IX 



ALPINE SCULPTURl 

 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 main- 

 tains 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 profound chasm thus named, and through which the 

 Hinter-Rhein 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 



(243) 



