I
are oi immense size. They have been
projected to the distance of three and four
miles from the mountain. The largest
masses have evidently fallen from the upper
bed of limestone, by which Mont Grenier
is capped. The velocity they would
acquire, by falling Irom so great a height,
making due allowance for the resistance of
the atmosphere, could not be less than
300 feet per second; and the projectile
force they gained by striking against the
base of the mountain, or against each other,
lias spread them far into the plain. In
the course of years the rains, or currents of
water from dissolving snows, have furrowed
channels between the larger masses
of stone, and, washing away part of the
loose eartli, have left the immense number
of detached conical hills which are seen at
present. The monticules are all composed
of nearly the same kind of limestone; and
do not contain any fragments of granite,
or primary rocks from more distant parts
o f th e Alps: this would prove, were any
proof wanting, that the stones have fallen
from the neighbouring mountain. The
devastation stopped a little short of the
church at Myans, dedicated to the Virgin,
called Notre Dame de Myans ; hence that
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church acquired great celebrity: but it
may be seen that the elevation of the
ground assisted the efforts of the Virgin in
arresting the calamity. St. Andrew could
obtain no favour for his church or town,
though it was one of great note in those
days, being the ancient seat of the deanery
of Savoy. Pilgrimages are now made to
the church of Notre Dame de Myans; and,
on the day of the festival of the Virgin, her
shrine is visited by several thousand persons
from distant parts of Savoy.
So deep and vast was the mass of ruins
that covered the town of St. André, and
th,e other parishes, that nothing belonging
to them has been discovered, except a small
bronze statue of a woman, with the inscriptio
n—
“ S T E P H S . L A G H E R P M E F E C I T . ”
I t was SO wretchedly executed, that the
peasant who found it supposed it was an
image of the devil, and carried it in great
trepidation to his curé.
Notwithstanding a great part of the
Abymes de Myans is planted with vines,
they still present a most impressive scene
of wide-spreading ruin, far exceeding in
magnitude any of the eboulements that I