53B Sir george shuckburgh’s Obfervations 
vale beneath, feveral little hamlets, and the molt beautiful 
pafturages, with the river Arve winding and foftening 
the fcene ; from whence arofe a thick evaporation, col- 
lecting itfelf into clouds, which on the lake, that was 
quite covered with them, had the appearance of a fea of 
cotton, the Sun-beams playing in the upper furface of 
them with thofe tints that are feen in a fine evening. 
To the fouth-weft appeared the lake of Annecy; be- 
hind us, taking up one-fifth of our horizon, lay the 
Glacieres, and amongft them, towering above all the reft, 
flood Mont Blanc. The circumference of the horizon 
might be about 200 Englifh miles; and, though not one 
of the moft extenfive, yet certainly one of the moft varied 
in the world. From this fpot the clouds had a ftriking 
appearance to an inhabitant of the plain; very few of. 
them at above one- fifth of the height that we were now 
at; not governed by the wind, but moving in every pof- 
lible direction ; fome of them feemed creeping along the 
ground, whilft others were riling perpendicularly be- 
tween the hills. And I may here remark, that from 
Geneva I have obferved the clouds were, generally three 
days in the week below the fummit of Mont Saleve; fo 
that the ordinary region of thefe vapours feems to be at 
that height in the atmofphere, where the barometer: 
would Hand at about 2 6 inches in this climate. 
7 
While 
