.Erratics of the A lps. 



289 



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Figure 4 is a view of this ridge from the lake, e its east, and g its 

 west end. The dots at a and under // and g are travelled blocks 

 resting on the top and sides ; h is the hotel, and t a mimic wooden 

 temple. Figure 5 is a section across the ridge. L, the foot of the 

 limestone mountain, which rises to the height of 2000 feet ; R, the 

 ridge ; a and 6, boulders of granite or gneiss resting on the steep ac- 

 clivities or the top; A, the position of the hotel ; and B, the lake of 

 Brienz. The boulders are of all sizes up to three yards in length, 

 and the larger ones have their angles quite sharp. One of eight 

 feet in length at a on the south side, rests on a surface so highly m? 

 dined, that if, when lodged here, it had been dropped from a height 

 of two or three feet, it would certainly have descended to the bottom 

 of the precipice. Many small blocks of granite may be seen built 

 into a wall below b. They are generally rounded, and some of them 

 were perhaps brought from the top or upper part. The west end of 

 the ridge g is the broader, and is covered with soil as well as boulders ; 

 at the east end (e) the bare rock projects, and there is little soil and no 

 boulders. It is the phenomenon of " Crag and Tail," so well known 

 in Scotland, the crag appropriately facing the point from which the 

 moving agent came. Agassiz informs us that when a projecting rock 

 rises through a glacier and reaches its surface, or stands out a little 

 above it, some of the large stones which strew the top of the glacier 

 are stranded on the rock, and remain perched on its summit (restent 

 perches sur la pointe de rocher), or are deposited on its shelving 

 sides, forming a ring or coronet round the summit. It will be seen 

 how well this applies to the present case. Evidently no physical 

 agent is so admirably adapted for placing boulders in these singular 

 positions as a glacier. Gliding onwards in its irresistible course, 

 with a motion so slow as to be inappreciable by the senses (one or 

 two feet per day), the delicacy and steadiness of its pressure must be 

 extreme. It is only by such an agent that we can conceive a mass 

 of rock, weighing ten or twenty tons, to be lodged on a point or de- 

 clivity, where it is so nicely balanced that the force of a man's hand 

 would send it rolling to the bottom. It acts with the same delicacy 



