The scenery of Switzerland and the causes to which it is due

Front matter

TH€SC€NeRYOF SWITZeRLAND

SIR JOHN LUBBOCK

;:;? CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIEEASY. :

Preface

In the summer of 1861 I had the pleasure of spending a short holiday in Switzerland with Huxley and Tyndall. Tyndall and I ascended the Galenstock, and started with Benen, who afterwards lost his life on the Haut de Cry, up the Jungfrau, but were stopped by an accident to one of our porters, who fell into a deep, crevasse from which we had some difficulty in extricating him, as Tyndall has graphically described in his Hours of Exercise on the Alps.

From that day to this many of my holidays have been spent in the Alps. On them - 1 have enjoyed many and many delightful days ; to them I owe much health and happiness, nor must I omit to express my gratitude to the Swiss people for their kindness and courtesy.

My attention was from the first directed to the interesting problems presented by the physical geography of the country. I longed to know what forces had raised the mountains, had hollowed out the lakes, and directed the rivers. During all my holidays these questions have occupied my thoughts, and I have read viii PREFACE

much of what has been written about them. Our knowledge is indeed very incomplete : many problems still baffle the greatest Geographers ; as to others there is still much difference of opinion. Nevertheless an immense fund of information has been gathered together, on many points there is a fair consensus of opinion amongst those best qualified to judge, and even where great authorities differ a short statement of their views, in a form which might be useful to those travelling in Switzerland, could hardly fail to be interesting and instructive. No such book is, however, in existence. I urged Tyndall and several others far better qualified than I am myself, to give us such a volume, feeling sure that it would be welcome to our countrymen, and add both to the pleasure and to the interest of their Swiss trips. They were all, however, otherwise occupied, but they encouraged me to attempt it, promising me their valuable assistance, and this must be my excuse for undertaking the task, perhaps prematurely. Tyndall we have unfortunately lost, but Professor Heim and Sir John Evans have been kind enough to take the trouble of looking through the proofs, and I am indebted to them for many valuable suggestions.

The Swiss Government have published a series of excellent maps which has been prepared at the cost of the state, under the general direction of General Dufour. There is also a geological map by Studer and

PREFACE IX

Escher, which was admirable at the time it appeared, and has in the main stood the test of more recent researches. Studer was in fact the father of Swiss Geology ; he accumulated an immense amount of information which has been most useful to subsequent authors, and if I have not quoted his researches more often, it is because I have been anxious to give the latest authorities. In 1858 he suggested that the Dufour map should be taken as the basis of a geological survey on a larger scale. To this the Swiss Government assented ; they voted the modest sum of £120, since increased to £400 a year, and appointed a commission consisting of Messrs. B. Studer, P. Mirian, A. Escher von der Linth, A. Favre, and E. Desor. Under their supervision the present geological map, in twentyfive sheets, has gradually appeared : the last being published in 1888, on the very day of Studer's death.

In addition to the geological maps themselves, the Commission have published a splendid series of descriptive volumes, over thirty in number, by A. Miiller, Jaccard, Greppin, Moesch, Kaufmann, Escher, Theobald, Gillieron, Baltzer, Fritsch, Du Pasquier, Burckhardt, Quereau, Heim, Schmidt, Favre, Renevier, Gerlach, Schardt, FeUenberg, RoUe, Taramelli, and others.

This is not the place to catalogue the separate Volumes and Memoirs on Swiss Geology and Physical Geography. Jaccard^ in his work on the Jura and

1 L. vii. , Sup. 2.

X PREFACE

Central Switzerland enumerates no less than 959, but among the most important I may mention Heini's magnificent work, Mechanismus der Gehirgshildung, Studer's Cieologie der Sohweiz, Agassiz's Etudes sur les Grlaciers, Suess's Bas Antlitz der JSrde, Favre's Recherches G-eologiques; for the fossils, that of Heer ; and among shorter publications, in addition to those by the geologists already referred to, especially those of Bonney, Morlot, Penck, Ramsay, Riitimeyer, and Tyndall.

I have dwelt specially on the valleys of the Arve, Rhone, and Rhine, the Reuss, Aar, Limmat, and Ticino as types of longitudinal and cross valleys ; and because they are among the districts most frequently visited. They have, moreover, been admirably described, especially by Favre, Heim, Renevier, and Riitimeyer.

I am fully conscious of the imperfections of this book : no doubt by waiting longer it might have been made better ; but I should have felt the same then also, and in the words of Favre, " il n'y a que ceux qui ne font rien qui ne se trompent pas." ^

1 Beck. Qeul., iii. 76.

Contents

CHAPTEE I

The Geology of Switzerland

The influence of geology on scenery — Difficulty of subject— Geological history of Switzerland — Igneous rooks — Gneiss — Origin of Gneiss — Granite — Porphyry — Protogine — Serpentine — Crystalline Schists — Carboniferous period — Ancient mountain chain — Permian period — Triassic— Jurassic ; Lias, Dogger, Malm — Cretaceous — Tertiary ; Eocene, Flysch, Nummulitic beds ; Miocene