Dr. Du Riche Preller—The Engadine Lakes. 449 
In following the gently ascending Upper Engadine Valley from 
Samaden, situated below the outflow of the river Inn from the last, 
viz. the St. Moritz Lake, the valley at the Upper or Maloja end 
seems to be closed in by an imposing chain of mountains in which 
that river may naturally be supposed to rise. But the peculiar 
feature of the district consists precisely in this, that what above the 
uppermost, viz. the Sils Lake is locally, and also in text-books, termed 
the “Inn,” is a mere insignificant stream which rises only about 
a mile higher up, in the small lake of Lunghino, situated at an altitude 
of 2408 metres, 1900 feet above sea-level, or about 2000 feet above 
the Sils Lake. This is at first the more puzzling, because the 
locality of Maloja forms an alluvial plain which is evidently the 
remains of a former river bed of considerable extension. The fact 
is that there really exists now no individual river Inn as feeder of 
the four lakes, and that the Inn of the present day, as known in the 
Lower Engadine, only begins at Samaden after its confluence with 
the Bernina, and per se, is nothing but an agglomeration of Alpine 
torrent falling into the lakes between that village and Maloja. The 
sources of the ancient river Inn which was powerful enough to 
erode and form the Engadine valley, only become apparent when 
we go beyond, viz. south of Maloja. As is known to every one who 
is familiar with the district, the Plain of Maloja is a depression 
between two parallel mountain ranges trending 8.W. to N.E., which 
divides the present watersheds of the Inn and Meira systems, and 
forms the summit of the Pass of the Alpine route from Chiavenna 
to the Engadine. Immediately after Maloja, the ground takes a 
sudden plunge of 250 metres or of about 800 feet at an angle of 
45 degrees into the so-called Bargaglia valley and thence falls 
rapidly to Chiavenna. But if we examine the watercourses imme- 
diately south of Maloja and descending into the Bargaglia valley, 
we are confronted by the remarkable phenomenon that several of 
the principal glaciers and torrents emerging from them, run ina 
north-easterly direction, and that after a certain distance the torrents 
suddenly turn south-west at a sharp angle. Thus, the Meira or 
principal river of the Bargaglia valley, takes from the confluence of 
its two branches below the Septimer Pass at an altitude of 2000 
metres or about 6600 feet, a north-easterly course through the 
Marozzo valley, in the direction of Maloja, until after a run of about 
2800 metres, it describes a curve to the 8.W., and enters the Bar- 
gaglia valley near Casaccia, about two miles below Maloja. On the 
opposite side of the valley the case is even more striking. From 
the Forno glacier trending N.H., emerges at an altitude of about 
2000 metres, or 6600 feet, the Orlegna, which flows in the same 
N.H. direction, until close to, and practically on a level with Maloja, 
it deviates by a sharp curve to 8.W., and following the foot of the 
wall dividing the watersheds, flows into the Meira below Casaccia. 
No less remarkable is the course of the Albigna, which after emerg- 
ing from the glacier of the same name at an altitude of 2064 metres 
or 6800 feet, keeps for about a mile the same direction as the glacier, 
viz. N.H. parallel to that of the Forno, and more or less in the 
DECADE III.—VOL X.—NO. X. 29 
