the ground on which we stood shake under
us. The black colour and savage aspect of
the rocks above, greatly contributed to
heighten the effect, which was truly awful.
The descent from the first fall to the bottom
of the chasm is about four hundred
feet. The peasants on the road told us it
was called le Gorge de Bellentre. In returning,
the precipice along which we had
passed seemed more terrific than on our
approach, and I found the most secure method
of advancing, was to turn my back to
it, and catch hold of the plants above.
Our only path was along a track a few
inches wide, that had been trodden by the
sheep. On the plants and scattered herbage
were an infinite variety of insects of
the most beautiful and dazzling colours, enjoying
the warmth of the direct rays o fth e
sun in August. It was a living cabinet of
specimens, which the entomologist would
have been delighted to contemplate. In
this southern part of Savoy, there are seve-
lal raie insects, that are not found in any
of the mountains in Switzerland. Returning
to the village of Villard Goitrou, we saw
a number of the most miserable objects
collected round our char, which was quite
CRETINS AND GOITRES. 281
a novel sight to them, as there is no road
for a carriage of any kind beyond this
place. Villard Goitrou owes its latter appellation
to the goitres with which the inhabitants
are affected ; perhaps there is no
other village in the Alps, where so large a
proportion of the population have either
goitres or are cretins. Both these calamities
are often united in the same person.
There must be some physical peculiarity
in a place where certain maladies are thus
engendered and perpetuated for a succession
of years, or even centuries ; but after
all that has been written bv eminent medical
men on the causes of cretinism and goitres,
the subject is still involved in much uncertainty
and obscurity. It is said that the inha-'
bitants at the extremities of valleys are most
liable to be affected with these complaints.
This has been attributed to the stagnation
of warm air in such situations ; but though
Villard Goitrou is at the extremity of a
larger valley, two smaller ones open into
it, which must produce constant currents
of air. It is placed also on the sunny side
of the valley, which is supposed to be less
productive of cretins and goitres, than the
side which is in shade. It is apparently