A. V. Jennings — The Landwasser and Landqiiart. 265 



•difficult to reconcile. To appreciate these it is necessary to observe 

 some of the peculiarities of the Davos ' valley.' 



If we follow up the Lareterbach from Klosters we find it descends 

 in a steep valley with solid rock on the east and a great accumulation 

 of moraine and detrital material on the west. Some three miles up, 

 near Laret, it curves west, and is seen to descend from the pass 

 between the Casanna and the Todtalp. Just below this bend it 

 receives the Monchalpbach, flowing from the Pischa glacier on the 

 east, but there is no stream descending in the middle line of the 

 valley. Half a mile south of the Stiitzbach is Wolfgang, the ' Kulm ' 

 of the Davos ' valley,' 1,634 metres above the sea, or 425 above 

 Klosters. West of Wolfgang is the serpentine mass of the Todtalp, 

 lying back at some distance but with a great talus-fan at its foot, 

 which spreads over the Kulm and has apparently forced southward 

 the stream of the Todtalpbach. East of Wolfgang lies the remark- 

 able rounded and tree-covered elevation which stretches transversely 

 across the valley and reaches a height of 1,776 metres at the 

 Drusatch Alp, where it abuts against the schists and gneisses of 

 the Hdrnli. 



The southern slopes of this ridge descend to the Davoser See, which 

 as a mile in length and about half as much in width. While popular 

 tradition as to tbe depth of the lake is undoubtedly exaggerated, the 

 ovidence of sounding and of calculation from the slopes of the 

 surrounding mountains, leaves no doubt that the bottom is some 

 150 metres below the surface at the deepest point, about a third 

 of the length from the north end. The south end shallows rapidly 

 and terminates in the low-lying meadows around Dorf, which in turn 

 are continued into the alluvial flat stretching on past Davos Platz. 

 Into these meadows flows the Fluela, and its now canalized course, 

 turning southward and receiving the little stream issuing from the 

 lake, forms the origin of the Landwasser of to-day. Increased in 

 volume by the influx of the Dischma, the Landwasser flows on, with 

 but little drop, to Frauenkirch. Here it lies on the western side of 

 the valley, and on the east a vast accumulation of detrital material 

 marks the mouth of the incurrent Sertig. This mass presents 

 a steep bank 30 metres high to the river, and is cut out above into 

 the wide flat terraces of the Wildboden and Junkersboden. The 

 level of these terraces is just the same as the present level of the 

 lake, so that the height of their terminal bank represents the total 

 fall of the Landwasser in the first five miles of its course. Below 

 Frauenkirch the river, no longer canalized, pursues a winding 

 course past Spinabad, Glaris, and Monstein, and then plunges into 

 the gorge of the Ziige. As far as Glaris it is flanked on the west by 

 great masses of detrital material, but soon after passing that village 

 it flows practically on its true rock bed. 



In a paper published last year ^ I called attention in greater detail 

 to these general features of the Davos area, and also pointed out — 



^ Vaughan Jennings, "On the Structure of tlie Davos Valley" : Quart. Joum. 



<jeol. Soc, vol. liv (1898). 



