but about 500 yards further north than the
present mine, the strata bend to the east.
The men who work in the mine, told me
that the coal is continued to the bottom of
the valley, and crosses the Lake of Annecy
in a direction toward Château Menthon,
which is not improbable. I found in the
same range as thè mine a similar sandstone
to what accompanies the coal, about six
miles lower down, near the lake. The coal
of Entreveines is worked at the height of
3500 feet above the level of tlie sea.
I suppose some of my readers have already
determined this coal of Entreveines
to be anthracite, from its occurrence in the
Alps ; if so, they are greatly mistaken. The
coal is black and shining : it breaks into
acute-angled fragments, and does not soil
the fingers. It is so highly bituminous that
it is at present used exclusively for gas
lights at the cotton-mills in Annecy ; but
as it is not sufficiently powerful to be used
by the smiths, its consumption is very limited,
perhaps owing to the difficulty of
access to the mine. This coal, though it
has all the characters of a highly bituminous
mineral coal, is associated with strata containing
those shells that only occur in
the upper calcareous strata in England, far
above the regular coal-formation; hence
I am inclined to believe its position should
be referred to that of the coal found among
oolite in the eastern moorlands of Yorkshire,
but its quality is greatly superior to
the latter. The limestone ofthe mountain
where the mine is situated, affords no mineral
character to decide to what formation
it belongs ; for in this part of Savoy, strata
of limestone that contain the fossils of an
upper calcareous formation, occur so highly
indurated and crystalline, that they resemble
what we have hitherto regarded as the most
perfect of transition-limestones. Some of
the strata are nearly white, approaching to
statuary marble ; yet I doubt whether these
are of posterior formation to our lower beds
of chalk. At least I found in the subjacent
argillaceous strata the gryphcea arcuata in
abundance, and also casts of belemnites ;
which, if we are to take fossil remains for
our guide, would refer the strata in which
they are found, either to the lias or the
clunch-clay of the English series. But it is
deserving of particular notice, that when
we leave France, and pass the range of the
Jura, the simiJarity of external character