54 David Milne-Home on Ancient Glaciers. 
II. Valley of Rhone. 
1. In noticing the blocks found on the Saléve mountains 
near Geneva, I mentioned that there are few upon the south 
slopes of the Grand Saleve. The case, however, is different 
with the N.W. slopes of that mountain, for on them a great 
many blocks of granite and puddingstone occur, which Swiss 
naturalists have identified as belonging to the mountains 
situated to the eastward of Chamouni, and which they are all 
agreed must somehow or other have been brought down the 
valley of the Rhone. The blocks now mentioned, on the 
Grand Saléve, are at a height of about 3235 feet above the 
sea. I regretted very much not having had it in my power to 
visit these blocks,—or those equally interesting mentioned by 
De Luc as resting on the N.N.W. slopes of Sion and Vouaches, 
situated still farther west, and close to the defile between these 
mountains and the Jura, through which Rhone flows. They 
are described as forming zones or bands on these mountains, 
at a height of about 2435 feet above the sea. 
T allude to these facts, ascertained by very careful observers, 
and long well known to Swiss geologists, because they appear 
to me to throw light on a few observations which I happened 
to make during my brief visit, and which I shall now proceed 
to notice. 
2. In various places along valley of the Rhone, I saw 
unequivocal tokens of a glacier which once filled it, down to 
the Lake of Geneva. Between St Maurice and Pissevache, 
the rocky and steep sides of the valley are smoothed and 
scored at heights from 150 to 350 feet above flat through 
which the Rhone wanders. } 
Where the sides of the valley come nearer to each other than 
usual, the scratches or ruts slope upwards to the north,—indi- 
cating that the glacier there could pass in its contracted channel 
only by rising like a tidal wave in similar circumstances. 
3. In several places, as on south side of Monthey and at 
Bex, I observed great accumulations of detritus, apparently 
portions of ancient moraines. But the most striking pheno- 
menon of this kind is presented by the celebrated blocks of 
Monthey. Many of them are the size of cottages; and on 
