GLACIAL FEATURES IN THE ALPS 19 



but this will be degraded and everywhere lowered. Thus we see, 

 besides those mountains into which closed and opened Karc have 

 been gnawed, others which projected equally above the glacial snow- 

 line, which still conserve more or less completely their preglacially 

 rounded forms. They were totally buried under the ice. 



The actual surface features of the Alps do not at all correspond to 

 those of a water- worn mountain range. Their conformation is mostly 

 due to ice-action, which becomes most visible where the old glaciation 

 ceased. It shows an adjustment to ice-action which is not quite 

 perfect everywhere, since it probably has been disturbed by earth- 

 movement in its highest parts, and by the action of the receding ice 

 during its oscillations in postglacial time. These oscillations have 

 led to the deposition of morainic material at places where erosion had 

 before been active, and to the increase of erosion at other places. 

 They have only slightly modified the general features worked out 

 during maximum glaciation. We must conclude, therefore, that the 

 durations of the maxima of glaciations, surpassed considerably the 

 times of the increase and recession of glaciation, that is, the pre- 

 glacial and postglacial times. 



