E A 
T'ulent, anti now embanked, rills of the fame torrent w hich 
formerly would have appeared threatening the whole 
mountain with definition. 
Our fragments, fo gathered in the lower vallies, are not 
all yet at their lad (tage, but I mull leave them for a 
moment, in order to examine the effects of vegetation. 
I had already deferibed thofe effects; and I mufl l'uppofe 
that you had not given attention to them, when you af- 
ferted that the heights of our land were to be levelled with 
the fore ; therefore, to fliew you that the preferving 
power of v getation is a fadt, not only general, but finking 
to every attentive obferver, I will tranflate here a pafiage 
of one of the mod interefling works upon mountains, 
(Obfervations fur les Pyrenees,) publifhed lately by M. 
Ramond de Char Conniere, who had before given 
fome obfervations on the Alps, in a tranfl ation of Mr, 
Coxe’s infiructive Letters on Swifferland. “ In tracing up 
(he fays) the fucceflive caufes of the fertility of the val¬ 
ley of Camp an, one of the high valleys of the Pyrenees, it 
is to the crefl of Tourmalet, between the pointed rocks of 
the valley of Baflon, and the blunted rocks of the Efca- 
lette, that I fhall tranfport the obferver. I (hall fliew 
him, on one fide, the Gave, ftill jrolling the fragments of 
the tumbling hills; while on the other, the Adour now 
ipares even a blade of grafs. We (hall follow this lively 
but beneficent dream, we fhall view his meanders traced 
by the turf and by rocks covered with mofs: we fhall 
behold him at Trames-aigues, falling in a magnificent caf- 
cade, between rocks covered with flowers. The firs will 
foon embellifh with their vigorous and pidlurefque tufts, 
his bold, but inoffenlive, falls : for now he has forgotten 
his ancient fury, and vegetation approaches with confi¬ 
dence. The mountains are tumbled ; he has levelled 
their fragments; the declivities are foftened ; nothing 
now irritates him; every thing favours his deftination : 
and to the obferver, who never beheld a torrent thus at 
peace with nature, the apparent tumult of his waters 
.forms a furprifing contrail with the tranquillity of his 
banks. 
“ It is from the lowering of deep rocks and the level¬ 
ling of ragged declivities, that the valley of Carnpan is 
now one of the mod delicious recedes of padoral life. It 
was-before a deep furrow, between the foot of the Pic-de- 
Midi, and the calcareous rocks which lean againd it. 
There the fird torrents were impetuous in proportion to 
the deepnefs of the declivity, and boifterous from the 
afperity of the forms (ketched by the ancient ocean. But 
the tops of the lofty fummits are come to fill up the bot¬ 
tom of thofe precipices ; the running waters have incef- 
fantly tended to level the foil; the accumulated rubbifh 
has been fpread : a red has fucceeded to long convul¬ 
sions, and vegetation has covered thefe heaps of ruins. 
The valley of Campan is then an anticipated picture 
of the future date of the whole earth ; it indances that 
date of calm announced and determined by M. de Luc. 
Such will be all the valleys of the Alps and Pyrenees, of 
Caucafus, Atlas, and the Andes; when the powers which 
tend to preferve (hall be in equilibrium with thofe which 
tend to dedroy ; when the fummits fliall ceafe to defeend 
towards the foundations, and the foundations to rife to¬ 
wards the fummits; when the declivities (hall have ac¬ 
quired that degree of inclination which prevents any far¬ 
ther rolling down of materials; when active vegetation, 
fo ready to take pofl’eflion of every lurface as is for a (hort 
time at red, after having often been repulfed by the lad 
agitations of thefe expiring giants, fliall fit in peace upon 
their mouldered limbs.” This, fir, is a true picture of 
numberlefs valleys in the high ridges of mountains : and 
if fudden falls of deep rocks continue dill for a time to 
didurb their peace, they only protract thofe necelfary 
operations, which will fecure eminences upon our fettled 
plains, as long as the known natural caufes (hall remain 
fuch as they are. 
Let us now return to the low and large valleys of the 
Alps, in which we have gathered all the fragments that 
R T H. 18? 
have either fallen immediately from their fides, or de- 
feended from the upper parts by the impulfe of the tor¬ 
rents. Every accumulation of that rubbifh which remains 
at a fufficient didance from the bed of the gathered waters 
in the valley, is perfectly fecured by vegetation ; a certain 
criterion ot ref, and a fafeguard againd wind and rain. 
But this is not yet the cafe with all thofe accumulations; 
fome have advanced up to the banks of the river, which, 
in great floods, undermine them. There new falls hap¬ 
pen, and we have again travelling materials -, for the river 
rifes againd that rubbifh ; but again it is only to level it: 
it remains in every part of the valley where the river can. 
fpread, and the large fragments are there buried in the 
duf that had been produced at their fird falling from the 
rocks. This lad tumultuous operation in mountains pro¬ 
tracts the fettling of their whole mafs ; for this will not 
be completed till every talus of the fides of the low val¬ 
leys, and every femi- cone formed there by torrents, (hall be 
fettled at a proper didance from the river-, and with this, 
circumdance are, more or lefs, connected all the opera¬ 
tions in the upper parts of the mountains. Such a river 
w ill continue to attack fome part of its banks, as long as 
the above-mentioned caufes fliall bring materials along 
them ; and the bafes of the talufes being fo impaired, it 
gives occadon to new Hiding down of materials. But 
when all thofe operations fliall be completed, and the 
fmoothing work of thofe rivers finifiied, they will flow as 
harmlefsly as the Adour in the valley of Campan. 
So far we are fare not to have lod fight of one of the 
fragments that, fince the origin of our continents, are fallen 
from any of the rocks in the Alps-, they were all to pafs 
through fome of the large valleys before they could come 
out of their boundaries; and what I am now going to 
prove is, that they have only raifed and levelled the 
bottom of every valley , without one of them being, either 
come, or to come, out of thofe boundaries. We could 
not choofe any field of obfervation larger than this; fince 
the greated rivers of Europe proceed from the Alps. 
When the various original branches of thofe rivers began 
to flow in the hollow parts of that vad ridge of mountains, 
they found numberlefs cavities, which they fird filled 
with water, and where they depofited the rubbifh they 
drove before them in every part where they were con¬ 
fined ; and a great number of thofe cavities are dill lakes , 
fome of which are large enough to appear in the maps. 
Now, before one Angle fragment of the Alps could come 
out of their boundaries, thefe lakes ought to be filled with 
rubbifh ; and they are not. This is a complete demon- 
dration for pad events; and the following will anfwer for 
thofe to come. 
The larged lakes receive immediately the waters of the 
wided valleys, in which unite the fmall branches of the 
rivers. There alfo ought to unite all the fragments , be¬ 
fore they could proceed any farther: but thofe fragments 
do not even reach there ; they all remain in the valleys » 
and duf only is depodted in thofe lakes, except by fome 
torrents falling immediately from the mountains round 
them. It is a curious object in time of flood, to fee, 
from fome high ground, the turbid water pi the river, 
fird forcing its way through the limpid water of the lake, 
and by degrees becoming limpid itfelf, by depofiting the 
minute materials which it carries fo far, but no farther. 
Confequently, fince, even at this period when the moun¬ 
tains are not yet fettled, nothing but fuch inconfiderable 
materials arrive in thofe lakes , no gravel will ever come 
out of the Alps. 
When, however, thefe very rivers, which glide out of. 
the lakes as limpid as the rain fallen on the mountains, are 
obferved flowing in the plains , we often fee gravel in 
their bed. This faCt, which cannot contradict the for¬ 
mer, leads us to enquire into the origin of the gravel fo 
generally found in the bed of almod every river; and the 
following are the general faCts relating to'that interefling 
phenomenon: id. The gravel of a river flowing in a 
plain, is conflantly the fame tha( is found in the adjacent 
* land. 
