52 Ruskin—Notes on the Denudation of the Alps. 
the advance of geology would interpret them for me: but time 
passes, and, while the aspect and anatomy of hills within five 
miles of Geneva remain yet unexplained, I find my brother- 
geologists disputing at the bottom of the lake. Will they 
pardon me if I at last take courage to ask them a few plain 
questions (respecting near and visible hills), for want of some 
answer to which I am sorely hindered in my endeavours to 
define the laws of mountain-form for purposes of art? 
Fig. 1 is the front view, abstracted into the simplest terms, 
and laterally much shortened, of the northern portion of the 
ridge of the Mont Saléve, five miles from Geneva. 
as SS > 
Fig. 1.—Northern portion of the Ridge of Mont Saléve. 
Tt is distinguished from the rest of the ridge by the boldness 
of its precipices, which terminate violently at the angle o, just 
above the little village called, probably from this very angle, 
‘Coin.’ The rest of the ridge falls back behind this advanced 
x = SH 
Fig. 2._Section of Mont Saléve at a, fig. 1. (Ruskin.) 
corner, and is softer in contour, though ultimately, in its 
southern mass, greater in elevation. Fig. 2 is the section, under 
a, as | suppose it to be; and fig. 3, as it is given by Studer. 
To my immediate purpose, it is of no consequence which is the 
true section; but the determination of the question, ultimately, 
