146 THE FOKMS OF WAfEK IN 



and Platteu, we found another, now clothed with grass, 

 and bearing a village on its back. Bat I wish to carry 

 you to a region which exhibits these evidences on a 

 still grander and more impressive scale. We have 

 already taken a brief flight to the valley of Hasli and 

 the Glacier of the Aar. Let us make that glacier our 

 starting-point. Walking from it downwards towards 

 the Grimsel, we pass everywhere over rocks singularly 

 rounded, and fluted, and scarred. These appearances 

 are manifestly the work of the glacier in recent times. 

 But we approach the Grimsel, and at the turning of 

 the valley stand before the precipitous granite flank of 

 the mountain. The traces of the ancient ice are here 

 as plain as they are amazing. The rocks are so hard 

 that not only the fluting and polishing, but even the fine 

 scratches which date back unnamahle thousands of 

 years are as evident as if they had been made yester- 

 day. We may trace these evidences to a height of two 

 thousand feet above the present valley bed. It is in- 

 dubitable that an ice-river of this astounding depth 

 once flowed through the vale of Hasli. 



365. Yonder is the summit of the Siedelhorn ; and 

 if we gain it, the Unteraar glacier will lie like a map 

 below us. From this commanding point we plainly see 

 marked upon the mountain sides the height to which 

 the ancient ice extended. The ice-ground part of the 

 mountains is clearly distinguished from the splintered 

 srests which in those distant da} r s rose above the surface 



