■ !■ IWp
H i ! ! I
f
^ .11
: 1
152 G R E A T I N U N D A T I O N S .
In the afternoon of our arrival we visited
a cascade, called Le Bout du Monde, being
at the termination of a valley, which has
no outlet. The road to the cascade turns
off to the left from Chamberry, opposite
the mansion of M. Boigne, and passes by
the side of the river Leysse, which gave us
an opportunity of seeing the immense
stone wall which has been built to form an
embankment against the inundations of
the river. This wall extends several miles,
till it joins a low range of rock that projects
into the valley. The river takes its rise in
the high mountains, situated on the west
and south-west of Chamberry, that form
part of the boundary of the district, called
the Bauges. The rapid melting of the
snows from these mountains, has frequently
occasioned such immense and sudden
floods, as nearly to destroy the city of
Chamberry. Eight of these great inundations
have been recorded between the
years 1348 and 1808. The most formidable
of these were in the years 1550 and
1551, when the hospital of St. Francis and
a great extent of the walls o fth e city were
thrown down, and the streets were passed
in boats and rafters for three days. The
L E B O U T D U M O N D E . 153
cascade of Le Bout du Monde is formed by
the river Doria, one of the branches of the
Leysse, which, descending from the mountains,
is thrown pver a perpendicular ledge
of rock of considerable elevation, and would
be a very striking object if it were in a
more favourable situation; but the approach
to the fall is blocked up by a paper-
mill, through which you are obliged to pass
to see it; and the buildings of the manufactory
injure the effect. This mill formerly
belonged to M. Montgolfier, the
first aeronaut. The rocks here present the
most perfect horizontal stratification I have
any where seen in Savoy. The strata are
not more than two or three feet thick, and
are separated by soft schist or sandstone.
Into these divisions of the strata, the water
has penetrated, and formed several channels,
through which it spouts out in numerous
separate jets d’eau, at a considerable
distance from the main cascade. These
smaller cascades, spouting out of the middle
of a perpendicular wall of rock, have a
singular effect, appearing like artificial accompaniments
to the grand fall.
The mountains above the Bout du
Monde, as I have before mentioned, form
H
m 3