584 An Excurfion through Franee to Geneva. 
which I have given the dates; that, for 
inftance, on June 23, 16733; when, al- 
though the courle of the Rhone was cer- 
tainly fufpended, it was not impelled back, 
becaule its waters were fuificiently high to 
refit thofe of the Arne. 
It is obvious, that the concurrence of an 
inundation of the Arne, and a diminution 
of the Rhone, muft be extremely rare, if 
we confider, that, the two rivers deriving 
their waters from the fame chain of moun- 
tains, the fame gereral cautes muft, at the 
fame feafons »produce their increafeand their 
decreafe. ‘There muft be the operation of - 
fome very fingular circumftance : forexam- 
ple, a very hot fouth-wind blowing, in the 
depth of winter, over the lofty Faucigny, 
and fuddenly melting a large quantity of 
fhow, or pouring torrents of rain over 
thofe mountains, which ufually receive 
only fnow even in the {pring and the au- 
tumn. 
This confideration, however, 1s, to be 
modified by another, namely, that, al- 
though the mountains which pour their 
flreams into the Rhone fhould receive, 
like thofe of the Arne, and at the very 
fame time, confiderable fupplies of wa- 
ter yet the imcreafe of the ‘Rhone, 
at and below Geneva, can never. be 
fo rapid as that of the Arne; _be- 
caufe the former can never eievate its wa- 
ters at the exit of the lake, rill it has pre- 
Vioufly elevated the whole furtace of that 
valk bafin; the Arne, on the contrary, 
which, throughout tts courte, has no re- 
fervoir to fuppiy, can fil itielf ina very 
fhort time. 
The angle with which the two flreams 
join mutt confiderably regulate the force 
with which they ai upon each other: the 
greater this angle is, tre more perpendi- 
cularly the Arne ruthes into the Rhone, 
the greater is its power to drive it back. 
‘This angle varies: About twelve or fit- 
teen years.ago*, the Arne ran clofe be- 
fide the hil! Batie, and fell into the Rhone 
with very conferable obliquity; after- 
wards, a part of its waters forced their 
way over jome fand, and formed an arm, 
which entered the Rhone under an angle 
which approached very near to a right 
angle. But now the Arne, Ly conftant 
action,. has hollowed itfelf a bed, which 
keeps clofe befide the Gardins, the angle 
ef whch is.very obligue. Analogous 
changes may take place at any time, and 
occafion a greaier or aminor ifuence of 
~- 
* Thefe obferyations were publithed in the 
Ee se Pas 
{ Dterty 
the Arne upon the Rhone. It is highly 
neceflary, therefore, if pofiible, to main- 
tain the angle in its prefent degree of ob- 
liquity. 
M. de Sauffure, from whole ‘* Voyages 
dans les Alpes’ 1 have tranflated, for your 
information, the preceding paflages, fays, 
that the water of the Arne, when it has 
depofited the flime with which it is char- 
ged, is of the very pureft quality. That 
of the lake and of the Rhone, though 
more pure than the moft celebrated foun- 
tains in the environs, is, notwithftanding, 
lefs fothan that of the Arne: of this,fayshe, 
I am convinced by chemical experiments. 
—Voyages dans les Alpes, tom.i. §. 15. ef 
Ms 
Geneva is an irregularly built town, 
whofe fortificaticns feem to be tolerably 
firong; the houfes are lofty and lar 
conftructed like the inns of court 
London, and the colleges at Cambridge, 
where one common ftair-cafe leads to feve- 
ral apartments, which are here inhabited 
by private families. Any one, who has 
lived in chambers at Lincoln’s Inn or the 
Temple, can eftimate the naftinefs of thefe 
public ftair-cafes, which are more fre- 
quently {wept by the gowns of the ladies, 
than by the brufh of the houfe-maid. 
The ftreets 2re in general wide, and the 
loftinefs-of the free-flone houles would 
produce a very ately and fine effect, if it 
were not for the odious deformity pro- 
duced by the arcades, which are erected 
before moft of the houfes, and throw @ 
eloom over the whole freet. Thefe ar- 
cades are confiruGied of wood, and fome- 
times rife to a level with the roofs of the 
houfes: they project very confiderably, 
and thus reduce a fpacious and noble 
ftreet info a narrow and mean-looking 
lane! Their object is to give foot-paffen- 
vers fhelter from the rain, and fhade from 
the fun, and, at the fame time, to afford 
a convenience for drying linen, &c. 
Many of the Genevans have country- 
houtes at the diflance of one, two, three, 
or four miles from the town: in our little 
walks upon the banks of this moft noble 
lake, we fee a great many feats which com- 
mand profpetts of indeferibable magni- 
ficence. The mountains whichfurtound the 
lake are now ccvered with {now; and where 
the fun fhines brilliantly on their broken 
fides, they feem to be almoft tranfparent: the 
view of them gives an idea that I am look- 
ing at a fetting-fun, (for the hue which 
fuffufes them is fomething between orange - 
and purple), through an immenfe body of 
cleax ice; and the cracks which one may 
{uppole. 
¢ 
Ss 
