Vol. 58. ] ALPINE VALLEYS IN RELATION TO GLACIERS. 691 
To save time, I will describe in some detail a single Swiss valley 
in the Pennine Alps; for then it will suffice to mention briefly 
numerous others which lead to similar conclusions, At Visp a 
river bearing the same name joins the Rhone. The area which it 
drains includes some of the highest peaks and largest glaciers in the 
Pennine Alps ; to the east of it indeed we must travel on the water- 
shed as far as the Bernina group, before we find a summit which 
reaches 12,000 feet. The Visp River is formed by the union of two 
great torrents, so that its plan on the map is a reversed Y, the 
western arm being fed by the glaciers around Zermatt, the eastern 
by those of the Saasthal; these torrents unite, each flowing in a deep 
gorge, near the village of Stalden. This is perched on the top of a 
rocky step—perhaps 400 feet high—in the floor of the valley, which 
afterwards remains fairly level and less contracted, though with 
steep and craggy mountains on either side, till it enters that of the 
Rhone. Measured on the map,’ it is about 8 miles from the junction 
of the torrents to Saas Grund.” The chief ascent in this part of 
the valley-floor ends at Balen (4985 feet), some 24 miles below 
Saas Grund, the rise being about 1500 feet in the first half and 
900 feet in the second. From Balen it continues gradual, rising 
about 650 feet in rather more than 7 miles,* and the valley is 
much more open. Below Balen, the valley as a whole takes the 
form given in Pl. XXXV, fig. 3, no. IL; higher up this is less well 
marked, although hanging valleys are sometimes conspicuous. 
The most remarkable of these, that in which the popular resort 
Saas Fee (5900 feet) has sprung up during the last quarter of a 
century, is reached by a steep rocky ascent from Saas Grund 
(5125 feet), which brings us to the comparatively level floor of an 
upland basin enclosed by a vast horseshoe of snowy mountains, 
which attain a greater elevation on the western than on the eastern 
side. Beginning with the Mittaghorn (10,330 feet), the crest runs 
on to the Egginerhorn (11,080 feet), after which it is interrupted 
by a snow-saddle, not quite 9900 feet high. From that it again 
rises to more than its former elevation, and culminates in the 
Allalinhorn (13,235 feet). Thence for a long way it practically 
keeps above 12,500 feet,* the Alphubel itself reaching 13,803 feet. 
Then comes the mass of the Mischabelhorner, the highest peak of 
which almost attains 15,000 feet, the gaps at first being about 
1000 feet lower. The crest, after the Nadelhorn (14,220 feet), 
begins to decline, but it is now outside the limit of the Fee basin. 
All the drainage from the inner side of this horseshoe passes by 
Saas Fee, and most of its snowfields combine to form the broad ice- 
* Unless expressly stated, all horizontal distances mentioned in this paper are 
thus measured. 
2 The ancient village on the bed of the valley. 
* ‘Phus the ascents may be roughly given :—first, 550 feet a mile; then, about. 
325 feet a mile; and lastly, for rather more than half the whole distance, under 
100 feet a mile. (See Pl. XXXV, fig. 1.) 
+ The lowest pass, the Alphubel Joch, just south of that summit, is 
12,475 feet. 
3B2 
