( 144 ) 
• ' gcnions Gentleman’s Obfervations ; becayfe all the plates 
being not yet Engraven, it may be fome time e’re the 
’ Book is publifh’d;^ and in regard nothing clfe occurs at 
prelent, that I can fuppofe fo acceptable, or indeed worth 
lending. ' * ♦ • 
What chiefly falls under his Confideration is the Na-r 
tiire of the Alpine Waters and Meteors ; the Height, 
&c,o^ the Mountains, and the moil Remarkable Mi- 
nerals and Plants they afford He has alfo fome Occafi- 
onal Obfervations on Animals ; and others in the Pra- 
ftice of Phyfick, and on the Cuffoms and Diet of the 
Inhabitants; together with fome Inffances of theSuper- 
ffition of the Common People, and a few Notes rela- 
ting to Antiquities. Any of tliefe Subjeffs he takes no- 
tice of, after the manner of other Journals, as they oc- 
cur ; but having now read the Sheets all over, and feen 
feveral of the Tables, the Account I fend, tho’ imper- 
fedf, is according to thefe General Heads. 
Firff as to the ALPINE WATERS*, Befides thofe 
which are Medicinal, he has feveral Obfervations oii the 
Rivers and Brooks. The Rhine he affirms to have chang- 
2. h 27. ed its old Courfe, between Roncaglia and the DISTRICT 
OF SCHAMS. As for the VdUy ('fays he_) of La iVia 
mala ; If rve m^y not fuppofe it to have been anciently at the 
. - lower end unopen ; we mujl of necejjity allow it to have been 
. gradually one Age after another conftderably deprefsd^ by the 
Impetuous Current of the Latter Rhine. >Tis niofl certain^ 
and from the Track of the Water which has polifAtheStones^ 
demonfir able \ that very anciently (we may perhaps fuppofe it: 
in' the FirH Ages after the Deluge f the Courfe of the R.\\m€ 
was along La Via mala, whereas it now runs thrc^ Deep 
Caverns and Clefts of Rocks about 200 Foot below that 
Road. The like Obfervation is alfo made by Mr. C<?/- 
on the Courfe of x\\^Taminna^ which runs by the 
-- Pepper Bath^ in his German Treatile jof thofe Waters ; 
' but our Author judges it andiffidult Experhnexit,if at'all 
pra&- 
f 
