2SG Charles Maclaren, Esq., on the 



Alps, such as the Jungfrau (J). Wetterhorn (W),Engelhorn (N), 

 Sohneehorn (S), Viescherhorn (V). The south-east portion of 

 the map, coloured red, is occupied by crystalline rocks, chiefly 

 granite and gneiss. It is bounded by the line I m n. The 

 district beyond that line on the north-west consists entirely of 

 limestone. This well-marked boundary between the two spe- 

 cies of rocks gives us a key to the origin and movements of the 

 boulders. All crystalline blocks found in the limestone region 

 have evidently been carried to a distance from their original 

 site, which was on the south-east side of the line, I m n, or 

 perhaps, in some few cases, at a more distant locality. 

 We begin our journey at Interlaken. This village, to which mul- 

 titudes of English resort every summer, is of small size, but contains 

 about a dozen of large hotels, where strangers are boarded and lodged 

 at the low charge of five or six francs a head per day. It stands, 

 as the name implies, between two lakes, those of Thun and Brienz, 

 in a beautiful plain about two miles long and a mile and a half broad. 

 It is scarcely possible to imagine a more lovely situation. With its 

 trim verdant fields, its numerous orchards, its hedgerow trees, and 

 its little pine groves, the plain looks like a patch of rich English 

 landscape set down amidst the magnificent scenery of the Alps. 

 Mountains of limestone, two thousand feet in height, rising up like 

 gigantic walls, overlook and shelter it on the north and south, while 

 the picturesque lakes of Thun and Brienz form its western and east- 

 ern boundaries. These mountains display great vertical faces of 

 bare rock, separated by belts of pine or birch, or plots of fresh green 

 herbage, rising one above another, and sometimes the covering of 

 wood ascends to the top in dark unbroken masses. The traveller, 

 as he rambles through the plain, comes unexpectedly upon hamlets 

 and villages, which are hid amongst the trees ; and though built of 

 wood, and not over clean, the houses have the snugness and pic- 

 turesque appearance common to Swiss cottages. The crowning 

 feature of the scene is the Jungfrau, 13,700 feet in height, rising 

 over the valley of Lauterbrunnen, and c/ri b ^ifid^do'iq Ite 



cc a • 7 ,7 tft iPladil . a si hi f evodfi 



" Soaring snow-clad through its native skv, 



* od In the wild pomp of mountain majesty." 



-bfi93 sdi 



It is seen from every part of the straggling village, and owing 

 probably to the transparency of the atmosphere, looks as if it could 

 be reached in half an hour, though it is actually eleven miles dis- 

 tant in a direct line. The optical illusion producing these deceptive 

 ideas of distance is common in the Alps. 



Shortly after my arrival at Interlaken, wishing to get a view of 

 the environs, I climbed to the top of a projecting rock on the north 

 side of the river (at a in the map), a little westward of the wooden 

 bridge. Here I stumbled upon half a dozen blocks of granite and 

 gneiss in a situation where I little expected to find them. The 



