1803.] 
fallen to the bottom of the channel, and 
have left the Rhone expofed. 
<< Tn following this cornice, we have alfo 
a near view of the re-appearance of the 
Rhone: one might expeét, perhaps, to 
fee it iffue again with the fame impetuof- 
ty with which it had been ingulphed ; but 
the channel which inclofes it, continuing 
extremely deep, in the firft place, and 
having apparently but little declivity, in 
the next, its waters, where they firit re- 
app-ar, feem to be almoft ftagnant; a 
flight bubbling only is difcernible 5 and it 
is by degrees, and at a confiderable dif- 
tance, that the Rhone refumes the rapidity 
by which it is charatterifed. 
“Teis faid, that light bodies have been 
thrown into the Rhone, for the purpole of 
a(certaining, whether they would be car- 
ried through by the current, but they 
have never made their appearance a fecond 
time: it is alfo faid, that-a live hog has 
been thrown in, being, among land ani- 
mals, one of the moft fkilful in fwim- 
ming: the poor creature was'never feen 
more. 
“* Indeed, it ought to have been forefeen, 
that this ‘ill-ftarred victim would be dafh- 
ed to piecesagainft the rocks among which 
the Rhone is precipitated, and that ‘its 
{kilfulnefs in fwinaming could not poffibly 
avail in preferving it from deltruétion, or 
in raifing it to the furface of the water. 
41s to the other bodies, whofe levity alone 
would have made them float, it fhould be 
confidered, that the Rhone does not make 
its appearance entire, in any fingle place, 
but that, contracted as it is ‘within 2 nar- 
row cleft, its waters acquire an aftonifh- 
ing impetuofity, and rife through oblique 
avenues, many of which are widely dif- 
tant from the {pot where its re-appearance 
is firft detected. 
*< If you fhould afk the reafon of the 
deep excavation which the Rhone makes 
in thefe rocks, I fhould imagine it is to 
be found in the very nature of tye ftone 
which compofes them. It is a calcareous 
ftone which grows foft in waftr, and con- 
{quentiy fuffers itfelf to be worn away 
with coafiderable facility. 
tion of the ftone manifefts itfelf in a thou- 
dand different ways. 
“< If you defcend to the cornice, and keep 
_clofe to the interior walls of the great 
channel, the rocks which compofe thefe 
walls, foftened by the waters that diftill 
from the fuperincumbent earths, exfuliate 
of themfelves, and the exfoliated particles 
crumble between the fingers. 
** ft is tie want of fol.dity in this fone, 
which is the reafon why thofe vaft frag- 
An Excurfion through France ta Geneva. 
This difpoti-. 
505 
ments are detached, under which the 
Rhone lofes itfelf. The bridge, which 
was thought to have been conftructed 
with fufficient ftability, upon large courfes 
of rock which border the channel, fell 
down fome years fince, together with the 
rocks which fupported it, and it became 
neceffary to rebuild it witha greater ele- 
vation, and to eftablith it on a broad bafe 
of ftone-work. 
“ The facility with which thefe recks ful- 
fer themfelves to be eaten away by the 
water, is manifefted alfo by the number of 
holes, or round pits, many feet wide, and 
of great depth, which one meets with in 
various places near the borders of the 
great channel. 
“it is not the Rhone.only which -has fo 
deeply hollowed thefe rocks: the Valfcel- 
line, which pafles under the bridge of 
Belle-garde, and falls into the Rhone, at 
two or three hundred paces below the {pot 
where it lofes irfelf, has excavated in thef 
fame rocks a bed of aflonuhing depth 
The confluence of theriver with this torrent 
preients.a very extraordinary appearance, 
well worthy the attention of travellevs. it 
is an Immente abyis, whole fides are com- 
pofed of calcareous rocks, perpendicular 
ly peaked, among which are to be diftin- 
guifhed fome horizoatal layers. At the 
bottom of this abyfs 2 mill is conftruéted, 
which fees to be inacceflible on every 
fide, and which muft be the moft fingular 
habitation, furely,'ia the world. 
s¢ The channel, at the bottom of which 
runs the Rhone after its re-appearance, 
meri's. al{o'to be viewed in a fine Jeafon: 
its ragged precipitous fides, at the depth of 
from a hundred toa hundred and fifty feet, 
are fringed with trees, whofe branches 
overhang from one fide to the other, and, 
intermingling, form an .almoft uninter- 
rupted arbour over the depths below, and 
fhed an obfcurity which renders them. 
move ftriking and more terribie. 
‘ Tn winter, this fame fi:uation prefents.a 
fincularit; of a different fort: all the fa- 
lient points of thefe rocks are charged 
witha number of large ftalaites of ice, 
which feem like chryital luftres deitined 
to illuminate the deep defile. 
‘¢ All thefe excavations grow deeper and 
deeperevery day: of this fact we have 
the unanimous teftimony of the neigh- 
bourhood. One caonot, be furpzifed at 
this, if we contider the aGtion of the Rhone 
againtt the bettem, particularly when its 
wateis are hich. In the fusmmer of 1777, 
it was railed: within haif a soot of the 
bridge cf Lucey, and confequently fifty. 
four and a half abeve the point to- er 
Ss: 
