Notes regarding, and Model of, Mass of Manufactured Iron, bearing date 1807, found beside Glacier de la Plaine Morte, Rhone Valley

Abstract

Mr President and Gentlemen,—During the past summer I visited for two or three weeks a new summer and winter Alpine resort, called Hotel du Parc, built by M. Zufferey and a partner near the village of Montana, on the north side of the Rhone valley, above Sierre, which is situated on a curious park-like plateau, with a number of lake-like reservoirs and quantities of timber, at an elevation of 5000 to 6000 feet.While enjoying to the full the beautiful walks and views and the superabundance of flowers, many of which are now getting comparatively scarce if not extinct in the older resorts, I pushed my way one day up to the Glacier de la Plaine Morte by a valley several miles to the eastward of the hotel. It is a stiff walk of about four hours from the hotel to the Glacier, first through thick pine woods and steep pasture, and latterly, as you penetrate the side valley, along very steep slides of debris composed of clayey slate and bottoms filled with very rough stones that have been carried from the cliffs above, the only vegetation being the numerous ranunculi, gentiana bavarica, and other Alpine flowers familiar to those who are accustomed to search for them at these high altitudes.