288 rHILO!^OPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1728. 



comes, according to Mariotte, to lOQ), and according to Dr. Scheuchzer, to 

 1955 Paris feet perpendicular. 



At the Capuchins, on the higli mountain S. Gothard, a celebrated passage 

 out of Switzerland into Italy, the Mercury stood, June 30, J 705, at 22 inches; 

 which gives the height of that passage, which with regard to the highest tops 

 of S. Gothard, lies but as it were at the foot of a high mountain, according to 

 to Mariotte 852 toises, or 5112 feet, and according to Dr. Scheuchzer, 875-i 

 toises, or 5255 feet, above the level of the sea. 



On the Furca, a high mountain between the Urseren Thai, Ursaria Vallis, 

 and the Upper Vallesia, and one of the branches of the S. Gothard, the height 

 of the Mercury in the barometer was observed, July 31, 1707, at 21yV inches; 

 which give the height of this mountain above the level of the sea, according to 

 Mariotte, 947^ toises, or 5683 feet, and according to Scheuchzer, 973^- toises, 

 or 5841 feet. Near this mountain there are others, which cannot be less than 

 800 or 900 feet higher. 



These mountains, the Avicula, the Luckmannier Berg, the S. Gothard, and 

 the Furca, together with the Grimsula, the Crispalt, the Sempronier, or Sem- 

 pronius Mons, the Adula, and a chain of others, are the Lepontiae Alpes of 

 Pliny, (Lib. 3, c. 20,) and the Summae Alpes of Caesar (De Bello Gallico, 

 lib. 3). They begin in the Upper Vallesia, then traverse the canton of Uri, 

 and so run on eastward, across the country of the Grisons, towards Tirol. 

 Their greatest height above the level of the sea, may be fixed in round num- 

 bers to 7500 or 8000 Paris feet. 



It is on these very mountains, that some of the most considerable rivers of 

 Europe take their first rise, within very small distances of each other. The 

 Rhone, for instance, Rhodanus, by Marcellinus called maximi nominis flumen, 

 and by Varro, Fluvius inter tres Europas maximus, arises from two gletchers, 

 as they are called, or montes glaciales, huge mountains of ice, near the Furca, 

 and thence runs with great impetuosity down Vallesia, the Wallisserland, form- 

 ing a long valley, surrounded on both sides by huge mountains, till it loses its 

 waters and name in the Lacus Leinannus, or Lake of Geneva, but resumes it 

 again near the town of Geneva, whence it flows with a more gentle descent 

 through soine provinces of France into the Mediterianean sea. 



The Thecin, Ticinus, by Claudian, in his panegyric on the consulate of the 

 Emperor Honorius, called Pulcher, the handsome, takes its first rise from two 

 small lakes on the S. Gothard, and some lateral sources from the Lago sopra 

 la Cima di Pettine, on a mountain called Pettine, the Lago della Sella, the 

 lake of Rottom on the Luckmannier Berg, the lake of Tom, and tlie lake of 



