IX. 



ALPINE SCULPTURE. 

 18G4. 



TO account for the conformation of the Alps, two 

 hypotheses have been advanced, which may be 

 respectively named the hypothesis of fracture and the 

 hypothesis of erosion. The former assumes that the 

 forces by which the mountains were elevated produced 

 fissures in the earth's crust, and that the valleys of the 

 Alps are the tracks of these fissures; while the latter 

 maintains that the valleys have been cut out by the 

 action of ice and water, the mountains themselves 

 being the residual forms of this grand sculpture. I 

 had heard the Via Mala cited as a conspicuous illus- 

 tration of the fissure theory the profound chasm thus 

 named, and through which the Hinter-Ehein now 

 flows, could, it was alleged, be nothing else than a crack 

 in the earth's crust. To the Via Mala I therefore went 

 in 1864 to instruct myself upon the point in question. 

 The gorge commences about a quarter of an hour 

 above Tusis; and, on entering it, the first impression 

 certainly is that it must be a fissure. This conclusion 

 in my case was modified as I advanced. Some distance 

 up the gorge I found upon the slopes to my right 

 quantities of rolled stones, evidently rounded by water- 

 action. Still further up, and just before reaching the 

 first bridge which spans the chasm, I found more rolled 

 stones, associated with sand and gravel. Through this 

 of detritus, fortunately, a vertical cutting had 



