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If the peasants of Meillerie, which is the part of Savoy Rousseau took so much pleasure in describing, at all resemble those of Valorsine, he cannot there at least be accused of having dealt in fiction. M. de Saussure relates an anecdote which serves to give an idea of the Savoyards in these situations, so remote from the corruption incident to cities.
The village of Trient is in a romantic situation, but has not the same attractions as Valorsine. The hill near it is astonishingly difficult of ascent. The guides wished us to let the mules shift for themselves; and we all at last arrived at the summit. An hour afterwards, we reached the Mount Fourcle, from which is seen a vast extent of country.
I can give no opinion on a point which has occasioned differences amongst the learned; but the present appearance of the inhabitants was very favourable, it being a holiday here as well as at Valorsine, and although their festivity was not altogether marked by the same simplicity, yet it was sufficiently removed from that which prevails in many other countries to interest us by its singularity.
Granite and gneiss, which are of like chemical composition, have been shown, in various cases, to pass one into the other; as at Valorsine, near Mont Blanc, where the two, in contact, are observed to "both undergo a modification of mineral character.
XX. entitled, Poudingues de Valorsine, that we find the following description, with his reasoning upon that appearance.
That they exist below at no great depth we can not doubt, for at some points, as in the Valorsine, near Mont Blanc, granite and granitic veins are observable, piercing through talcose gneiss, which passes insensibly upward into secondary strata.
As we approached Valorsine, the rain began to fall, but fortunately it was not of long continuance, and afterwards the weather became much clearer. Nothing can surpass the romantic situation of this little village, its valley is one of the most secluded we had yet seen amongst the Alps.
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