i? 



a 



270 Prof. Tyndall on the Conformation of the Alps. 



I will here add a few measurements executed on the Rosegg 

 glacier: the line was staked out across the trunk formed by 

 the junction of the Rosegg glacier proper with the Tschierva 

 glacier, a short distance below the rocky promontory called 

 Agaliogs. 



Rosegg Glacier. 

 No. of stake. Hourly motion. 



1 001 inch. 



2 0-05 „ 



3 007 



4 0-10 



5. ..... . 0-11 „ 



6 0-13 „ 



7 0-14 „ 



8 0-18 „ 



9. ..... . 024 „ 



10 0-23 „ 



11 024 „ 



This is an extremely slowly moving glacier; the maximum 

 here found hardly amounts to 7 inches a day. Crevasses pre- 

 vented me from continuing the line quite across the glacier. 



To return to the question of Alpine conformation, — it stands, 

 I think, thus : — We have, in the first place, great valleys, 

 such as those of the Rhine and the Rhone, to which we might 

 conveniently give the name of valleys of the 1st order. The 

 mountains which flank these main valleys are also cut by lateral 

 valleys which run into the main one, and which may be called 

 valleys of the 2nd order. When these latter are examined, 

 smaller valleys are found running into them, which may be called 

 valleys of the 3rd order. Smaller ravines and depressions, again, 

 join the latter, which may be called valleys of the 4th order, and 

 so on until we reach streaks and cuttings so minute as not to 

 merit the name of valleys at all. At the bottom of every valley 

 we have a stream, diminishing in magnitude as the order of the 

 valley ascends, carving eternally at the earth and carrying its 

 materials to lower levels. We find moreover that the larger 

 valleys have been filled for untold ages by glaciers of enormous 

 dimensions, and that these glaciers were always moving, grinding 

 down and tearing away the rocks over which they past. We 

 have, moreover, on the plains which extend at the feet of the 

 mountains, and in enormous quantities, the very matter derived 

 from the sculpture of the mountains themselves. The plains of 

 Italy and Switzerland are cumbered by the debris of the Alps. 

 The lower, wider, and more level valleys are also filled to 

 unknown depths with the materials derived from the higher 



