282 M. Renoir on the Glaciers of the Vosges, 



sides. These striae are particularly characteristic. Lastly^ 

 Large blocks not rolled^ often resting, as in equilibrio, on one 

 of their smallest faces, and forming lines, &c. more or less ex- 

 tensive, on the sides and bottom of the valleys. 



These marks I had to re-examine more carefully than I had 

 done at a period when they w^ere less knovrn, and when less im- 

 portance was attached to them. I therefore traversed, during 

 last September, a part of the glaciers of the Bernese Alps, that 

 of the Rhone, &c. I endeavoured, more particularly, to become 

 acquainted with the character of moraines, from those which 

 our glaciers yet deposit, to those from which they have for a 

 long period retired. I examined with the greatest attention, 

 the rocks polished by the motion of ice over them, as well as 

 the parallelism and general direction of the fine striae which 

 are to be seen almost everywhere. I have found these polished 

 stones above the glaciers, at heights greatly superior to the 

 surfaces of the latter, which would seem to prove that they 

 have been much more considerable than they are in the pre- 

 sent day. I have likewise observed that, even when taking 

 into account the nature of the rocks, the polished surfaces are 

 more numerous and more extensive in the higher parts of the 

 mountains than in the valleys, an appearance contrary to what 

 would be produced by attributing the polishing of these rocks 

 to water, since, in the latter case, it would be most frequent 

 and perfect when the pressure would be greatest, that is to 

 say, in the depth of the valleys. It is impossible not to per- 

 ceive, as was done by the philosophers who first observed them, 

 tliat the surfaces are better polished, and the striae more dis- 

 tinctly preserved, the nearer we approach the glaciers, a cir- 

 cumstance which seems to prove that they have been more 

 recently left by the latter than those in the low parts of the 

 valleys ; which, again, is the reverse of what would have hap- 

 pened with currents of water. 



Immediately above Ober-Gestelen, are to be seen the re- 

 mains, still perfectly recognisable, of a terminal moraine ; the 

 village itself is built on another of greater extent, and better 

 preservation. I think I discovered at Viesch the remains of 

 a median moraine, which must have been formed by the unioa 



