276 M. Studer on some Phenomena of 



fifty feet on the right or eastern margin of the glacier, it was 

 in such a state as to allow us to approach near its contact 

 with the rock in situ, and to observe the state of the latter 

 even under the glacier. Notwithstanding the mineralogical 

 difference of the rock, which is here a rather compact green 

 slate, 1 must say that I was struck with the perfect resem- 

 blance of the condition of the surface with that of the calca- 

 reous rocks of the lake of Bienne ; there are the same smooth 

 spaces, the same grooves with smooth edges, and the same 

 fine striae ; the whole undoubtedly produced by the friction 

 on the rock of boulders and gravel urged forward under a 

 strong pressure by some agent or other, and in this locality 

 that agent may well be considered the glacier itself 



On the following day we ascended the crest of the Rifiel, 

 which overlooks the upper part of the glacier of the Gorneren, 

 in the continuation of its right edge. There we were elevated 

 about 500 feet above its surface, and separated from it by a 

 very steep, somewhat peak-shaped, declivity. The prevailing 

 rock of the crest is an imperfectly slaty serpentine. The 

 height of this place above the glacier prevents us supposing 

 that the glacier ever rose so high, since the commencement 

 of the present epoch ; and yet we saw the surface of the ser- 

 pentine rocks polished like a mirror and covered with furrows 

 and striae nearly horizontal, and in every respect resembling 

 those in contact with the glacier itself The supposition of 

 currents of water carrying along stones, to which this condi- 

 tion of the surface may be attributed, is in like manner ren- 

 dered a very improbable explanation, in consequence of the 

 isolation of the crest between two very deep valleys of ice, 

 and the proximity of the summits of all this group of moun- 

 tains. At a league distant from this place, below Zermatt, 

 near the bridge over wliich the road passes, from the left to 

 the right bank, we again find, on granitic gneiss, the same 

 polished surfaces, furrowed and striated, and those rounded 

 prominences which Saussure calls 7noutonnees. 



On the southern slope of the Alps we have observed the 

 same phenomenon, both in the immediate proximity of the 

 glaciers, and at continually increasing distances from them, to 



