SCENERY OF SWITZERLAND. 
On the whole it seems probable that the two 
ends of the Lake of Geneva represent the river 
valleys of the Rhone and the Arve respectively; that 
they met the Dranse opposite Merges, and that the 
combined river ran north to the Lake of Neuchatel; 
that change of level of the land then gave origin to 
the lake; and lastly, that the cutting of the gorge 
at Fort de I’Ecluse gave the lake its present exit to 
the west, and gradually lowered the level. 
CHAPTER XVI. 
THE MASSIF OF MONT BLANC. 
II y a dans la nature conimc dans les arts des choses diffi- 
ciles a coinprendrc , qu’on doit voir ou entendre plusieur.s fois 
pour en saisir la grandeur; il en est ainsi de la chaine du Mont 
Blanc, plus on la voit et la parcourt, mieux on en saisit la 
beaute. Favre. 
The Massif of Mont Blanc is elliptical in outline, 
about 30 miles in length, and 10 in breadth, extend- 
ing from S.W. to N.E., from the Col de Bonhomme 
to Martigny. From a geological point of view indeed 
it would extend to the Dents de Morcles, the extreme 
N.E. portion being severed from the rest by the Rhone. 
It consists mainly of two unequal ranges (see 
Fig. 104), the lesser, that of the Aiguilles Rouges 
on the N.W. and the greater Mont Blanc range on 
