78 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
be able to construct for his imagination a right measure of their colossal 
relations ; and yet all these granite giants are far exceeded as to the im- 
pression which they make upon the eye by that steep abyss unto wliich 
the Monte Rosa sinks at the head of the valley of Macugnaga. It is 
the greatest vertical magnitude of the European continent. The limestone 
Alps, the Diablerets, Doldeu and Gespaltenhorn, and Blumlis Alps show 
mighty rock-fronts, but the}^ shrink in presence of these granite walls to 
masses of tlie second order. 
*• We called granite the historic stone of the earth. It is so in the Alps 
in more than one respect. Its solemn rock-walls were often memorials of 
great deeds, which may be compared to the sublimest moments of classical 
antiquity. The undaunted Russian SuwarofF, a modern Epaminondas, 
who would rather have been buried in the clefts of the rocks than have 
given up his post, when his columns had repulsed the French under Gau- 
din in the narrow valley of Tremolu, left the heroic words ' Suwarovv 
Victor ' carved on the granite wall for an everlasting remembrance. JS^ext 
day the cliffs of gneiss were witnesses of equally heroic deeds, where 
the Devil's Bridge spans the stormy waters of the Reuss with its bold 
arch. Over the granitic deserts of the St. Bernard, Bonaparte led his 
army to the victory of Marengo, in May, 1800 ; and when the Simplon 
Pass, the first great Alpine road, had been pierced by his orders, he had 
carved in the opening of the gallery of Gondo the words ' Aere Italo, 
MDCCCV., Nap. Imp.' Andreas Hofer, the host of Passeyr, was born in 
the granite country, and between granite rocks he fought his glorious 
fights for the freedom of the Tyrol. . . . Benedict Fontana breathed out 
his hero-soul upon the gneiss crystals of the Malser-haide. . . . And then 
the mighty December fight of 1478, in the Livinenthal, when a handful 
of herdsmen destroyed ten times their number of Milanese under Count 
Borelli, till the snows of Bellinzona were red with their blood. Then the 
hero-graves of the three thousand Confederates at Arbeno, who sank in a 
despairing fight before twent^^-four thousand Lombards in 1422. The 
double blood-baptism of the Valaisans at Ulrichen and on the Grimsel in 
1422, and many other proofs of manly courage and bold deeds — are they 
not remembrances which have carved their memorial in letters of flame for 
men's hearts on the rock-tablets of these granite colossi ? 
" But the dull stone tells us of still more, of times lying further back, 
of an epoch when the Alps stood as they stand to-day, but when the 
human race was not. These memorial stones are the 'erratic blocks.'" 
The quotations we have given will show the eloquent turn of the author's 
mind ; but from them it will be readily seen that while admitting that we 
like the boldness of his speculations, and admire the truthfulness of some 
of his remarks, we cannot always assure the soundness of his geological 
statements. 
Erratic blocks, the !Nagelfluh, landslips, ban-forests, the "Wettertanne,. 
prostrate firs, and Alpine roses, chestnut-woods, cloud pictures, water- 
falls and mountain snow-storms, avalanches, glaciers and Alpine summits, 
mountain passes and Alpine roads, hospices, chalet-life, the goat-boy, the 
wieldheuer, the Alpine feast, timber-fellers and floaters, mountaineers and 
village-life in the Alps, all form topics equally delightful, treated in lan- 
guage as fanciful or as wild as the subjects themselves, and containing 
a great amount of facts and observations, to be read with interest by 
geologists. To the general reader this must prove a charming book ; 
but dealing as we do with a speciality, we can nevertheless recommend 
it to the votaries of our science as an admirable description of Alpine 
scenery and conditions, from the perusal of which they will rise with 
new thoughts and ideas for deep reflection. 
