4&> ' A JOURNEY TO LAKE 



by calcareous matter prevented from uniting in one uniform line by the 

 Continual, but gentle undulation of the water entering into and efcap- 

 ing from the feveral baiins which are emptied by fmall and fucceffive 

 falls into the furrounding plain. By degrees, however, the fringed 

 edge becomes folid, and contracling the bafin, of which the hollow 

 fills likewife, the water takes a new courfe and makes new refervoirs 

 which. in their turn become folid. Although the water appear perfectly 

 tranfparent, the calcareous earth, which it depofits, is of different co- 

 lours; in the fir ft in (lance, near the mouth, it is delicately white with- 

 out a (lain; at a little diftance it affumes a pale flraw tint j and further 

 on, a deep faffron hue : in a fecond the depofit has a rofy hue, which, 

 as it recedes from the fource, becomes of a deeper red. Thefe va- 

 rious colours are depolited zn the ftrata, which hardening, retain the 

 tinges they received when foft ; and, give rife to varioufly flrati- 

 fied and veined Hone and marble. The whirls, twills, knots, and 

 -waves, which fome. of the fractured edges exhibit, are whim fically cu- 

 rious, and fhew all the changes which the ftony matter undergoes, from 

 foft tufa to hard marble • I obferved that the marble is generally formed in 

 ,the middle of the depth of the mafs, riling up with nearly a perpendi- 

 cular front of the height beforementioned : the table mult have been 

 .the work of ages. Tlie calcareous matter, which is fo largely diffolved 

 and fufpended by the water whilft hot, is probably furnifhed by the 

 chajky mountains ab©vc firtdfiur$ s but the origin of the heat, I have 

 no clue to difeoven, The water mud be moft flrangely fituated, for 

 two ftreams fo incon fi derable to throw down fuch a prodigious 

 quantity of earth ; and the furface where quiet is alfo covered with a. 

 -thin emit of femi-tranfparerjt matter like that which rifes on fuper« 

 Saturated lime water* 



:.-/it this plaoe s I left the wo@l which I had ■ obtained at Mi/an Tim 



