100

Nevertheless, previous to my departure, I found time to take the elevation of the Rhone , at thebasis of the hill on which stands the town, which I discovered to be fifteen hundred and thirtyfeet above the lake, and eleven hundred and forty-six higher than Martignie. After satisfyingmyself as to this particular, I crossed the river on a curious covered wooden bridge (as are ingeneral most of the Swiss bridges), and pursued the road along its left bank all the way tothe other side of Brieg.

The mountains which here skirt the valley I again found to continue calcareous as far as thetorrent Tormann; but, immediately after, the hard species of schistus begin to succeed, and theformer stone is seldom seen, and then only in small quantities, except on some few partialelevationsa circumstance I have frequently remarked in many parts of the Alps, and indeed,I may add, almost invariably; for, wherever the course or current of a torrent flows through awide and deep valley, it may be assuredly considered as a limit or term of separation between twoor more species of rock.

To these schisti succeeds a kind of horn-stone of great coherency; but which, on beingwetted, emits a strong smell of sulphur and argil, after which appears a blueish micaceous lamel-lated rock, striated with quartz, with strata much inclined. In fact, this last species of rockserves as a support to a thick strata of tuffa-stone, which form a hill of no inconsiderable height.To the decomposition of this stone, or rather concretion, (which effervesces with acids, andcontains, in its analysis, acid forty-two, lime fifty-three, argil two, and water three) may, in agreat measure, be assigned that horrid complaint which affects so many of the inhabitants of theLower Vallais; for, as, the Rh6ne traverses this mountain in different places, it must unavoidablybe impregnated with some of the above particles.

This stone appears hedged in between two rocks of the secondary order; for on the eastern side,nearly contiguous to the town of Visp , they rest on a kind of green-tinged schistus, not unlike alamellated lapis ollaris, or serpentine. In this rock, which is abrupt, and rises perpendicularlyabove the road to a great distance, there is an hermitage cut in the interior, fifty feet above theroad, which is deemed famous, and much resorted to; the chapel, in particular, is extremelycurious, being entirely cut in the main rock, as well as its cells,—the whole being the work oftwo aged friars, who had chosen this solitary asylum for their retirement. It is dedicated to theVirgin, and named St. Maria-hill. This part of the road is much contracted by the lateral moun-tains, and becomes so interesting, by the wild and romantic state of the country, that it maytruly be deemed a seclusion so beautiful, tranquil, and uncommon, that the most troubled mindmight surely there gain repose:—on me it had such an effect, that it recalled to my recollectionthe exact sensations experienced at the time I first entered the amphitheatre at Rome, where thedeep silence and awful appearance which reigned around so nearly corresponded with the one thatthen existed in this tranquil vale, with this exception, that the silence in the former was interruptedby the plaintive cries of owls and bats, which now resort in numbers among the ruins of that oncebeautiful edifice, or else by slow and melancholy notes of litanies and Stabat-maters, sung inunison by pilgrims, whom curiosity or devotion continually attract to that capital; whereas themurmuring noise of the Rhone (which, from having here a vast declivity, forms a number ofnatural cascades) is the only interruption in this sequestered spot, and renders the landscape asworthy of the artist’s pencil as of the pen of the most contemplative genius.

But what again augmented the effect of this singular and uncommon scene, in my way to thehermitage, to which there is no access except through bye-ways, which lead, in an intricatemanner, up a few straggling steps hewn in the rock, I perceived three women and an old manproceeding towards the chapel with great apparent marks of devotion, chanting, in low andsolemn accents, prayers to the Virgin, each carrying a lighted wax-taper, which at mid-day hada strange appearance. ,

Quitting this solitary and pleasing spot, I soon crossed the Vispa, a torrent which falls fromthe lofty mountains that surround Mont Rose, and in whose channel I could easily discern (therebeing then but little water) a quantify of fragments with their angles rounded, apparently ofsimilar species to the calcareous phosphoric marble described in the Rhastian Alps, and the samethat have since been named dolomie by the son of monsieur de Saussure, from the commanderDolomien, who was the first that made known the property of this species of stone.