1873.] BONNEY ALPINE LAKES. 385 



lie other taluses, which have considerably encroached upon it. It is 

 therefore evident that the Konigsee formerly extended to the foot 

 of the cirque, and that these deltas, like the level tract at the mouth 

 of the Eisbach, where stands the well-known shooting-lodge of St. 

 Bartoloma, are accumulations of comparatively recent date. 



The general direction of the lake is from S. to N. ; but at the 

 lower end it turns somewhat to the N.W., becoming shallow, and 

 having its surface broken by at least one island. Owing to the rich 

 herbage and forests which clothe the ground at this end, it was 

 difficult (in the time at my disposal) to determine the precise nature 

 of the barrier which now retains the waters of the Konigsee ; but I 

 ascertained that it is kept at its present level by drift, which, as at 

 the Obersee, has been brought down from two glens opposite one to 

 the other. Here, however, as is shown by the island and by some 

 projecting spurs, the mountains themselves also close on the valley. 

 Hence to Berchtesgaden, a distance of about 3^ miles, there is 

 abundant drift ; but though I do not remember to have seen live 

 rock in the river-bed, it must be close to the surface, at any rate, 

 near that village, i. e. at a height of about 1740 feet above the sea. 



Let us now examine the relation of this remarkable valley to 

 the orography of the neighbourhood*. 



At the present day there are only two glaciers in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Konigsee — a small one between the two peaks of the 

 Watzmann, and the large ice-field of the Uebergossene Alp. Of 

 these, the former lies too far to the N.W. to have occupied the 

 whole basin of the Konigsee ; the latter belongs to a different 

 drainage-system. Formerly the plateau of the Steinerne Meer must 

 have supported a considerable glacier ; but this could hardly have 

 occupied more than a portion of the present lake-basin. Further, it 

 is singular that, if any glacier in this region had been adequate to 

 excavate the Konigsee, there is no well-marked trench or trough 

 extending from it to the wide plateau of the Steinerne Meer, where 

 the neve must have been situated. So far from there being a 

 vestige of any such trough, the district between the edge of the 

 plateau and the descent into the trough of the Konigsee is 

 peculiarly broken and intricate ; in fact, the first valley reached on 

 the descent has no outlet for its waters. 



Again, the range connecting the east end of the Steinerne Meer 

 with the Haagen Gebirge and the Kalenberg, which feeds the 

 streamlets descending to the Obersee, is on the whole rather lower 

 than the rest of the chain, while it does not seem in any respect 

 more likely to have produced a great glacier. 



Let us now examine the form of the Konigsee itself. It is a 

 slightly curved trough, enclosed as described by very steep walls, 



* If, after Professor Ramsay's paper, discussing the " fissure " theory is not 

 slaying the slain, one may point out that even this most fissure-like lake cannot 

 in its present form be so explained. Suppose the slope of its sides 60°, and its 

 breadth 1600 yards (both measurements rather favourable to the theory). Its 

 depth should be 800 tan 00° = 800 (173) = 1384 yards, whereas the greatest 

 known depth is less than 260 yards. 



