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some power from beneath, upheaving the
whole mass with a force which was most intense,
near the present centre of the mountain.
The latter appears the more probable
supposition, in all those cases where
the strata dip in opposite directions on the
opposite sides of a mountain, and are nearly
flat at tlie top. To this breaking up of the
strata, when the mountains were first
raised, and to diluvial currents which have
in remote periods passed over them, I am
persuaded, we must resort to explain their
present appearance in this part of Savoy.
Water-coiirses, 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.
Whether 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 lime185
stone, and the mineralogical 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 borders the 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 I^a 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 of this mountain is extremely
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