1877 THE OLD GLACIERS OF NORTH ITALY 341 



to see the importance of certain work on the north- 

 east coast of Labrador, whither my friend is being 

 despatched from Newfoundland the dreary. He is 

 the man who told Louisa that the worst dinner he 

 ever had consisted of "cold eagle and badger-sauce." 1 



To the same friends, who were now on the Riviera, 

 he writes : ' I grieve to say there is no chance of foreign 

 travel for me this year. I must go to Ireland, and I 

 must go to Scotland, and I have irons in the fire that 

 must be got out and cooled, some of them, I hope, ere 

 this year is much further advanced. . . . All of those 

 valleys opening into the Alps, from the Dora Baltea 

 to Como, have made a deep impression on me. I 

 wish I could see them again, and specially with you 

 two and Louisa. Besides the beauty, some curiously 

 interesting points have come out since we were there. 

 It is now known that the great lakes of Como, 

 Maggiore, etc., were at one time fjords, like those of 

 Norway. When the mighty old glaciers were busy 

 scooping out my lake - hollows, the ends of them 

 descended into the sea, and deposited their moraines 

 there, for sea-shells are mingled with the material at 

 the ends of the moraines. Then as the glaciers retired, 

 the lakes became fjords, and I hear that, just as in the 

 Swedish lakes, some marine species still inhabit the 

 waters of Maggiore. There is a geological infliction 

 for you ! I give it you without remorse, for I know 

 you to have a soul above buttons, unlike me, when 

 once I wandered out round a lonely lake at the 

 Grimsel in search of any kind of button, and found 

 one of brass, by the margin on an ice-scratched rock.' 



The journeys of inspection to Ireland and Scotland 

 were duly made, and pictures of his progress may be 

 gathered from his correspondence. 



