1802. ] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
I SHALL efteem myfelf greatly obliged 
to .one of your Readers, converfant 
in the law, for informing me, through the 
medium of your excellent Magazine, whe- 
ther the venders of ftamps, in town or 
couniry, can be juftified in making an ad- 
ditional charge of a half-penny or penny 
“on any one ftamp, of whatever-defcription, 
which generally is on a piece of paper 
about the fixteenth of a fheet. I mean 
ftamps for receipts or drafts. 
Sept. 15, 1802. Your's, &c. 
Koodo. 
ee 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTERS avritien during a late EXCUR- 
SION through FRANCE to GENEVA. 
(Continued from vol. 13, p- 522, No. 88.) 
“LETTER VI.—Geneva, Dec. 22, 1801. 
OU know the fituation of this de- 
lightful town: it ftands embofomed 
in the Alps, which feem to forma cir- 
cumvaliation for its defence. . Although 
protected, as I imagine it muft be, by the 
mountains which encompa{s it, from eve- 
ry wind, except the north and fouth (the 
line of diregtion which the valley takes), 
the winters are exceflively keen*: the 
froft is now fetting in, and the flakes of 
fnow fall faft. Geneva ftands on the 
brink of the lake, on the narrow neck of 
it, where it lofes both its chgra&ter and its 
name, and is identified with the Rhone, 
whofe dark-blue waters flow with a deep, 
but impetuous, current through the town. 
You have doubtlefs heard it afferted, 
that this mighty river holds a majeiic 
courfe throughout the lake, from one ex- 
tremiry to the other, difdaining to mingle 
with its waves : this, however, is not true. 
I Jearn, that, in‘ fummer-time, from the 
melting of the.fnows, the Rhone, when 
it enters into the lake, brings with ita 
* Very foon after we left Geneva, the 
weather fet in extremely fevere: the cold 
commenced.about the 12th of January, and 
continued for three weeks, during which 
time, the mercury in Reaumur’s thermome- 
ter was nineteen degrees and a half below no- 
thing, fometimés varying half a degree, but 
very feldom rifing above nineteen degrees. 
, The inhabitants were, in genera), much 
affected by the intenfity of the froft, the 
young as wellas the old: many dogs died in 
the ftreets; but this mortality was, in a 
great meafure, attributed to the want of 
water. 
Montsiy Maa, No, 94, 
Enquiry relative to Stamps. 
383 
prodigicus body of water, which, by its 
great force, preferves a diftinguifhable 
current for a quarter or half a mile ; it then. 
becomes fo completely mixed, thatno ftream 
is difcoverable till within about the fame 
difiance from Geneva. A much more ftrik- 
ing effect is produced by the jurétion of 
the Arne and the Rhone, than by that. cf 
the Rhone and the lake. ‘The Arne, 
which takes its rife in the fouth-eatt, falls 
into the Rhone ar the diftance of about a 
quarter of a league from the town: the 
two rivers run tegether for more than 
half a league betore their waters are 
blended: the ftreain is broad, and, on 
one’ fide, is the brown and muddy 
Arne, while on the other are ditingly 
feen the clear, blue, untainted waters of 
Rhone. 
The Rhone does not long preferve the 
Iimpidneis which it has in iffuing from 
the lake. At aquarterof a league from 
Geneva, after this fine river has refrefhed 
With its waters, yet pure, the gardens 
which are below the town, the river, or 
rather the torrent, Arne, which defcends 
“ 
a 
from the lofty Alps in the vicinity af °-*- 
Mont Blanc, mixes impetuoufly its muddy. 
waters with thofe of the Rhone : this lat- 
ter, as if defirous to avoid the contamina~- 
tion, flows befide the oppofi’e bank ; and, 
for a confiderable diftance, is to be feen its 
biue tranfparent fiream running in the 
fame bed, but feparate from the grey and 
troubled waters of the Arne. 
The Aine is fubjeét to fudden and con- 
fiderable fwellings: it has four times filled 
itfelf to fuch adegree, that, being unable 
to run with fufficient rapidity between the 
hills which confine it below its junétion 
with the Rhone, the waters of the torrent 
have flowed back in the bed of the river, 
which it has forced upwards againft tha 
Jake, and made to turn, in its inverted 
courfe, the mills conftruéted on its banks 4 
This fingular phenomenon was obferved 
on Dec. 3, 1570; on Nov. 21, 16513; on 
Feb. 10, 1711; and Sept. 14, 1733. ‘The 
particulars of that which took place in 
171z are related in M, Fatio’s «Re. 
marques fur! Hifforre Naturelle des Envi- 
rons da Lac de Genéve, tom. it. p. 464." 
‘The extreme rarity of this phenome. 
non arifes from the curious concurrence of 
circumitances which produces it: the 
Arve nif be confiderably {woln, and the , 
Rhone muft, at the fame time, be very, 
low. Ifthe waters of the Rhone are high, 
they will not fuffer the Arne to re-flow ja 
its bed. Much greater inusdations of 
the Arne have been witneiled than thole of 
3 C which 
