106 Dr. Berger o« the physical Structure 



now compare these appearances with those met with in other 

 countries, and we shall find, that upon a diminutive scale, they co- 

 incide for the most part with each other, and that they lead us very 

 strongly to believe that we are approaching a primitive country, or 

 rather, that we are upon the verge of it. Thus, upon the skirts 

 of the primitive mountains, where the Rhine rises, and at the 

 opening of the great valley through which that river flows, enor- 

 mous masses of conglomerate breccia are found. I have followed 

 them for the space of several miles, from the borders of the lake 

 of Wallenstadt, on the road to Zurich. It is also upon the same 

 line, but a little more to the eastward, and on the skirts of the 

 chain of mountains of St. Gothard, that are found those masses of 

 pudding-stone which form mountains of so great an elevation as 

 the Rigiberg,* the Ruffiberg, and the Albisberg ; and turning 

 W.N.W. extend into the Entlibuchthal, where I have seen mural 

 precipices of it, of a considerable height between Schoepfheim and 

 Hochstetten. 1 have also seen those mentioned by Saussure at 

 Valorsine in the valley of Trient ;f on the left bank of the Rhone, 

 between Martigny and St. Maurice in the Valais •,% as well as those 

 which are found in the beautiful valley of Loch Ness in Scotland. 



* Mr. Kirwan considers the Conglomerate of Rigiberg as a calcareo-argillaccous 

 breccia, which he calls Farcilite. Geol. Essays, p. 252. 



IbelicTe he might have equally comprehended it under the same head as the aggregate 

 which he has called Semi-Protolite (Geol. Ess. p. 256), for fragments of granite arc in- 

 cluded in it, though in small quantity, I have seen some at least in the detached blocks 

 of breccia of the Ruffiberg, near the village of Steinen in the valley of Goldau; and 

 what is remarkable, it is a granite, having the felspar of a brick-red colour, a viriety 

 Tcry rare in the high Alps. 



+ Voyages dans les Alpes, §§ 687, 688, 6S&. 



% Ibidem, § 1053. 



