Vol. 58.] ALPINE VALLEYS IN RELATION TO GLACIERS. 695 
Returning to the Fee Alp, we find that its comparatively level 
bed is some 6000 feet above the sea, and the ascent from it to the 
passes is fairly rapid. It is, in fact, a gigantic corrie with rocky 
steps and slopes generally not less than 6000 feet high (see 
Pl. XXXV, fig. 2). At the present time, and at least ever since the 
Glacial Epoch, the floor (nearly half a league long) has been raised 
by accumulation rather than lowered by denudation.’ But its rocky 
lip is notched by a gorge, which begins just below Saas Fee, deepens 
rapidly, and continues to within a short distance of the junction of its 
torrent with the Visp, to which, indeed, this is almost equal in volume. 
Let us now examine the main valley (see Pl. XXXYV, fig. 1). 
As already said, it exhibits no marked change in level above this 
junction, though it becomes rather narrower. After about 3 miles 
from Saas Grund, beyond the Zermeiggern chalets (5630 feet) it 
begins to ascend more rapidly, taking the form of a glen with steep 
rocky slopes on either side, the western one being the more preci- 
pitous. At the Distel Alp (4 miles) we have reached 7120 feet, and 
then ascend to the Monte-Moro Pass (9130 feet).” No high peaks are 
in the immediate neighbourhood of this Pass, though I believe such to 
have existed at the time when the Saasthal was mainly excavated ° ; 
on the eastern side also they are comparatively low for some distance, 
but we find them on the west and north-west. The Schwarzenberg 
Glacier is the first worth naming which sends its waters to the 
Visp, and it reaches the floor of the valley near the Mattmark Inn 
(6965 feet) below the Distel Alp. The Allalin and the Hochlaub 
Glaciers come next: the former, which is by far the larger, reaching 
the floor of the V-shaped valley. Both of these are enclosed at 
their heads by precipitous walls, culminating in the Strahlhorn, 
Rimfischhorn, and Allalinhorn. The entrance of the Schwarzenberg 
Glacier does not affect the level of the valley-floor ; it is very slightly 
steepened for a short distance below the Allalin Glacier, and not 
perceptibly changed by the third one. 
On the eastern side, the more notable valleys are, the Furg- 
genthal, a long glen leading to the Antrona Pass (9330 feet), and 
rather similar in form to the main one, the floor of which is at a 
lower level, as might be expected from a comparison, even at the 
present day, of the two torrents. Then comes the Almagell glen, 
running up to the Portjen Grat (12,008 feet) and the Zwischbergen 
Pass (10,657 feet): shorter, more distinctly a hanging valley, and 
drained by a larger torrent, leaping down a rocky wall in which, 
however, it has nowhere cut more than a slight gash. North of 
1 We pass great domes of ice-worn rock just before entering the village of 
Saas Fee, but the valley-bed is then concealed for a time under pastures 
masking slopes of débris. 
* The first stage has an average rise of about 370 feet a mile, the second of 
1000 feet. 
* See Alpine Journ. vol. xiv (1889) p. 224. 
4 That is, so far as can be seen from Almagell. JI once came down the valley 
in descending from the Weissmies, but that was 20 years ago, and so I do not 
very distinctly remember more than that it was uninteresting. 
