644 
people themfelves difinguifh] by a peculiar 
wame from the craggy Alps. Thete. are 
entirely compoied ot gravel, or at leait 
arched beneath by rocks concealed under 
muéh earth, nearly as in the Fercynian 
valley.. 
_From. thefer mountains innumerable hills 
are derived, feparated by little watered 
dales ¥ without any certain order. In the 
hills, whetfone prevails, which may be 
met. with every where from the village 
of Lutry to. Burgdorf, either naked and 
broken, « or buried fini a littléearch; on 
- fandy n mountain of which kind the city 
of Bern is placed. 
I do not find, however, that inthetraéts . 
of Switzerland, there is any uniformity of 
the various {pecies of ftone. About Lu- 
try, whe honed iscdug. Then fucceeds. a 
hard calcarious ftone continued from the 
Alps. With thefé are mingled fiony con- 
Cretions of flints, cemented by a hard 
matter: thefe may be found [cattered by 
th road from Cuilly to St. Saphorin. 
Hard calcarious : rocks again fuccced be. 
yond Chilon,, and true marble of various 
colours, which on all fides hangs over the 
prineipal valley. ¢ ot Aigle. Vet the. fame 
narble is here and as interrupted by.a 
reddith whetitone, on this fide Iv orne; ; and 
byt muchey ypium beyond the Grand id as 
The. neighbouring rocky part of the Va 
Tais_is deititute of marole, A fchi 
comes downto Bex, above which town ied 
38 fit for flatng. Thence it aicends into 
the Alps. 
Thus, when the hill near Bern, bevoi ad 
3 = 
the Aar, was dug through for making 
the high-road, ¥ far ed micaceous 
ftone and Alpine qi uartz, intermingled in 
the quarry with a round lime- fone, and 
gritty whet‘fone. Ciay alfo covers the 
whole mountan Torat, the rocks of which 
confit of whetltone. 
I fhall add, that the Swil fs marbles are 
all varioufly a loured, no white ones hay- 
dng been found; fo that we are ignorant 
whence the Raniens brought we ayed 
nenic mafies of white marble which are 
feen in the building and ffatucs at_Aven- 
‘ches... The marbie climbs to the higher 
regions ; for 2 kind, variegated swith roie- 
colour and green, is frequently found 
“apout the i icy rocks oF the valley of Grin- 
deiwald, in fallen neaffés, but not in en- 
tire socks, A very beautiful black kind 
is dug near St. Tryphon; a kind varie- 
gated “yellow, aih- coloured, and blood- 
red, about Roche; and hear it, an afh- 
ecloured and {petted kind; about Spiez, 
2 black with white veins, of w! hich the 
keoules in Bern are uiually built aboye 
Helter’s Defcriptin of the Siwife Abs. 
ground; The blueith whetfone of Bern 
is very t perninals ; but is has the iault of 
attr acting 1 moifwure to iuch a de egree, as to 
coniume itfelé it it touches the earth. 
lints, jalperine, white, red, green, and 
biack, every wnere abound in the riyutets 
of Switzerland: the black enes are izid 
to contain ome gold. The fands connit 
of triturated quartz, f little pebbles, | like 
grandtes; and other cpt the beds of 
rivers are gener aily ftrewed with very fiat 
oval Boe eia ot a iandy mature, extremely 
ht fcr the experiments of the celebrated 
Spallanzami. 
Chaik is unknown in ‘Switaer rland, 
though it abounds in calcarious ftones. 
No where, alio, are to be found large 
tracts of fand: thofe which there are, ap- 
peat. either about the margins of lakes, or 
the fhores of rivers. 
Tnow come to the fubjeé&t which the 
preceding obfervations. were intended to 
intreduce;. namely, the variety of plants 
which Switzerland produces. This va- 
riety is connected with the fituation, of 
places, the water, but principally the air. 
_. Switzerland .reprefents almoit all the 
countries in Europe; from the farthett 
Lapland, and even Spitzbergen, to Spain. 
About. the rocks of ice, in the highelt val- 
leys. of the Alps, the temperature of the’ 
air is the fame with that of Spitzbergen: ~ 
the .fuminer.is extremely fhort, fcarcely 
coniitting of forty days, and thofe teo in- 
terrupted by fhow; and all the Felt of the 
year is fevere Pane: Hence moft of the 
plants found by Martens in Spitzfbergen, 
are produced near on glacieres of the Alps. 
Since thefe plants in Spitzbergen. and 
Greenland grow near the dea, it appears, 
that the caufe why they are alfo peculiar 
tothe Alps isnot the levity of’ the air, 
but the cold; for im this refpect, the: cli- 
mate of the Alps refembles.that of the 
remoteit north ; “but in the weight of the 
aw it is extremely different. 
Fyom thence, on leaving the eternal ice, 
paftures fucceed; firtt.poor, ftoney, and 
irequented by theep alone; in. which 
plants of the humbleit growth, all peren- 
nial, and many of them dittinguitbed by 
white flowers, compote fhort turf. 
are in general har der than:common, more 
tenacious of their colour in «drying, and- 
They 
more aromatic, fo as that even the com 
mon ranunculufes have a-grateful odour. 
The paitures, becoming more and more 
fertile, now fuifice for cows, which remain 
in them the forty days that alone are irce 
from {now, nor then, indeed, with perfect 
conftancy.’ In that region numerous plants 
“are produced, which are commonly called 
alpine 3 
