ALPINE SCULPTURE 255 



The valleys that exist cannot, I think, with any correct- 

 ness of language, be called fissures. It may be urged that 

 they originated in fissures : but even this is unproved, and, 

 were it proved, the fissures would still play the subordinate 

 part of giving direction to the agents which are to be re- 

 garded as the real sculptors of the Alps. 



The fracture theory, then, if it regards the elevation of 

 the Alps as due to the operation of a force acting through- 

 out the entire region, is, in my opinion, utterly incompe- 

 tent to account for the conformation of the country. If, 

 on the other hand, we are compelled to resort to local dis- 

 turbances, the manipulation of the earth's crust necessary 

 to obtain the valleys and the mountains will, I imagine, 

 bring the difficulties of the theory into very strong relief. 

 Indeed, an examination of the region from many of the 

 more accessible eminences — from the Gralenstock, the Grrau- 

 haupt, the Pitz Languard, the Monte Confinale — or, better 

 still, from Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, the Jungfrau, the 

 Finsteraarhorn, the Weisshorn, or the Matterhorn, where 

 local peculiarities are toned down, and the operations of 

 the powers which really made this region what it is are 

 alone brought into prominence — must, I imagine, convince 

 every physical geologist of the inability of any fracture 

 theory to account for the present conformation of the Alps. 



A correct model of the mountains, with an unexagger- 

 ated vertical scale, produces the same effect upon the mind 

 as the prospect from one of the highest peaks. We are 

 apt to be influenced by local phenomena which, though 

 insignificant in view of the general question of Alpine con- 

 formation, are, with reference to our customary standards, 

 vast and impressive. In a true model those local peculi- 

 arities disappear; for on the scale of a model they are too 



