376 Prof. Bischoft' on the Temperature of' 



facility with which the slate on which the Gemini rest is disin- 

 tegrated, and hence the great heaps of detritus at the southern 

 foot of the Gemmi, and in the valley of the Rhone. Traces of 

 similar fallings-in of the rocks, and of extensive ancient glaciers, 

 are also to be found on the northern side of the Gemmi, below 

 the inn of Schwarrbach, and near the Spital Matte. On this 

 Alp are seen several hills covered with fir-trees, and formed of 

 blocks of limestone, disposed in irregular layers, one above an- 

 other. Out of the innumerable clefts in these hills rise the 

 numerous freshwater springs which we have already before 

 mentioned, and which, after forming a considerable stream, sink 

 into the rocks and reappear, together with several other springs 

 at the foot of one of the smaller hills. Below Kanderstdg, on 

 the left declivity of the mountain, we find a very large heap of 

 detritus, which we are indeed inclined to consider as an enormous 

 Gandecke. But even further down, as far as Frutigen, we see 

 considerable hills composed of blocks of limestone heaped toge- 

 ther, sometimes in the middle of the valley, and sometimes 

 resting on the high mountains on each side. The luxuriant 

 vegetation in the valley shews, as every where, that the soil here 

 rests upon fragments broken off and precipitated down from the 

 rocks above.* Traces of such dislocations are well known to 

 exist in the Alps, and the history of recent times furnishes many 

 melancholy examples of the same. Thus, for example, the sud- 

 den fall of the rocks, and the destruction of the city of Plursor 

 Piuri-\ in the year 1618, — that of the village of St Ahundio\ 

 in 1760, — the falling-in of the Diablerets in the years 1714 and 

 1749,§— 'that of the RuJ/^i or Rigi at various periods, — and the 

 latest and most dreadful catastrophe of all, which filled the val- 

 ley of Goldau with rubbish in 1806.|| 



Such disturbances must be frequently repeated, as the rapid 

 streams below undermine the feet of the mountains, by which 

 the rocks are made to split and to sink, the fissures sometimes 

 extending more than a thousand feet above the bottom of the 



• Escher in Gilbert's Annal. vol. Ix. p. 363. 



t Ebel, part ii. p. 365. % Ibid. p. 36?. 



§ Ibid. p. 446. II Ibid. p. 146. 



