Miscellanies. 203 



The encasement was protected from the ravages of the torrent by 

 a very strong erection of heavy timber in the form of a cage, filled in 

 with large stones, and the conduit tubes were also defended by suit- 

 able structures. In the course of ten weeks the works were com- 

 pleted, and the tepid water was introduced into the baths on the 10th 

 of March. It lost, notwithstanding, its long course of one thousand 

 seven hundred and eleven feet, surrounded also by the cold water of 

 the Rhone only 5° of Fahr., so that it maintained a temperature of 

 30° Reaumur =99J° Fahr. 



Admitting with Bohenberger that the temperature of the earth in- 

 creases 1° Reaumur, (2^° Fahr.,) for every one hundred and twenty 

 feet of depth, and supposing, (which is very probable,) that this spring 

 is fed by the Rhone itself, the mean temperature of the river being 

 5° Reaumur, (43^° Fahr.,) the warm water must reach the surface 

 from a depth of three thousand two hundred and forty feet. 



According to all appearance it rises vertically, and as its issue is 

 situated precisely in the direction of the superposition of the lime- 

 stone upon the gneiss or schistose protogyne, it is very probable that 

 it comes directly from that rock. It contains, in fact, very little sul- 

 phate and carbonate of lime ; much less than the thermal waters that 

 issue from the limestone. 



It is very probable that it acquires the little sulphate and carbonate 

 of Lime, which analysis proves it to contain, only by traversing the 

 alluvium of the valley, in which is found much limestone gravel as 

 well as larger masses. 



The smell and taste of this water is sensibly sulphurous. Besides 

 sulphuretted hydrogen and azote, its principal ingredients are sul- 

 phate of soda, sulphate of magnesia, and chloride. of sodium. There 

 were in July about fifty bathers, and judging from the effect of the 

 waters, thus far used as a bath and as a drink, it is very efficacious in 

 cutaneous diseases, glandular swellings, rheumatism and urinary af- 

 fections. — Bib. Univ. Aout, 1832. 



2. Geology. — M. de Seckendorf has found in the Hartz, in the 

 midst of a quarry situated near the causeway which leads to Hartz- 

 •burg, fragments of grauwacke containing petrifactions, imbedded 

 (empates) in granite. M. Hartmann, the translator of Lyell's Geol- 

 ogy, confirms this statement. — Rev. Encyc. Sept. 1832. 



