1803.] 
my departure to give you of our tour: but 
the Voyages dans les Alpes of M. de Saul- 
fure are now lying before me; and, as 
T have an hour to ipare, it would be un- 
pardonabie Jazinefs not to tranflate the 
chapter which, in his Eat fur [Hiftoire 
Naturelle des Environs de Genéve, he has 
devoted to an inveftigation of the canfcs 
which proiuce the Lofs of the Rhone. 
OF this phenomenon he gives the following 
account (Chap. xvii. § 402 et feq.) 
*<«¢ The Khone, after having forced 
the narrow paflage of the Eclufe, between 
the extremity of Mont Jura and - the 
WVouache, winds round the foot of the 
Credo. The foot of this mountain is com- 
pofed of free-ftone, fand, argill, and 
round flints. Allthefe fubitances having 
but little adhefion to each other, are worn 
away by the Rhone, woich, inftead of ex- 
panding itlelf, grows narrower, and finks 
confiderably. This very, river, which, 
near Geneva, below its junction with the 
Arve, has an average breadth of 213 
feet, is not more than fifteen to fixteen 
feet wide under the bridge of Grezin, 
two leagues below l’Eclufe ; but it receives, 
in atonement, an enormous deepnets. 
«* At the diftance of half a league above 
this bridge, the Rhone, {till running in a 
deeply hollowed bed of argillaceous earth, 
meets a bottom of calcareous rocks, whofe 
horizontal layers fpread themflelves under 
the argill. 
<¢ One would imagine that thefe rocks, 
which appear hard under the hammer, 
would have refifted the erafions of the 
river, and have prevented it from finking 
deeper: on the contrary, it has penetrated 
thele rocks confiderably deeper than it did 
the earths: it-has excavated them fo com- 
pletely as to conceai tfelf, and entirely to 
difappear. This difappearance is called 
The Lofs of ihe Rhone. 
<¢ There are few travellers, from Lyons to 
# “© M. Guettard has prefented the Acade- 
my of Sciences with a very elaborate memoir 
on various rivers of Normandy, which enter 
the earth, and afterwards iffue from it again, 
and on fome others of France: Mém. de I’ 
Acad. pour 1758. At the end of this memoir, 
M. Guettard has given a defcription and a de- 
fign of the Lofs of the Rhone: but this ce- 
Jebrated naturalif& did not examine the phe- 
nomenon himfelf: the defign and defcrip- 
tion even which were tranfmitted to him ap- 
pear rather to have been made from a confuafed 
recollection than from an immediate view of 
the fcene. I fhall endeavour to offer’ more 
jut and philofophic ideas on the fubjeét, 
without ftosping to animadvert on the inac- 
e. 
xeferred to.” 
An Excurfion through France to Geneva. 
curacies of the defcription which I have jut 
203 
Geneva, who do not alight in order to 
witnefs this fingularity. ‘The peafants of 
Coupy, a fmall village, fituated at a 
quarter of a league above the poft of 
Vanchy, and which immediately overlooks 
the fpot where the Rhone lofes itfelf, fos 
licit travellers to defcend and fee this won- 
der. git 
“Tt is not equally ftriking at all feafons: 
in fummer, when the waters are high, 
they cannot all enter the excavation of tie 
rock; but in winter, and in f{pring, the 
Rhone is entirely engulphed and loft, and 
the fcene which it exhibits is truly inte- 
refting. 
<¢ The Rhone, before it reaches the place 
where it lofes itfelf, rums, as we have jut 
feen, in a deep bed, which is hollowed 
through argillaceous earth: this bed, in 
the mean time, grows gradually broader ; 
and as it is very even, and the declivity 
gentle, the waters, being unagitated, flow 
with majeftic tranquillity. But when the 
Rhone reaches the layer.of rock, which 
paffes beneath this argill, fuddenly the ~ 
rock fails under it—its bed takes the form 
of a funnel, and the whole ftream is in- 
ftantaneoufly fwallowed up with a pro- 
digious noife ; the waters dath againft one 
another, to{s each other up, and diffipate 
themfelves in foam. ' 
“¢ The rocks which form this funnel con= 
tract themfelves to fuch a degree, that 
there is a fingle {pot where the diftance 
from one fide to the other is. not two feet, 
fo that a’ man of moderate flature may 
ftand with one foot in France and the other 
in Savoy, and behold this noble fream 
fretting, as it were, with anger, and la- 
bouring to pafs with all poffible velocity 
the little defile which it, cannot cfcase. 
But this vofition would be ftill more peri- 
lous than fplendid: thofe overhanging 
points of rock, kept conflantly moift by 
the waters which dath on them, would 
form too flippery a pedettal over fo terit- 
ble an abyis. 
<A Jittle below this gulf the two fhores 
are further removed afunder, and the 
Rhone is feen running with tolerable calm- 
nefs at the boctem of a channel which is 
hollowed in the rock; this channel Is 
about thirty feet wide at the top, and pre- 
ferves its dimenfions for the depth of thir- 
ty or two-and-thirty feet: there it becomes 
confiderably narrowed, and at this depth 
a layer of rock is found much harder than 
the other, which throughout the extent of 
the channel is not eroded by the water. 
This layer is not above one or two feet 
thick, fo that the Rhone bas worn away 
the foil.almoft as much under as it has 
above it. This hard layer, therefore, 
: forms 
