184 FRAGMENTS OF 8GIENVE. 
of giving direction to the agents which are to be regarded 
as the real sculptors of the Alps. 
The fracture theory, then, if it regards the elevation of 
the Alps as due to the operation of a force acting through- 
out the entire region, is, in my opinion, utterly incom- 
petent to account for the conformation of the country. If, 
on the other hand, we are compelled to resort to local 
disturbances, the manipulation of the earth's crust neces- 
sary to obtain the valleys and the mountains will, I 
imagine, bring the difficulties of the theory into very 
strong relief. Indeed an examination of the region from 
many of the more accessible eminences from the Galen- 
stock, the Grauhaupt, the Pitz Languard, the Monte 
Confinale or, better still, from Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, 
the Jungfrau, the Finsteraarhorn, 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, convince every physical geologist of 
the inability of any fracture theory to account for the pres- 
ent conformation of the Alps. 
A correct model of the mountains, with an unexag- 
gerated 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 
rundown the flanks of the ridges, with their little working 
navigators at their bottoms we can proceed, by almost in- 
sensible gradations, to the largest valleys of the Alps; and 
it would perplex the plutonist to fix upon the point at 
which fracture begins to play a material part, 
