Topography of the Pennine Alps. 323 



11,000 feet in height, extending among the high summits of 

 the Dent Blanche on the north, the Dent d'Erin on the south, 

 and a great number of peaks towards the west, which rise 

 here and there from the bosom of the plateaux, along the 

 ridge of the chain or the smaller northern chains. These 

 plateaux terminate towards the east in an abrupt wall of al- 

 most vei'tical rocks, at the bottom of which lies the glacier of 

 Zmutt, at a giddy depth. This ridge of rocks, which unites 

 the mass of the Dent Blanche with the Dent d'Erin, presents, 

 on the south side, a sort of depression or less precipitous de- 

 clivity to the foot of Dent d'Erin, by which the ice descends 

 to the deep valley of Zmutt ; this is the Col d'Erin, and the 

 origin of the glacier of Zmutt. 



A little to the north of the col rises a rounded eminence, 

 which Forbes erroneously describes under the name of Stock- 

 horn, which is a summit situate more to the south, and a little 

 more elevated still. M. Guyot ascended the first mentioned 

 of these, and gave it the name of Tete Blanche d'Erin. From 

 this central point, elevated 11,000 feet above the sea, a most 

 admirable panorama is unfolded to the eye. On the east side, 

 the view extends over the gigantic chains of Cervin, Mont 

 Rosa, and Saasgrat ; to the north and north-east, over those 

 of Dent Blanche and Weisshorn ; to the Avest, the prospect 

 reaches beyond the vast plateaux of snow which lie at your 

 feet, as far as Mont CoUon, and Combin ; so that, at a 

 single glance, the eye takes in all this vast chain of the 

 Pennine Alps. 



It will be seen, from what has been said, that one of the 

 characteristic features of this high chain are the extensive 

 plateaux which crown the summit. The highest points 

 rarely touch each other so as to form an uniuterinipted 

 series : here and there considerable gaps lie between the two 

 declivities, and form those cols with insensible slopes, which, 

 like the nier de glace of Otemma, ratlier resemble large val- 

 leys with a flat bottom than cols which traverse the ridge of 

 one of the most elevated chains of the Alps. On the north- 

 ern aspect, in particular, the northern links of the chain ori- 

 ginate in the very bosom of the plateaux, and not from the 



