The Alpine Regions of Switzerland and the neighbouring countries. A pedestrian's notes on their physical features, scenery, and natural history ... With illustrations by E. Whymper

Front matter

THE ALPINE REGIONS OF SWITZERLAND AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES. dTambriDgc : IT.INTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY TRESS. THE MATTERHORN FROM THE VAL TOURNANCHE, THE ALPINE KEGIONS OF SWITZERLAND AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES; A PEDESTRIAN'S NOTES ON THEIR PHYSICAL FEATURES, SCENERY, AND NATURAL HISTORY. BY T. G. BONNEY, M.A., F.G.S., &c. FELLOW OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE ; MEMBER OF THE ALPINE CLUB. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY E. WHYMPER. ©ambrfoge : DEIGHTON, BELL, AND CO. LONDON: BELL AND DALDY.

Preface

So many works upon the Alps have appeared during the last ten years, that an apology is almost required for adding to their number. Still, the majority of these are monographs, devoted, either to special topics — as the books of Forbes and Tyndall, or to particular districts — such as Dauphine, the Oberland, and the Bernina, rather than works attempting to give a general view of the very diverse subjects of interest connected with the Alpine Chain. I have therefore in the present volume endeavoured to put together a few notes, which may serve not . only to give those who cannot travel a general idea of the Alpine Regions, but also, at the same time, be useful as a kind of handy-book to those who are purposing to visit them. I must not, however, be supposed to have at tempted anything of the nature of a formal guide book, scientific or topographical. Had I endeavoured

PREFACE.

. X for nomenclature and the altitude of mountains ; the delightful volumes of Forbes and Tyndall, for the theories of Glacier Motion ; and Tschudi's Les Alpes (the authorised translation of the original work Thierleben der Alpenwelt) for the natural history ; aided occasionally in this last by the kind suggestions of my more scientific friends, chief among whom I may thank Professor Newton. Other works, which have been more sparingly used, are noted from time to time in the text. I did not see Mr Morell's Scientific Guide to Switzerland, which appears a very careful and laborious compilation, until my own book was written, and the greater part of it in print. I have also to thank my friend, the Rev. G. F. Browne, for some useful hints. I cannot hope to have wholly escaped error ; still I trust that no very serious mistakes or omissions will be found ; and if this little volume help any tra vellers to enjoy their Alpine journey more, on the principle involved in the old story, ' Eyes and No eyes,1 the trouble which I have taken with it, and that has really been considerable, will be amply repaid. T. G. B. PAGE 1 3G TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter I

General configuration of the Alps. — Signs of pressure and elevation. — Effects of denudation ; water, frost, and ice. — Example of the Col de la Lauze. — Beds and plains of gravel and detritus. — Cause of elevation of mountains. — Scenery affected by the nature of rocks. — Bocks divided into CrystaDines and Coherents. — Compact crystallines. — Slaty crystallines. — Cleavage and foliation. — Compact and slaty coherents. — Effects of weather upon these rocks.— Scenery of compact crystallines ; their distribution, and that of slaty crystallines. — Distribution of compact and slaty coherents. — Mountain forms. — Effects of weather on cleavage, stratification, and joints. — Formation of precipices. — Gneiss and Dolomite. — Pyramidal peaks. — Forms of summits. — Sketch of the Alpine Districts.— Cottian Alps.— High Alps of Dauphine. — Savoy Alps. — Graian Alps. — Pennine Eange. — Oberland. — Lepontine Alps.— Ehætian Alps. — Lombard Alps. — Noric Alps. — Italian Tyrol. — Camic and Julian Alps ........

Chapter II

Formation of valleys. — Cracks. — Gorges of erosion. — Gorge of the Trient. Cirques. — Valleys of outcrop. — Valleys of depression. — The Alpine Lakes. — Lac de Bourget. — Lac d'Annecy. — Lac Leman. — The Lowland Lakes. — Lake of Zurich. — Lake of Constance. — Lakes of Thun, Brienz, Lucerne, and Wallenstadt Lakes of the Eastern Alps. — The Italian Lakes, Orta, Maggiore, Lugano, Como, Iseo, and Garda. — Alpine Waterfalls

Chapter III

Glaciers. — Expedition on the Gorner Glacier. — Terminal ice-cave.— Moraine. — Crevasses ; cause of their formation. — Surface of a glacier. — Glacier tables. — Channels.— Moulins. — Veined structure in glacier ice. — Halt at Aus der Platte Ascent towards the Lys-joch.— Seracs. — Formation CONTENTS. XII PAGE of a glacier. -Crevasses in n^ve.— Summit of the Pass.— A rapid descent.— Cause of glacier motion.— Dilatation theory.-Viscous theory.— Dr TyndaU's objections.— His explanation.— Marks of past glacier-action.— Moraines.— Perched blocks.-Explanation of their presence.— The erratics of Monthey and the Jura.-Eounded, polished, and scratched rocks.— Erosive power ol glaciers.— Epoch of their greatest extension.- Oscillations of glaciers rn historic times

Chapter IV

Glacieres.— Expedition to some near Annecy.— How to get breakfast.— Ascent to the Glaciere du Grand Anu.— Its entrance.— Description of interior.— Prismatic structure of the ice.— Glaciere de FEnfer.— A subglaeial reservoir.— Glaciere de Chappet-sur-Villaz.— Hidden tunnel in the ice.— Eeturn to Aviernoz.— Cause of Glacieres — Caverns.— The Beaume des Vaudois.— Wind-lochs.— Perforated rocks— Legend of St Martin.— Springs. —Salt Springs of Moutiers Tarentaise and Bex.— Baths.— The Springs of Pfafers and gorge of the Tamina.— Mines 88

Chapter V

Avalanches. — Ice avalanches. — The avalanches of the Jungfrau. — Fall of the Bies Glacier. — Dust avalanches. — Ground avalanches. — Accidents from avalanches on higher peaks. — Accident of the Col du Geant. — Slip on the Piz Mortaratsch. — Avalanche on the Haut-de-Cry. — Other avalanches. —Effect of noise.— Bergfalls.— Falls of the Diablerets.— Fall of the Eossberg. —Destruction of Pleurs. — FaU of Monte Antelao. — Land-slip at Cortina. — Floods. — Bursting of the lake formed by the Getroz Glacier. — Storms. — Earthquakes. — Tourmentes. — Tourmente on the Grimsel. — Wind on Mont Blanc. — The Fohn. — Thunder storms. — In a thunder cloud. — Colour of the snow. — Luminous snow. — Eed snow. — Colours of the sky. — Sunset on Mont Blanc. — Causes of the after-glow 113

Chapter VI

Alpine Mammalia. — The Brown Bear. — Varieties. — Its habits. — Fight with a bear. — 'A pleasant vulgar tale.' — Bears of Berne. — The wolf, its habits. — The chase. — Anecdote. — The fox, its habits.— The lynx. — The wild cat. — The badger. — Other mammalia. — The beaver.— Babbits and hares. — The marmot, its habits. — The chamois, its habits and agility. — Chamois' horns. — Its food. — Bezoar. — Sense of hearing and smell. — An unexpected meeting. — Adventure of a chamois hunter, ' vestigia nulla retrorsum.' — End of a chamois hunter. — Poaching feuds. — The bouquetin, its homs. — Habits. — Legends. — Other quadrupeds CONTENTS. XIII 227

Chapter VII. Page

The Alpine Birds. — The lammergeier. — Its appetite. — Cases of carrying off children. — The golden eagle. — Other birds of prey. — The raven. — Its thievish habits. — Choughs. — Nutcrackers. — Other birds. — Game birds. — Water birds. — Fish. — Eeptiles. — Frogs and toads. — Salamanders. — Lizards. Snakes. — Mollusca. — Lepidoptera. — Beetles, &c. — Fleas. — Glacier fleas. 190

Chapter VIII

Alpine Botany. — Deciduous trees. — Coniferous trees. — Larch, Spruce, Silver, and Scotch fir, Arolla. — Brushwood. — Dwarf pine. — Junipers. — Ehododendrons. — Fruit-bearing shrubs. — Alpine flowers. — Alpine ferns, mosses, and lichens ............ 208

Chapter IX

Agriculture — Corn. — Vegetables. — Hay, dangers of the wild-hay cutter. —Vine.— Making wine.— Forests.— Wood-cutting.— Perils of that work— Slide of Alpnaeh.— Chalet life.— Bread— The chalets.— The different kinds of cMlets— A Bernese farmer's house.— Chalet villages.— Cow and sheep chalets.— Nights in chalets.— Chalet des bergers de Provence.— The management of the cows, and of the dairy. — Cheese making.— Eanz des vaches— Sheep and shepherds.— Bergamesque sheep.— Goats.— St Bernard dogs.

Chapter X

The Alpine Passes. — Mont Genevre. — Col du Lautaret. — Mont Cenis. — Tunnel through the Alps. — Little St Bernard. — Simplon. — St Gothard. — The Bernardino and Splugen. — The Maloya. — The Julier. — The Albula. — The Bernina Pass— Beschen-scheideck. — Toblach-plateau. — The Brenner. — The Furka. — The Oberalp Joch. — The Stelvio. — The Arnpezzo Pass. — Convent of the Great St Bernard. — Mule and foot paths. — Glacier passes. — The Col Durand and the Trift Joch 261

Chapter XI

Alpine legends. — Dragons.— Various species.— A winter in a dragon's den. — The dragon stone of Lucerne. — Legend of the Clariden Alps. — The Lost Valley. — Mont Pilatus. — Legend of Heiligenblut. — Witchcraft. — The lunatics of Morzine.— Local customs. — Burials. — Crucifixes. — Amusements. Abhaye des Vignerons. — Welcome to the sun. — Antiquities. — Celtic. — Lake CONTENTS. XIV PAGE settlements. — Architecture, Eoman and mediæval. — Fortresses. — Old castles. — ' Holy Mountains.' — History. — Persecutions of the Vaudois. — La Eentrge glorieuse. — The story of Tell, and the war for freedom. — Growth of the Swiss confederation. — The campaign of 1799. — Napoleon's passage of the Great St Bernard. — Macdonald's passage of the Splugen. — The Tyrolese rising. — Hofer 285

Chapter XII

Season for travelling. — Alpine districts. — Companionship. — Baggage. — Hints to walkers.— Alpine dangers.— Falling stones, ice, or snow.— Insecure footing. — The Matterhorn accident. — Use of the rope. — Conclusion 320 EEEATA. Page 5, in explanation of Figure insert E Dark limestone 24 line 24, for easternmost read westernmost 44 ,, 23, for Righi read Rigi „ 54 ,. 12, for Chrysophrase read Chryioprate 104 .. 14, for glaciere read glacier 106 ,. 18, for Lantaret read Lautaret 108 ,, 27, seven hundred feet. Perhaps this estimate is too great. 110 .. 21, for latter read cliffs — ,, last line, for right read left 141 ,, 28, for lea read lee 202 ,. 8, porthoptera; sic, in the passage cited, probably orthoptera 309 ., 7, for Faust read Furst LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Plate I. The Matterhorn from the Val Tournanche (south view).

(The route followed in the earlier attempted ascents hes for the most part alon the left-hand ridge ; the summit has now been reached from this side also.) Plate II. The Pointe des Ecrins and Crete du Pelvoux from the Col de la Lauze (Dauphine) Plate III. The Drei Zinnen from Landro (Ampezzo Pass). Plate IV. Entrance to the Glaciere du Grand Anu. Plate V. Interior of the Glaciere du Grand Anu. Figure 1. (Page 5). Diagram of broken and contorted Strata in a Cliff of the Oldenhorn. Figure 2. (Page 16). Diagram of joints and stratification in Dolomite. Figure 3. (Page 19). Effects of weather on joints and stratification. Dolomite in decay. Figure 4. (Page 21). Diagram of Peaks formed of fragments of contorted strata. Figure 5. (Page 57). Terminal ice-cave of a glacier. Figure 6. (Page 60). Crevasses on a glacier.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XVI Figure 7. (Page 94). Diagram of prismatic structure in ice. Figure 8. (Page 109). The Gorge of the Tamina, from near the springs. Figure 9. (Page 176). Chamois descending to feed, Figure 10. (Page 187). Bouquetin. Figure 11. (Page 236). Chalet Village, with the Sasso di Pelmo, from above Caprile (Itahan Tyrol). Figure 12. (Page 243). Swiss Chalet. Figure 13. (Page 276). Swiss Carts, <fcc. Figure 14. (Page 321). View in the Graians. The Grivola from the Col de Checruit. Figure 15. (Page 333). Geological Section across the Chain of Mont Blanc, from the Brevent to the Mont ChStif. Note. Plates I. — III. and Figures 2 — 4, 11, 14, are selected with a view of illustrating some of the more characteristic mountain forms. Plates I., II., with Figure 14, representing the slaty crystallines; Plate III., with Figures 2 — 4, 11, the harder coherents.

AU the woodcuts, except Plates IV., V., and Figures 7, 15, are by Mr Whymper. For these two Plates, I have to thank the Publishers of Good Words, who have kindly permitted me to use blocks originally engraved for that periodical. All, except Figures 5, 6, 8 — 13, 15 are from my sketches ; but it is only just that I should express my sense of how much some have gained in artistic effect, without the slightest loss in accuracy, by passing through Mr Whymper's hands. Figure 8 is from a photograph, one in a set of admirable views of the Tamina Gorge, taken by Mr England, who has most courteously allowed me to have it copied.

Chapter I

If the whole surface of Europe were to be depressed vertically about 500 yards, it would be changed from a continent into several groups of mountainous islands. The loftiest and most conspicuous among these would lie in a general direction from E.N.E. to W.S.W., between the 43rd and 48th parallel of latitude ; with the exception of one long narrow spur, which would extend for many miles to the S.E. This group would be composed of the mountain chains now classed together under the general title 'The Alps'; the spur being the Apennines, which at present form the backbone of central Italy and the southern boundary of the great Lombardo-Venetian plain, and are fused with the Maritime Alps at the head of the Gulf of Genoa. It would be bounded on the east by a narrow land-locked strait, now the valley of the Rhone and Saone.

A still narrower strait, through which the former river at present escapes from the mountains, would cut it off from the long ridges of the Jura ; and all along its northern face, protected here and there by clusters of islets, and broken by fiords like the western coasts of Scotland or of Norway, would roll the broad waters of the German Ocean. Its eastern extremity would sink down into an inland sea like that of Marmora ; to which the narrower parts of the present Danube valley would be a Dardanelles and a Bosporus. This mass of mountains, the great highlands of Central Europe, is therefore of the utmost physical and geo graphical importance. Rising in places to a height of more than 15,000 feet above the sea, and covered for an extent of many thousand square miles with perpetual snow, it is the chief feeder of four of the principal rivers in Europe, the Po, the Rhone, the Rhine, and the Danube.

But for those barren fields of ice high up among the silent crags, the seeming home of winter and death, these great arteries of life would every summer dwindle down to paltry streams, feebly wandering over stone strewn beds. Stand, for example, on some mountain spur and look down on the Lombard plain, all one rich carpet of wheat and maize, of rice and vine ; the life of those myriad threads of green and gold is fed from these icy peaks which stand out against the northern sky in such strange and solemn contrast. As it is with the Po, so is it with the Rhine and the Rhone ; both of which issue from the Alps as broad swelling streams; so too with the Danube, which although it does not rise in them, yet receives from the Inn and the Drave almost all the drainage of the Eastern districts. TNor is this the only interest of these mountain chains.

Since they rise to a height, which compensates for difference of latitude and gives them a temperature ranging from almost tropical heat to arctic cold, plants, relics of an old world flora, have retreated before the advancing wave of heat ; and isolated families, clustering round the mountain summits in various parts of Europe, shew how districts now far apart were once united, when in the glacial epoch the climate of central Europe was very different from what it is at present. Here also birds and beasts elsewhere extinct have found a refuge, amons the un trodden peaks, from the attacks of man ; who himself has often, in like manner, sought in the same fastnesses protection against CONFIGURATION. 3 the assaults of a stronger brother. It is therefore to be ex pected that the Alps, at once the barrier between and the natural camp of refuge of northern and southern Europe, should offer many subjects of interest to the traveller, the naturalist, and the historian.

To describe some of these will be the endeavour of the present volume. So far as the writer's experience has gone, until, at any rate, very lately, there were few parts of the world about which untra veiled folk entertained vaguer notions than the Alps ; in fact he has often suspected some of his questioners of believing that Switzerland was a generally ' lumpy' country, with one great peak, Mont Blanc, in the middle of it. The efforts of the Alpine Club and the increased facilities of travel ling have no doubt partly dispelled this error ; but a good many maps, still in common use, depict the Alps as a single ridge encircling Italy ; or, when compelled by the largeness of their scale into a little more detail, indulge in some suggestive scratchings between the rivers, and pepper the surface with a few names, often wrong, in whicli important and unimportant are mingled together in most admired confusion.

A brief account of the general configuration of the Alpine region may therefore not be useless, in the course of which the most probable explanations of it will be slight!}*- noticed. A very slight examination of a good map, especially one in which the rivers are picked out in a different colour, will shew that over the greater part of the Alps the valleys may be divided into two classes ; the one containing those which havea general direction from E.N.E. to W.S.W.; the other, those whose course is at right angles to this line ; and the former will be found to be, as a rule, much more extensive than the latter. This configuration prevails almost universally throughout the Western and Central Alps1; in the Eastern 1 The above division though without geographical significance is convenient for purposes of reference.

The Western Alps include the mountains of France, 1—2 the longer valleys run nearly east and west, the shorter nearly north and south. However, it may be correctly stated that as a general rule the valleys in the Alps are divided into two classes at right angles to each other. This unity of plan naturally suggests the idea that the upheaval of the Alps was not produced by numerous isolated forces, acting indepen dently of each other as to time, place, and direction, but by one or more systems, in obedience to some general law. A closer examination confirms this supposition, though it shews at the same time that there may have been oscillations and variations in the actions of the upheaving forces, and that they have rather operated with greatest intensity round a number of separate centres, than, as at first sight would appear most natural, along lines corresponding with the general di rection of the principal chains.

Hence, if we drew a line about each of these central districts we should find that, roughly speaking, the map was covered by a number of ovals of various sizes which were so arranged that their longer diameters corresponded generally with the direction of the principal chains. Geologists are not yet agreed upon the causes which have played the principal part in giving to the Alps their present configuration. Most rocks, whatever their present condition may be, were once soft mud at the bottom of the Ocean. Assuming then that its level has not greatly altered, and there is no reason to suppose that this has been the case, many of the Alpine cliffs must have been raised through a vertical height of several thousand feet. It is also probable that these rocks were originally deposited in tolerably horizontal beds.

There fore where they are so no longer, they must have been tilted during the process of upheaval. In the Alps we very commonly Savoy, Piedmont and the main chain as far as Monte Eosa ; the Central take the west of Switzerland, and the adjoining parts of Lombardy and Tyrol ; while the Eastern contain the remaining district. SIGNS OF UPIIEA VAL. 5 find them thus tilted, often indeed only slightly, but occasionally at a very considerable angle; in some places they are even rolled and crumpled together, like the leaves of a pamphlet when it is doubled up again and again, or those of a book when it is crushed together at the two ends. Now, if instead of flexible paper, we were squeezing sideways some more solid (Fig. 1.) Rough Sketch of cliff in one of the northern spurs of the Oldenhoru shewing crumpled and broken strata.

From hills N.E. of Ormond dessus. A. Limestone. C. Limestone. B. Clayey shale, darker and banded in upper part. D. Banded shale. S. Snow. x . Hill in foreground. x x . Glen. substance, or pressing it upwards from below while its two ends were confined, it would obviously crack and split in places, and if we continued the pressure, the layers would often be forced far apart. As these signs of pressure are very evident in the Alpine rocks, this question naturally suggests itself, — Are the valleys which furrow the country cracks where the rising strata have yielded to the pressure below, or depressions produced by inequalities in its exertion ; or are they to be explained, wholly or partially, by some other cause ? The answer first returned was that they were in most cases cracks; in a few, folds in the superficial strata; and little note was taken of any other agency than pressure.

There is no doubt that the general direction of the valleys does, in a very remarkable degree, coincide with what must have been the lines of greatest strain upon the strata ; if we suppose, as the form of the crystalline masses appears to justify us in doing, that the greatest up heaving forces were exerted over a series of oval areas with a certain definite arrangement. Still, a careful examination will shew that, though the general course of the valleys may be due to pressure, resulting perhaps from subterranean heat, it is rather by sub-aerial and sub-aqueous agencies that we must seek to explain their form and consequently the contour of the mountains. Denudation, that is, the action of air and water, has been producing its effects both while the Alps were rising, and since they came to rest : it is still at work ; the countless streams which, fed by the snows and rains, ceaselessly leap down each mountain side, furrow its cliffs with gorges and its slopes with glens, saw deep notches in the rocky barriers of lakes, and thus draining off their waters either leave the smooth floor of ooze, the accumulation of centuries, to become green meadows, or begin again to transfer it to some lower level.

No doubt when first the hills began to rise above the sea, its waves wore each summit into cliffs and ridges, like those which we may now see around any rock-bound coast. Perhaps too some of the great rock amphitheatres may have been thus formed, at the head of inland fiords. The sea's marks are still, I think, plain upon many of our western Welsh hills, but time's carking tooth has made it diffi cult in the case of the Alps to assign to salt and fresh water their proper share in the work. The latter may be said to have had the advantage of the last word ; and, like the finisher of a statue, it has obliterated the traces of the pointer's chisel. Some persons indeed dilate so largely upon the effects of erosion as to apparently forget that, even upon their own shewing, there must be a cliff before there can be a gorge, and a hill before a glen.

Before ever the stream began to carve, there must have been some well-marked fold or crack; or else the valleys would follow a far more uncertain and eccentric course than they now do. It would be almost impossible that water finding its way out of an irregularly upheaved mass of land should have ploughed out over so great an extent of country DENUDATION. 7 systems of valleys which, as has been already said, obey this general law, that the shorter trenches lie from N.N.W. to S.S.E. and the longer from E.N.E. to W.S.W. Still, although we may refuse to allow water to be the sole agent in the sculpture of the Alps, there can be no doubt that it has been a very important one ; and that not only when in a liquid state, but also in a solid. Nature often employs the ice-wedge as well as the water-saw.

Water in freezing expands with tremendous force. Many of us have had too much experience of this property from the burst pipes which make a thaw such an ill-omened word to a town householder, so pain fully suggestive of slop and discomfort, followed by a long plumber's bill. The rock, then, being traversed in several directions by cracks, about which we shall presently have more to say, allows the water to permeate it ; this by freezing splits off great blocks and sends them thundering down the cliffs. The snow also upon the higher summits descends towards the val leys in large masses of moving ice, called glaciers, which wear away the rock beneath. Some persons, indeed, struck by the force of these huge ice-ploughs, which were once far vaster than they now are, have assigned to them a very important share in scooping out the Alpine valleys and lakes.

This question is too long a one for discussion here ; but my own opinion, which has been formed after some study and a careful examination of many parts of the Alps, is that the erosive power of glaciers has been vastly over-estimated by their advocates ; and that, though they may sometimes deepen a hollow or widen a valley which already exists, they in general do little more than wear away inequalities in the surface, and are to the other agents very much what the emery-paper is to the chisel. We talk commonly of the eternal hills— they are as perish able as every other thing in this world. There is a spot, more than eleven thousand feet above the sea, in the Alps of Dauphin^1 — it is only one instance among many — where there is a small island of dark shale upon a great plateau of hard crystalline rock.

Stand upon it, and you may see some four miles to the north a long range of the same shale ; then turn round to the south, and you may perhaps catch, through a battlement of jagged peaks, a glimpse of a dark rolling Une to the south which marks the presence of the same deposit. This little island and one or two similar to it give us every reason to suppose that these shales once extended over all this intervening space, some twenty-five miles across, which is now occupied by the highest peaks of Dauphine: all that mass, many hundred feet thick, has been removed by sea or by river and spread over the plains of south-eastern France. Stand by the Arve as it rushes through the valley of Chamouni ; its waters are not that liquid crystal which poets couple with mountain streams, but as turbid as if nature had been having a heavy wash and was emptying away the suds.

Take up a glass-full, and let the contents settle ; the fluid will become transparent, and a fine mud cover the bottom. Examine this sediment under a microscope, or even with a pocket lens ; you will find it consists of minute fragments of those minerals which compose the rocks in the neighbouring mountains. Not a year then passes without something being taken from the mass of Mont Blanc and borne away by the Rhone, how far we cannot say — perhaps to increase the ooze at the bottom of the Gulf of Lyons. The plains of south-eastern France, North- Italy and Bavaria, from which in many places the mountains rise as from a sea, are overspread with vast layers of sand and gravel, every pebble and every atom in which has been brought down from the Alps; nay, more, the beds of many of the larger valleys are level, often marshy, plains formed of similar deposits.

So rapidly indeed do the mountains rise from them, 1 The Col de la Lauze, leading from La Grave to St Christophe. BEDS OF GRA VEL. 9 that in many places you may stand on turf, level as a bowlinggreen, and place your hand against a precipice. These valleys also seem to shew that there have been changes in the level of the Alps. It is scarcely possible that such smooth plains of gravel can have been deposited without that part of the country being under water. In some cases this may have been done when the Alpine lakes were more extensive than at present, but this explanation can hardly be applied to all, for the valleys have often been filled up by a considerable thickness of drift below the spots where barriers exist, which has again been cut through to a depth of many feet by the existing stream.

Any one who mounts to some commanding spot on the side of a great valley, such, for example, as the upper Rhone, or Rhine, will see that almost without exception a sloping talus of earth forms a kind of glacis in front of the entrance to every lateral valley. Some would attribute this formation to the overflowings of the torrent in times of flood; but, seeing that its stream often passes through a ravine cut in the talus, the explanation, though no doubt sometimes a true one, does not appear sufficient. If, however, the main valley were under water, the diminished velocity of the torrent on entering it would cause the immediate deposit of a large quantity of the material with which it is charged, and so a bank of this kind would be formed. I am therefore inclined to think that when the Alps had assumed a contour corresponding roughly with the present, and were on the point of being finally raised above the sea, they appeared for a while as an island group pierced by long fiords, into whose calm, land-locked, recesses the glacier streams poured their turbid waters.