212 • • AccG7int of the Fall 



cuting those labours whica an enliglitened compassion would 

 dictate. 



The mountain of Rosenberg, as well as the Rigi and other 

 mountains in its \'icinity, are composed of a kind of brittle 

 oalcareous earih and pudding-stone or aggregated rocks: 

 Such a prodigious mass as that which fell, would easily 

 Cruriible bv its own weight, and spread over a wide surface. 

 The bed of the mountain from which the desolation came, 

 i^ a plane inclined trom north to south. Its appearance as 

 it is nOiV laid bare would lead one to suppose that the mass, 

 when first moved from its base, slid for some distance before 

 it precipitated itself into the vallev. The height of the Spits- 

 berg (the name of the projection which fell) above the lake 

 and vallev of Lowertz was little less than GOOD feet. The .- 

 composition of the chain of the Rigi, of which the Rosen- 

 berg makes a -part, has always been an obstacle in the way 

 of tho«e svstem-makers who have built their hypothese? 

 upon the structure of the Alps. It has nothing of granite 

 in its whole mass; and, though nearly GOOO feet above the 

 sea, is green, and even fertile, to its summit. It is com- 

 posed of nothing but earth and stone, combined in rude 

 masses. It is also remarkable that the strata of which it is 

 composed are distinctly inclined from the north to tlie south; 

 a character which is common to all rocks of this kind through 

 the whole range of Alps, as well as to the greater part of 

 calcareous, schistous, and pyritous rocks, and also to the 

 whole cha n of the Jura.f' ' '■ 



It v^as about a week after the fall of the mountain that 

 our route through vSwitzerland led us to visit this scene of 

 desolation ; and never can 1 forget the succession of melan- 

 cho'\- views which presented themselves to our curiosity. 

 In our way to it we landed at Art, a town situated at the 

 southern extremitv of the lake of Zng -, and we skirted, along 

 the eastern boundary of the ruins, bv the side of Mount 

 Riffi, towards the lakf^ of Lowertz. • From various points on 

 our passage we had complete views of such a scene of de- 

 struction as no words can adequately describe. 



Picture to yourself a rude end mingled mass of earth and 



stones. 



