450 Dr. Du Riche Preller—The Engadine Lakes. 
direction of Maloja, where it suddenly turns §.W., at an angle of 
50 degrees, and flows into the Meira near Vicosoprano. The course 
of these two rivers and that of their glaciers runs parallel to all the 
tributaries of the Upper Engadine lakes, such as those of the Val 
Fedo, the Val Fex, the Bernina, and others, whilst the Meira in its 
upper course runs parallel to the Julier and St. Moritz torrents and 
the smaller tributaries of the lakes on the other side of the Engadine 
valley. Below Vicosoprano, all the torrents run more or less at 
right angles to the Bargaglia valley, viz. they follow a normal course. 
We have, thus, the three principal rivers of what is now the 
Bargaglia valley, viz. the Meira, the Orlegna, and the Albigna,— 
the two last named with their glaciers—rising at much the same 
altitude, viz. about 7000 feet and pointing in their upper courses in 
the direction of Maloja, or North of the Alps, while in their lower 
courses they are deflected to the 8.W., or South of the Alps. It 
follows that these three rivers were the principal tributaries if not 
the actual sources of the ancient Inn, the confluence of the three 
being at Maloja, as is evidenced by the large superficial area of that 
plain which first formed a trough and was subsequently filled up by 
the deposits of the three rivers. The distance from the points 
where the rivers, the Meira, Orlegna and Albigna rise, to the ancient 
Maloja confluence is six, four, and eight kilometres, and the fall at 
the rate 3-6, 4:4, and 3-2 per cent. respectively, which is practically 
the same as that of the two principal tributaries of the Sils and 
Silvaplana lakes, the Fedo and the Fex of 3-6 per cent. The crest 
line of the old divide of the Engadine and Bargaglia river systems 
was therefore fully six miles south of Maloja, and stretched almost 
at right angles across the present Bargaglia valley near Vicosoprano; 
for it is on a line drawn from the Pizzo della Duana (3183 metres) 
to the Cima Bondarca (38288 metres) that we strike on one side the 
sources of the Meira, and on the other, the upper terminals of the 
Albigna and Forno glaciers from which emerge the Albigna and 
Orlegna, all trending N.H., whilst to the south of this line of demar- 
cation the valleys trend distinctly in the opposite direction. Not 
improbably from the central part of this old divide whose crest 
line was at about 8000 metres altitude, there descended to the north 
a glacier which was one of the main spings of the old Inn, and 
whose torrent joined the other three at Maloja. 
In Prof. Heim’s opinion, the remarkable deflection from north to 
south of these three torrents, viz. the Meira, the Albigna and Orlegna, 
was brought about by the greater erosive power of the torrents 
descending on the south of the Vicosoprano crests line into the 
Bargaglia valley, whereby the divide was gradually scooped out, 
worn down, and pushed back until the valley receded to above 
Casaccia and below Maloja, viz. to the present divide.’ But this 
1 Swiss Alpine Club, 1879-80.—When Prof. Heim attributes the receding of the 
valley and of the divide to the backward erosive action of the Meira, it is not very 
clear whether he refers to the principal torrent south of the old divide, or to the 
Meira of the present day, the former tributary or one of the sources of the Inn. If 
the former, it would not be the Meira at all; if the latter, the Meira assuredly could 
not run and erode to the south until the old divide had disappeared. In the meta- 
