THE UPPER AAR. 
159 
At Handeck is the magnificent Fall of the Aar, 
certainly one of the finest waterfalls in Europe, from 
its height and the volume of water, the gloomy gorge 
into which it falls, and the wild character of the 
whole scenery. Moreover, the effect is considerably 
enhanced by the fact that another stream, the 
Handeck or Erlenbach, coming from the west, falls 
into the same chasm; and that from about ten 
o’clock to one in the day the spray reflects a beauti- 
ful rainbow. 
The fall of Handeck is not, like so many others, 
a series of cascades, but the river leaps over with a 
single bound. This is due to the presence of a hard 
ridge of granite, which projects beyond the softer 
Gneiss-granite, and Eyed-gneiss. 
Below Handeck, and as far as Guttannen, is a 
broad belt of Sericitic Phyllite. At Guttannen the 
Gneiss reappears and continues as far as Innert- 
kirchen, broken however by another band of Phyllite 
at Urweid, and by the Jurassic folds already men- 
tioned {ante, p. 1 5 2). 
At Inneitkirchen the Gneiss dips under the 
Triassic and Jurassic strata, the former represented 
by a narrow belt, the latter forming the continuation 
of the great wall of the Bernese Oberland. Near the 
junction of the Gneiss and the Jurassic strata the Aar 
