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without trade, its situation being at the foot of the Alps, and at the entrance of tlic
Upper Valíais. (fiWiN-XX.)
Not far from Martignie is a glass-house, or manufactory, much esteemed for the
good quality of its glass, in the composition of which is used a species of porous granular
quartz, or quartxnn grmvlatum of Wallerins, spec. 106, dug from a mountain in
the neighbourhood of Lides, a village which stands on tlie road to the Great St. Bernard.
As this contains great quantities of pyrites, and the above quartz is extremely
porous, I have been led, by every appearance, to attribute these pores entirely to the
decomposition of those same pyrites ¡ having found, in several of them, vitriolic crystals
of a bluish colour.
The country in the environs of Martignie is fertile, abounding in corn, fruits, and
excellent wine, the produce of their vineyards. The low grounds are however subject
to inundations, the Rhone frequently overEowing its bants, and doing considerable
damage i so much so, that in 1596 the town was nearly submerged, and upwards of
five hundred houses were at that time in great part washed away. It is at present considered
as the capital of a dtátílmc, or jurisdiction of a lord châtelain, belonging to
t h e bishop of Sion, who sends hither a kind of governor, to administer, in his name,
most of the civil and criminal laws.
W i t h regard to the elevation of Martignie above the Lake of Geneva, it does not
exceed three hundred and eighty-four feet; which very sutîciently proves the triSing
declivity of the Rhone in that part, comparatively speaking, to what it has elsewhere ;
for, allowing the distance from fliat town to where the river flows into the lake to be
computed nearly at thirty English miles, including the different windings of its channel,
i t scarcely allows more than twelve feet nine inches and a half of descent, or declivity,
in a mile. It is however necessary to observe, that this declivity is not evcry-when:
uniform, being in some places greater, and in others less, according to the contraction
of the channel.
O n quitting this town, I continued, for some distance, the high road to the glaciers
of Chamounie, and then turned off, in order to pursue that which leads to the Great
St. Bernard, which soon brought me to La Vallette, the first village, where formerly
were worked the copper and lead mines contained in tlie neighbouring mountains.
From hence may b e properly said to commence, though imperceptibly, the ascent of
this formidabl e pass, which, in fact, continues for the space of twenty miles, the distance
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