VALLEYS. 
I?? 
from Landeck to below Innsbruck, even perhaps of 
the Enns from Radstadt to Hieflau as in one sense 
a single valley, due to one of these longitudinal folds, 
but interrupted by bosses of Gneiss and Granite — 
one culminating in Mont Blanc, and another in the 
St. Gotthard — which have separated the waters of 
the Isfre, the Rhone, the Vorder Rhine, the Inn, and 
the Enns. That the Valley of Chamouni, the Valais, 
the Urseren Thai and the Vorder Rhine really form 
part of one great fold is further shown by the pres- 
ence of a belt of Jurassic strata nipped in, as it were, 
between the Crystalline rocks. 
This great valley then, though immensely 
deepened and widened by erosion, cannot owe 
its origin or direction to river action, because it is 
occupied in different parts by different rivers running 
in opposite directions. We have in fact one great 
valley, but several rivers. It is therefore due to one 
original cause; it is, to use a technical term “geotec- 
tonic,” and is due to the great lateral compression 
from S.E. to N.W. which has thrown Switzerland into 
a succession of great folds. 
A similar case is that of the Val Ferret. The 
depth is no doubt mainly due to erosion, but it 
follows the tract of Jurassic strata which lie at the 
foot of the great mountain wall of the Mont Blanc 
Scenery of Switzerland. I. 1 2 
