108 On the Downward Progress 



below the tributary of the Unter-Aletsch, rich pasturages still 

 exist, which the inhabitants of the country formerly turned 

 to profitable account. The road leading to this locality ran 

 along the foot of the mountain, leaving the glacier at a dis- 

 tance ; now, the right lateral moraine has destroyed the road, 

 and advanced to the foot of the mountain, so that the passage 

 has become impracticable. But, as they were unwilling to 

 lose these fine pastures altogether, horses and mules are still 

 sent to them, along a road cut with hatchets in the glacier 

 itself, but this mode of communication is not practicable for 

 cows. 



Some kilometres further down on the same side, there is 

 another lateral spot equally rich in pasture, and on which we 

 observe twenty-four wooden houses scattered about ; these 

 houses were formerly inhabited, and formed a village which 

 bore the name of Aletsch. For several years back many of 

 these houses have been destroyed by the lateral intrusion of 

 the glacier; they no longer serve as permanent habitations, 

 but are converted into barns, some of them oidy being inha- 

 bited for a few months of the year. At the time when we 

 examined the spot, one of these houses was just about to be 

 overwhelmed by the stones and enormous blocks, detached 

 from time to time from the moraine, which had nearly en- 

 veloped the frail edifice. 



The erection of a village at this point goes back to a very 

 remote period. Although the inhabitants of the country could 

 give us no information on this point, still, it is obvious, that 

 the first inhabitants who took up their residence here, would 

 never have been guilty of the folly of building permanent 

 houses, with the prospect of seeing them every instant swal- 

 lowed up by the glacier. We may, therefore, conclude that 

 the glacier, at that time, was at a great distance from the 

 village, and by reckoning it to have been built 200 years ago, 

 we remain within the minimum. The same thing, then, has 

 taken place on the right as on the left bank ; the glacier, by its 

 increase, now arrives at localities which it had not touched 

 up'm for many ages. 



In the glacier of Zmutt, in the valley of Zermatt, it is 

 rather a frontal progression than a lateral expansion that we 



