256 
SCENERY OF SWITZERLAND. 
4. The origin of the larger Swiss lakes has been 
the subject of much discussion. The opinion 
now prevalent among Swiss geologists is that 
they are mainly due to recent changes in 
level, and are in fact drowned river valleys. 
Even more striking than the exquisite beauty of 
the lakes is the grandeur of the history they unfold, 
and of the causes to which they are due; and in- 
deed, in contemplating the general Scenery of Switzer- 
land, we cannot but be profoundly impressed by the 
enormous magnitude of the changes, and the ir- 
resistible forces which have been brought into 
operation. 
Those forces have affected the general configura- 
tion of the Earth’s surface. Attention has often been 
called to the fact that so many great masses of land 
point southwards— South America, Africa, India, etc. 
Many of the peninsulas, moreover, have an island, 
or group of islands, at their extremity, as South 
America, which is terminated by the group of Tierra 
del Fuego; India has Ceylon; Malacca has Sumatra 
and Borneo; the southern extremity of Australia ends 
in Tasmania or Van Diemen’s Land; a chain of 
islands runs from the end of the peninsula of Aliaska; 
Greenland has a group of islands at its extremity; 
