LIFE DT THE ALPS. Sir 



yet the displacement in a single year cannot be 

 more than a hairVbreadth. Looking abroad, 1 

 still larger evidence* of imperceptible inotiam. Wefind 

 locks crarkfd across, cavities fimned, crevasses C*|**TCi. 

 and separated from each ether by wrinkled soil; the 

 whole leaving no doubt upon the mind an to the slow 

 motion of the whole surface of tins awnntain downwards. 

 And when we examine the outlines of the hiQs, we fisd 

 that this sliding down must, in former ages, have oc- 

 curred on a vast scale. The torrents whidi furrow the 



'.'-' _ " r . '. 



their sides, cany, in the loog ran, botb sliding 

 and moiing earth to lower levels. 



We have now come to oar candading obeetratiasu 

 On the 25th of September, 1890, my friend M. K 

 Saiasin, of Genera, and myself, bad the good fMtme 

 to witnes a laie and beantiful phenomenoo. The son 

 was doping to the west, and the ^auVy below us, m 

 which lies the great AletsA gtatiet, was filled by a 

 dense Cog. Standing in a position, with the 

 aim behind us, we saw, swept through the Big in front 

 of us, a grand colourless aieh of fight. It occupied a 

 position dose to that which an onfinarj coloured xain- 

 bow might have ou.upif.ri. Twice in Fnghwi^ and 

 twice only, I have seen this fnrwJgi'Bd Hnni^'riin %mri 

 the firet time, in company with my wife, on the high 

 mooriand of Hud Head. The white how WAS first de- 

 scribed by the S^antth navigator, (TUUaa, after whom 

 it is named. Its explanation can only be briefly in- 

 dicated -here. JUong with the true rainbow, and within 

 it, there are usually produced m nnatbur of ether bows, 

 by what Dr. Young named the * interference of light,' 

 They are called supernumerary bows. When the ila 

 drops are all of the same siae, and exceedingly small, 



