52 VICINITY OF
I if
I J
place. One morning, when Mrs. B. was
taking a walk in the country, she met a
woman coming from Geneva, carrying on
her head something in the form o f a coffin
for an infant, but much deeper, and entirely
covered over with green oil cloth.
On the top was a large bunch of pink ribbands,
and a bouquet of flowers. As the
woman was near the church at Chene, Mrs.
B. concluded she was carrying a dead child
for interment, but on enquiry we were informed
that it was a living child going out
to nurse in Savoy.
Geneva is surrounded by what may be
styled a level country, slightly diversified
with gently sloping hills of low elevation,
and richly adorned with neat country
houses, cheerful villages, and groves of
the horse chesnut.
The immediate scenery, so far from being
Alpine, or savage, is what may properly
be called riante par excellence. In autumn,
when the light clouds descend so low
as to hide entirely the distant mountains,
and even the nearer Saleve, as is frequently
the case, leaving the valley clear, an Englishman
might suppose himself in Hertfordshire,
or in some other of the rich and
GENEVA. 53
tamer scenes in his own country ; but
should the clouds rapidly disperse,/ he
would be astonished to see a new creation
burst upon his view, where before there
appeared no space left in the horizon.
The valley, or basin, in which Geneva
and the lake are situated, is about seventy
miles in length, and varies in breadth from
fifteen to thirty miles. It is bounded on
the north by the Jura, which ranges, like
an enormous wall, along the horizon. On
the south it is bounded by the lower calcareous
range of the Alps, which, bending
to the north, unite with the Jura, and close
up the vale at th e western extremity, where
a narrow chasm is cut through the mountains,
called the Passage of L ’Echise,
through which the Rhone escapes. This
is about eighteen miles west of Geneva,
and must have been produced, either by
erosion, or a forcible disruption of the
strata. Before this chasm was formed, the
waters of the lake covered the whole valley,
of which there remain evident proofs,
but to this I shall refer in a following part
of the volume.
The height of the Jura above the vale,
varies from 3000 to 3500 feet ; the nearest
E 3