324 Ascent of the Jungfrau in 1841. 
and separated by deep cuts or valleys. These ridges are ar- 
ranged according to their height, so that the first, or that 
nearest the plain, is the least elevated, and the last the high- 
est. ‘This particular disposition can be discovered at a great 
distance ; for when we examine the Jungfrau attentively in 
clear weather, we easily distinguish the deep cuts by their 
darker tint; the last (that which separates the highest peak 
from the one next to it) is the most obvious. Lastly, the Eiger, 
although more massive than the Monch, is still much less py- 
ramidal than it appears to be. 
I believe that we may find the explanation of these trench- 
ant forms in the nature of the rock, which is generally gneiss 
or mica-slate, that is to say, a rock more or less fissile, which 
splits in large plates, so that the colossal ridges of the Finster- 
aarhorn, the Ménch, the Jungfrau, the Schreckhorn, and the 
Eiger, represent in some degree, on a large scale, the slaty 
cleavage of the fallen masses which are detached from their 
sides, and which the glaciers carry along with them under the 
form of moraines. Wherever the rock is real granite or pro- 
togine, the peaks are always more massive, as may be seen in 
Mont Blanc, Mont Maudit, and others. 
This form of the Bernese Alps does not well agree, I admit, 
with the opinion of those who regard the different peaks as so 
many links of one and the same great chain; but Mr Studer 
has demonstrated that the Alps, far from being a continuous 
chain, are composed, on the contrary, of separate ellipsoidal 
masses, more or less independent of each other.* It has like- 
wise been long admitted that, in a geological sense, the high 
ridges are only accessory, while the essential phenomenon 
must be sought for in the masses which support them. 
Polished rocks never ascend to these levels; we saw none 
beyond those I have mentioned above, as occurring on the 
right side of the névé of Aletsch, in front of the Grinhorn. 
Wherever the rock appeared at the surface, it was under the 
* For details on this head, I refer to an article by M. Studer on the geo- 
gnostical constitution of the Alps, which will appear in an early number of 
the Bibliothéque Universelle de Genéye. 
