hard, and is in some parts nearly white, in
others veined with red, evidently coloured
by oxid of iron, ferruginous water percolating
through its fissures. I observed
that the limestone alternated with sandstone
(molasse), but the road did not admit
of my ascertaining the thickness ofthe
latter. When we had ascended for about
an hour and a half, we found ourselves in
a moimtain-valley between two ranges of
limestone rocks declining north to the
middle of the Lake of Annecy. The annexed
section represents the position of
the coal-strata imbedded in the calcareous
mountains.
There is a rivulet which cuts the strata
nearly at right-angles, and would have afforded
an excellent section of the strata on
each side of the coal, were it not for a quantity
of rubbish from the mine, which has
been thrown into it. But to make the description
intelligible, I must refer to the section
p la te ;— A, upper part of a mountain
valley, more than 2000 feet above the lake,
and sloping down to it : and B and c, the
mountains which bound the eastern and
western side o fth e mountain-valley ; these
should be considered as parts of the same
mountain, in which a longitudinal grove or
valley had been excavated ; D D, is a brook
running transversely across the eastern side
of the valley, intersecting the strata nearly
at right-angles, and descending down the
opening along which the road to the mine
is made ; e e, strata of limestone distinctly
visible, dipping at an angle of about seventy
degrees : / to / , strata of sandstone and
shale, with a bed of coal consisting of three
seams ; separated by seams of iron clay, and
varying in thickness, affording from one to
three or four feet of good coal ; the coal is
worked by horizontal galleries, g g , one
over the other, as if it were a perpendicular
vein.
Unfortunately the mine was not working
Lw