NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN
moderate thickness, and is afterwards easily
worked into different forms, I was surprised
at seeing the posts and rails between
Domo d’Ossola, and Baveno, made of this
granite, and also the posts and cross-bars
for supporting the vines. The southern
declivities of the Pennine and Grecian
Alps, are far more precipitous than the
northern. On the side of Piedmont, numerous
pyramids, composed of the granit
veiné, in vertical plates, rise to an amazing
height above the valleys, and are beautifully
clothed with wood. The geology of
the two sides of the central range of the
Alps is very different. Suppose a traveller
placed on the summit of this range, and
looking north towards Savoy, the granit
veiné is succeeded by lower ranges of mica
slate and other schistore rocks, beyond
which are ranges of calcareous mountains,
more than one hundred miles in breadth, declining
towards the plains of France ; for the
Jura must be regarded as a part of the calcareous
band that skirts the northern side of
the Alps. Whereas on the southern side,
looking towards Italy, the mountains terminate
abruptly, the portion of calcareous
strata that occurs is very limited, and rocks
of serpentine, which are scarcely found on
SIDES OP THE ALPS. 249
the northern side, are here abundant. Now,
if the theory of Werner were true, th a t
the principal rock formations all over the
globe, from granite upwards, were deposited
in succession from a fluid that was once
higher than the present summits of the
highest mountains, there can be no reason
assigned for the different succession of rocks
which we find on the northern and southern
side of the Alps, nor for the strata of
limestone extending an hundred miles in
breadth on the one side, and being altogether
wanting, or occurring only within
narrow limits on the other.
From the great fertility of the valleys of
Piedmont, the peasantry appear to be in
a better condition than the peasantry of
Savoy; they are also more favourably dealt
with by the government. The Savoyards
say, that ever since the ducal court was
transferred from Savoy to Piedmont, they
who are the elder children of the state
are treated as illegitimate; and that all
favour is confined to the inhabitants of the
southern side of the Alps.
The state of the weather, which appeared
to be that of continued rain, made me regret
the less, that the plan of our route