containing calcareous particles, which effervesce with acids. Their hardness cannot be
said, however, to equal that which characterises the same kind of stone in the high Alps.
I have likewise found vast quantities of a similar species of pudding-stone on the western
side of the wood Labatie, and between the course of the rivers Enne and London.
Among these hills are several quarries of soft sand-stone, which hardens when
exposed to the air, of a bluish coJour, called mollasse by the inhabitants, and used in
building. This stone, which resembles the cos partiadis minimis glareosis, viollis, Cisdm,
of Hallerius, spec. 76, is predominant in that part of the country; for wherever the
ground has been dug in the environs of the lake of Geneva, it has been found the most
prevailing ; and, again, from Cluse to Lausanne, an extent of seventy-nine English miles
at least, the same species is more or less perceivable. Something nearly similar to this is
obser\'able on the side of Savoy ; for at Cologny, Beauregard, and Thonon, the same
kind likewise are found ; though, beyond the town of Evian, the calcareous mountains
which screen the lake are so extremely abrupt, and the depth of water so considerabJe,
that I have not been able to discover any.
This circumstance does not, however, dissuade me from espousing the opinion of
several eminent naturalists, who suppose that this species of stone, in some measure,
forms the bottom of the lake. Travelers will find in the neighbourhood of Chouilly, a
village on the right bank of the Rhône, some beautiful quarries of different sorts of
gypsum, well worth their attention. Another remark, which must not be allowed to
pass unnoticed, being to the full as interesting to the geologist as the preceding, is, that
the sand-stone, pebbles, and sand, as well as the calcareous strata already described, as
seeming to form the bases and part of the nuclei of the Jura, Vouaches, Salêve, and
Voirons, four extensive ranges of mountains, scarcely contain any fossils, and those few
totally different from what are found in the upper strata of the same mountains, which are
there imbedded in such quantities, that in several places the marine fossils in particular
literally form the principal part of their bulk.
In order to continue my route, I returned to St. Genis, and thence to Meirin, where
the road which leads to Ferney joins that of Lyons ; and though only three short
miles from that beautiful and interesting village, I was forced, from the fear of being too
late, to postpone at this time the pleasure of visiting it. I was not, however, a stranger
either to the spot or the proprietor. Drawing N° XI , gives a view of the village and
château which bears its name,—a spot well known, from having been the residence of