ALPINE SCULPTUKE. 293 



of the region from many of the more accessible emi- 

 nences from the Galenstock, the Grrauhaupt, the Pitz 

 Languard, the Monte Confinale or, belter still, from 

 Mont Blanc, Monte Eosa, the Jungfrau, the Finsteraar- 

 horn, the Weisshorn, or the Matterhorn, where local 

 peculiarities are toned down, and the operations of the 

 powers which really made this region what it is are 

 alone brought into prominence must, I imagine, con- 

 vince every physical geologist of the inability of any 

 fracture theory to account for the present conformation 

 of the Alps. 



A correct model of the mountains, with an un- 

 exaggerated vertical scale, produces the same effect 

 upon the mind as the prospect from one of the highest 

 peaks. We are apt to be influenced by local phenomena 

 which, though insignificant in view of the general 

 question of Alpine conformation, are, with reference to 

 our customary standards, vast and impressive. In a 

 true model those local peculiarities disappear ; for on 

 the scale of a model they are too small to be visible ; 

 while the essential facts and forms are presented to the 

 undistracted attention. 



A minute analysis of the phenomena strengthens 

 the conviction which the general aspect of the Alps 

 fixes in the mind. We find, for example, numerous 

 valleys which the most ardent plutonist would not 

 think of ascribing to any other agency than erosion. 

 That such is their genesis and history is as certain as 

 that erosion produced the Chines in the Isle of Wight. 

 From these indubitable cases of erosion commencing, 

 if necessary, with the small ravines which run down 

 the flanks of the ridges, with their little working 

 navigators at their bottoms we can proceed, by almost 

 insensible gradations, to the largest valleys of the 

 Alps ; and it would perplex the plutonist to fix upon 



