Travels in the Tarentaise and various part of the Grecian and Pennine Alps, and in Switzerland and Auvergne, 1820-1822 - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1823 Excerpt: ...explain their present appearance in this part of Savoy. Water-courses, or atmospheric agency, however considerable their effects in the course of ages, appear altogether inadequate to occasion the changes the strata have obviously undergone; at least it will be admitted that no ' atmospheric action could bend strata of vast thickness into deep curves, or change their position from horizontal to vertical. I iWhether the caps of limestone on the summits of the mountains in this part of Savoy are all parts of one vast bed, or of different beds, I will not pretend to determine, as there is more than one considerable bed of sandstone interstratified with this lime stone, and themineralogical characters of the upper and lower beds of limestone are frequently so similar, that they are not to be distinguished. While we were at Chateau Duing, I visited a coal mine near the Lake of Annecy, called the Mine of Entreveines. It is situated in a calcareous mountain; and as the structure of this mountain may serve to explain the general structure of the mountains in Savoy, I reserved the description of it for that purpose. The mountain in which the mine is situated, is part of the western range that bordersthe upper end of the Lake of Annecy. One fine morning in June we set off at six o'clock to visit this mine. At the head of the lake, the road turned off to the right till we came to a village called'La Thuille, where we hired a waggon and two stout horses, with a. driver on foot, the road being extremely dangerous, particularly in descending. Common chars are not sufficiently strong for the purpose. Above La Thuille, there is an opening or rather an indentation in the mountain, through which an alpine zigzag road has been made to the coal mine. The limestone ...