Leuk

Leuk (Fr. Loèche), a town (pop. 1411) in the Swiss canton of Valais, on the right bank of the Rhone, 15 miles above Sion. It is the railway station, on the Simplon railway, for the Baths of Leuk (4643 feet above sea-level), situated 5 miles northward at the head of the Dala gorge and the foot of the ascent over the Genmi pass. At this hamlet of 650 inhabitants there are lodging-houses and hotels for the accommodation of patients and travellers. The springs have a high temperature (124°-199° F.), are saline, chalybeate, and sulphureous, and are used both for drinking and bathing, chiefly in skin and stomachic diseases. The patients (mostly French, Swiss, and Italians) remain many hours in the water, talking, reading, &c. See guide-books by Brunner (5th ed. 1887), Wolf (1886), and Von Werra (1886).