C O N T I N U A T I O N OF REMARKS ON THE ALPS IN GENERAL.
DESCRIPTION OF THE VALLEY OF TENDE.
PKEVIOUS to my quitting the Col deTende, I ihali endeavour to illuflrate feme remarks
wliieh I have made relative to the progreffive elevation fuppofed by many naturalills to
cxiil from the mountains at the extremity of the exteniive primordial chain of the Alps,
to thofe of the centre; annexing, likewife, a few general obfervations on the caufe of that
extreme degi-ee of cold pailicularly experienced on the Col de Tende, though lefs elevated
than Mont Ceiiis.
Mont Rofe, for inftance, which lies eaft of the majeftic and tremendous Mont Blanc,
and at no great diiianee from that formidable mountain, differs alfo but little from it in
height: lince, according to Monf. de SaulTure, it extends to two thoufand four hundred
and thirty toifes above the level of the fea, and Mont Blanc to two thoufand four hundred
and fifty.
Thofe mountains have juftly been taken for the highefl; peaks of the Alps; and tlie
confequence and general opinion has been, that tlie fummits of that long and primitive
chain gradually lowered on the right and left of thofe two elevations, and tliat (as in the
environs of Mont Blanc) the width of the different chains of the Alps have been foimd to
extend about one hundred and fifty miles; whereas, near the Col de Tende, it does not
exceed lixty. It has alfo been conjedlured, that this chain of mountains foDows the fame
proportion in width as in height, or that their bafe contraits as they are at a greater
diftance from tlie central point.
This idea I fhall, however, venture to refute, aiferting tliat this hypothelis cannot be
maintained, or at le.nfl: only in part, and tliat it ought not even to be admitted in any degree,
till the extenfive glaciers on the north-eaft and north-weft fides of the Brenner, in
the county of Tirol, have been minutely in\'eftigated, and tliat by barometrical and bigonometrical
operations the exadt elevation of the mountains of granite which furround
them, can be well afcerlained; as the Gefrorne, Stubcn, Grindle, &C. mountains which