lameness, and more so 

 indeed than the waters at Aix, in Savoy. La Mothe is a valley 

 about five leagues from Grenoble, that runs between two hih moun- 

 tains, and has no other prospect but that of bare and steep rocks. 

 The only dwellings here are wretched huts of straw, so that the 

 country is in every respect disagreeable. The Drac, a very rapid 

 river, proceeding from the high part of the district Jof Gap, is, as 

 it were, squeezed in at La Mothe between two high rorks, previous 

 to its falling into the Isere. On its shore, at the foot of a very 

 steep rock, is the mineral spring, which, if the river rises but half a 

 foot, is covered with its turbid water. 



Aix, is in Latin Aquce Sextice, and called Aquas from its baths, 

 and Sextice from its being enlarged and beautified by Sextus Calvi- 

 ims. This was the first sett lenient made in Gaul by the Romans, a 

 hundred and twenty-four years before Christ. This city, which 

 was the capital of Provence, and the seat of its parliament, stands 

 in a valley of considerable extent, planted chiefly with olives, in 

 43" 32' north latitude, and 5* 26' east longitude from Greenwich, 

 twenty miles to the northward of Marseilles, and thirty-five to the 

 south-east of Avignon. In its suburbs, the warm mineral spring, 

 once so celebrated by the Ramans, was found a second time in 1704, 

 on digging fur the foundation of a house. The waters are found 

 serviceable in gout, gravel, scurvy, palsy, indigestion, asthma, 

 and consumption. The magistrates have raised a plain building, 

 in which are two private baths, and a bed-chamber adjoining 

 to each. Mr. Sicinburne observes that the waters are scarcely 

 warm, and almost tasteless. The town is plentifully supplied 

 with water, flowing on all sides from the impending hills. In the 

 year 1771 an inundation overspread all the lower quarter of the 

 city, to the height of from twelve to fifteen feet ; when all the 

 vintage was entirely destroyed, together with much cattle, and 

 numbers of inhabitants. 



In the neighbourhood of Clermonr, in that part of France which 

 >untill lately was called Auverne, are wells, the waters of which 

 possess such a quality that any substance laid on them soon contracts 

 a stony crust. The most remarkable of these is that in the suburb 

 of ST. ALLIER, which has formed a famous stone bridge, mentioned 

 by many historians. This bridge is a solid rock composed of 

 several strata, formed during the course of many years by the run* 



