ALPINE SCULPTURE. 175 



CHAPTER IX. 



ALPINE SCULPT UKB. 

 1864. 



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 illustration of the fissure theory the pro- 

 found chasm thus named, and through which the Hinter- 

 Khein now flows, could, it was alleged, be nothing else 

 than a crack in the earth's crust. To the Via Mala 1 

 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 mass of detritus, fortu- 

 nately, a vertical cutting had been made, which exhibited a 

 section showing perfect stratification. There was no 

 agency in the place to roll these stones, and to deposit 

 these alternating layers of sand and pebbles, but the river 

 which now rushes some hundreds of feet below them. At 

 one period of the Via Mala's history the river must have 

 run at this high level. Other evidences of water-action 

 soon revealed themselves. From the parapet of the first 

 bridge I could see the solid rock 200 feet above the bed of 

 the river scooped and eroded . 



It is stated in the guide-books that the river, which usu- 

 ally runs along the bottom of the gorge, has been known 

 almost to fill it during violent thunder-storms; and it may 



