A LPINE 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 

 thoso of the Khine 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 so on 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 valley 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 



