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IX. 

 ALPINE SCULPTURE. 



1864. 



fTlO account for the conformation of the Alps, two 

 JL hypotheses have been advanced, which may be 

 respectively named the hypothesis of fracture and the 

 hypothesis of erosion. The former assumes that the 

 forces by which the mountains were elevated produced 

 fissures in the earth's crust, and that the valleys of the 

 Alps are the tracks of these fissures ; while the latter 

 maintains that the valleys have been cut out by the 

 action of ice and water, the mountains themselves being 

 the residual forms of this grand sculpture. I had heard 

 the Via Mala cited as a conspicuous illustration of the 

 fissure theory the profound chasm thus named, and 

 through which the Hinter-Ehein now flows, could, it 

 was alleged, be nothing else than a crack in the earth's 

 crust. To the Via Mala I therefore went in 1864 to 

 instruct myself upon the point in question. 



The gorge commences about a quarter of an hour 

 above Tusis ; and, on entering it, the first impression 

 certainly is that it must be a fissure. This conclusion 

 in my case was modified as I advanced. Some distance 

 up the gorge I found upon the slopes to my right 

 quantities of rolled stones, evidently rounded by water- 

 action. Still further up, and just before reaching the 

 first bridge which spans the chasm, I found more rolled 



