ALPINE SCULPTURE 247 



fourth of the moraine to its right, and the remaining three- 

 fourths to its left. Other moraines of a more resisting 

 character hold their ground as barriers to the present 

 day. In the Val di Campo, for example, about three- 

 quarters of an hour from Pisciadello, there is a moraine 

 composed of large bowlders, which interrupt the course 

 of a river and compel the water to fall over them in 

 cascades. They have in great part resisted its action 

 since the retreat of the ancient glacier which formed 

 the moraine. Behind the moraine is a lake-bed, now 

 converted into a level meadow, which rests on a deep 

 layer of mould. 



At Pontresina a very fine and instructive gorge is to 

 be seen. The river from the Morteratsch glacier rushes 

 through a deep and narrow chasm which is spanned at 

 one place by a stone bridge. The rock is not of a char- 

 acter to preserve smooth polishing; but the larger features 

 of water-action are perfectly evident from top to bottom. 

 Those features are in part visible from the bridge, but 

 still better from a point a little distance from the bridge 

 in the direction of the upper village of Pontresina. The 

 hollowing out of the rock by the eddies of the water is 

 here quite manifest. A few minutes' walk upward brings 

 us to the end of the gorge; and behind it we hare the 

 usual indications of an ancient lake, and terraces of dis- 

 tinct water origin. From this position indeed the genesis 

 of the gorge is clearly revealed. After the retreat of the 

 ancient glacier, a transverse ridge of comparatively resist- 

 ing material crossed the valley at this place. Over the 

 lowest part of this ridge the river flowed, rushing steeply 

 down to join at the bottom of the slope the stream which 

 issued from the Kosegg glacier. On this incline the watel 



