ALPINE SCULPTURE, 191 
The snout of a glacier is potent to remove anything 
against which it can fairly abut; and this power, notwith- 
standing the slowness of the motion, manifests itself at the 
end of the Morteratsch glacier. A hillock, bearing pine 
trees, was in front of the glacier when Mr. Hirst and 
myself inspected its end; and this hillock is being bodily 
removed by the thrust of the ice. Several of the trees are 
overturned; and in a few years, if the glacier continues its 
reputed advance, the mound will certainly be plowed 
away. 
The question of Alpine conformation stands, I think, 
thus: We have, in the first place, great valleys, such as 
those of the Rhine and the Rhone, which we might con- 
veniently call valleys of the first order. The mountains 
which flank these main valleys are also cut by lateral 
valleys running into the main ones, and which may be 
called valleys of the second order. When these latter are 
examined, smaller valleys are found running into them, 
which may be called valleys of the third order. Smaller 
ravines and depressions, again, join the latter, which may 
be called valleys of the fourth order, and soon until we 
reach streaks and cuttings so minute as not to merit the 
name of valleys at all. At the bottom of every valley we 
have a stream, diminishing in magnitude as the order of 
the vallev ascends, carving the earth and carrying its 
materials to lower levels. We find that the larger valleys 
have been filled for untold ages by glaciers of enormous 
dimensions, always moving, grinding down and tearing 
away the rocks over which they passed. We have, more- 
over, on the plains at the feet of the mountains, and in 
enormous quantities, the very matter derived from the 
sculpture of the mountains themselves. 
The plains of Italy and Switzerland are cumbered by the 
debris of the Alps. The lower, wider, and more level 
valleys are also filled to unknown depths with the materials 
derived from the higher ones. In the vast quantities of 
moraine-matter which cumber many even of the higher 
valleys we have also suggestions as to the magnitude of the 
erosion which has taken place. This moraine-matter, 
moreover, can only in small part have been derived from 
the falling of rocks upon the ancient glacier; it is in great 
part derived from the grinding and the plowing-out of 
the glacier itself. This accounts for the magnitude of 
