9920 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP, VI 
In the Alps the contortions are much 
greater than in the Jura. Fig. 19 shows a 
section after Heim, from the Spitzen across 
the Brunnialp, and the Maderanerthal. It 
is obvious that the valleys are due mainly to 
erosion, that the Maderaner valley has been 
cut out of the crystalline rocks s, and was 
once covered by the Jurassic strata j7, which 
must have formerly passed in a great arch 
over what is now the valley. 
However improbable it may seem that so 
great an amount of rock should have dis- 
appeared, evidence is conclusive. Ramsay has 
shown that in some parts of Wales not less 
than 29,000 feet have been removed, while 
there is strong reason for the belief that in 
Switzerland an amount has been carried away 
equal to the present height of the mountains ; 
though of course it does not follow that the 
Alps were once twice as high as they are at 
present, because elevation and erosion must 
have gone on contemporaneously. 
It has been calculated that the strata 
between Bale and the St. Gotthard have 
been compressed from 202 miles to 130 
tess 24 
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