
and Franche Comté by Mount Fura, a 
much lower chain, and more refembling 
the mountains of other countries; yet 
Split here and there into feveral ridges; 
paralicl or inclined towards each other, 
between which are mterpoied the vailies 
ef Neufchatel, Bienne, and the bithupric 
of Bat, 
‘The country between the ilps and 
mount Jura approaches searer to a plain, 
Kei is rendered unequal in parts by rifings 
and hilly tra¢ts.. Nor is there any eee 
Bz Switserland a large extent of plain, 
srom witence no mmountai ns may be dif- 
cerned. The moft level are fome parts of 
ee canton of Zurich, and_the larger fub- 
zipine. vallies. 
The face of the Alps appears to me 
“mot fafiiciently known; I fhail oe 
hriciy deferibe it, as I have obferved it 
fm many journeys through its regions. 
Tbe Alps are entirely of a TOY, ma 
WIE, in moi places n naked about the fum- 
mit, with a middle girdle of patture, and 
the rects cloathed with woods of fir. 
Eheugh from a diftance they appea 
compeled of, pyramids far detached all 
Found from t neighbouring mountains, 
yet in reality, they are ridges, fome parts 
ef which are more elevated than the reft. 
‘Their height has ag been accurately de- 
tesmined. “Fhat of the mountain Dent 
€e Midi alone has been found to be 324: 
feet. above the level of the Rhone, by J. 
Garaaliel de Roverea, late engineer at the 
Bern falt-works, But 6 mountain 
lotes ail its inew. almoft every: year, and 
is the extreme and lower termination of 
the fouthe m-cnain. By an experiment of 
Loy 3, the Montagne Maudite, in Savoy, 
rifes 3,440 feet above the Leman-lake ; 
and. the dame, or more, is the height of 
Riount Schreckhorn, Sylvio, the thoun 
tains above Gothard, Septunus, and the 
Gr: fon ridges above Bormio. -For Mi- 
cneli’s calulation of 2780 perches £ for the 
beight of mount Gothard, depends upon 
an uncertain bafis hetween eae rg and 
- fixe ilps ‘The Alps, therefore, m ge- 
nera! rife to about 16,000 Faris feet above 
the fea; for the Leman-lake has an ele- 
Fation of 1,000 or 1,2e0 trom the fea. * 
_ Great part of the Alps ¢ appears covered 
svith fnow, which in many ridges is eter- 
nal. That which is feen is not, how- 
ever, fhow. A perpetual ice forms the 
exuii which covers the deciivities of the 
Alpine fummits, as with a breaft plate. 

seme 
Sir G. Shuckborough makes Mont 
Blanc , in Savoy, 15,662 feet. z 
Haller’ s Defeription of the Swifs Albss 
[ Sup. 
Upon this the fnow is feated. _ Hence the 
inhabitants rightly name Glet/cher what 
we *in German call /xowy mountains. 
This ice in fome places covers a breadth of 
a thoufand perches and more. Its under 
furface which faces the rock or fand, is 
generally hollow; and from this vault 
drops of water diftil on all fides, mof co- 
ae ty inthe fummer heats, w Ken a rivu- 
let {pi ings from every mais of ice. Such 
is de origin of the Rhine and Rhone,’ in 
the fource of which I have formerly 
quenched my. thirft; of the -Aar and 
Rus. To thefe waters, deftined to the 
produétion of rivers, acceflions are oeca~ 
fionally made, when the fnows melt from 
the warmth of the air or the heat of the 
fun; a circumfance which. principally 
happens from fudden fterms attended with 
thunder, or fouth- weiterly winds, to. the 
great terror and peril of the neighbour- 
ing inbabitants. 
“A third caufe of the rivers is the 
rain diftilling from the clouds, whenever 
they are fuddenly taken up from the: mid- 
dle ridge of the Alps, and di felved i inte a 
dewy fhowe x on the fummits of f the moun- 
tains; a phenomenon which I have feve- 
ral times witneiled. The conflux of thefe 
waters into rivulets is aided by the pecu- 
liar ftruéture of the Alps. The rocks 
which tower aloft are grooved by innu- 
merable trenches, AS are inclined 
planes, meeting at various angles.-—- 
Through thefe, firmly wroy ght in a ftony 
channel, the waters from the heavens de- 
fcend, and below the fummits of the 
Alps unite either into a lake, of which 
theie mountains contain a va{t multitude 
in their vallies, or into a rivulet. ‘A 
fream thus formed, augmented from 
fimilar fources, flows throu ogh the upper 
vailies in a fhallow channel ; “but as it de- 
fcends lower, where the mane has a 
more earthy foil, it digs itfelf a deep bed 
among the precipices; from whence 
rufhing in repeated cataracts, and often 
cathed into mift by its fail, it at leneth 
gains the valley. Here it brings down 
ftones torn from the mountains, and over- 
fpreads it. with a gr: avelly coat, till at lait 
it is either fwallowg& up in fome more 
extenfive lake, or is 1@@ein.a larger river. 
This is the common ftruéture of the 
Alps, WUPTERY they generate rivers, by 
the j junétion of waters as liquified ice, 
melting fhow, and rein and miit. 
The alpfie lakes, for the moft part, 
pour “ot “their waters by torrents pro- 
ceeding from them. From fome, how- 
ever, the water ftéals away through i im- 
perceptible chinks. Q: this Kind j is the 
lake 
