Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 12.djvu/29

Rh was divided into meadows, which toward the lake were rather swampy. The inhabitants either dwell in detached houses built by the side of their farms, or else have gathered closer together in little villages, which bear simple names derived from their several sites. The first of those that we passed through was called "Le Sentier." We saw at a distance the Dent de Vaulion peeping out over a mist which rested on the lake. The valley grew broader; but our road now lay behind a ridge of rock which shut out our view of the lake, and then through another village, called "Le Lieu." The mist arose and fell off, highly variegated by the sun. Close hereto is a small lake, which apparently has neither inlet nor outlet to its waters. The weather cleared up completely as we came to the foot of Dent de Vaulion, and reached the northern extremity of the great lake, which, as it turns westward, empties itself into a smaller by a dam beneath the bridge. The village just above is called "Le Pont." The situation of the smaller lake is what you may easily conceive as being in a peculiar little valley, which may be called pretty. At the western extremity there is a singular mill built in a ravine of the rock, which the smaller lake used formerly to fill. At present it is dammed out of the mill, which is erected in the hollow below. The water is conveyed by sluices to the wheel, from which it falls into crannies of the rock, and, being sucked in by them, does not show itself again till it reaches Valorbe, which is a full league off, where it again bears the name of the "Orbe." These outlets (entonnoirs) require to be kept clear: otherwise the water would rise, and again fill the ravine, and overflow the mill, as it has often done already. We saw the people hard at work removing the worn pieces of the limestone, and replacing them by others.

We rode back again over the bridge, toward Le Pont, and took a guide for the Dent du Vaulion. In