Erratics of the Alps. 291 



a mass of fifteen cubic yards. The blocks were generally angular, 

 but some were rounded,,,™™ htm o+fom an'r *rU % n a 



■■; .->■ 



Rather more than a mile south-east from this locality, there is a 

 great deposit of alluvial matter in the valley of Lutchen at d. The 

 valley is less than half a mile in width, and is bounded by pre- 

 cipices of limestone rock, nearly vertical, and 1,000 feet in height. 

 The river runs along the west side of the valley, sometimes close to 

 the rock, and the deposit is on the east side. The figure below is a 



SeCtiOrMsifTy, jfoo/f? R rf + f w QWfffn fia-srft fa+rrrrnorra FJrimu -Tr o+nr^.r„„ 

 e " v " u ™ -a^wiia «*> ujivf cjjyjuu iJJX.ll ItmUJOJlItJ JUlJJOw JI f dJU91lJJ0 



tod edi oJ ^IjqQloiv eiod Si BQ[Mg-M woidi bn& ,8eooiq niiileend 



riasoit 10 no pmjgei lobluod fi rttiw <9ott-ooi nu grriBoqqua iU ~m&$ 

 b 'uow rebliwfr&ckgfl ojJil isr»*i snboajg^^j^ b gfen-iRij g ad oj t *i ^/r ii 

 r 



r r' A sloping line, representing the bed of the river, which rises 

 gradually to the south. ;■ c-J YlLRoitedfoq'/d ni bollco n99d evfid 



m, n, o, p. The alluvial deposit, consisting of sand, gravel, and 

 boulders, extending nearly a mile along the valley. Its interior has 

 been laid bare by the stream, which, having cut a channel through 

 it very near the western wall of the valley, has everywhere a talus 

 of debris on its eastern bank. The height of the mass of debris, if 

 taken a little behind the top of the talus, may be about 200 feet at 

 m, 100 at o, and 50 at n, but it is three times greater near the 

 eastern wall of the valley, and the mean depth of the whole mass 

 from m top will exceed 200 feet. A great proportion of the mate- 

 rials is composed of the debris and detritus of the adjacent lime- 

 stone, but blocks of granite gneiss and mica slate, many of them 

 measuring from 10 to 30 cubic yards, are distributed through it, 

 and rest on the surface in thousands. Now these blocks must have 

 travelled along the valley of the White Lutchen from Z, or that of the 

 Black Lutchen from m, a distance of ten or twelve miles. The 

 origin of this mass is not difficult to explain. Its form and compo- 

 sition indicate that it consists of a series of terminal moraines, left 

 at the end of the glacial period, by the glaciers of the Lutchen Val- 

 leys, during their gradual retreat from the low country to the re- 

 mote recesses in the mountains which they now occupy. Much of 

 the west side has no doubt been swept away by the river before it 

 had excavated its present channel. .. 9f [j n j 



The reader must now accompany me to the little lake of Lungern 

 (L in the map), north-east from Brienz. .Setting out with my com- 

 panion from Lucerne — a little town in a romantic situation, and com- 

 manding an unrivalled landscape— we proceeded by boat and carriage 

 to Alpnach and Sarnen, and from Sarnen to the lake of Lungern. At 

 this little wild lake we got on horseback, and crossed the Pass of the 

 Brunig (A) by a breakneck road to Meyringen (Mw) in the valley of 

 Hash. The summit of the Pass is 1600 English feet above the lake 

 of Lungern, and 1740 above the valley of Hash. This is the lowest 



