KART H. IM 
borders of the icy valleys of the Alps-, and every part of 
them is in continual decay. If decay and propulfion of via- 
'tcrials' by running waters had -been the caufes of the vaft 
excavations manifefted by the feflions of the Jlrata all 
around, every channel of the waters thence proceeding 
would be levelled with rubbifli : for, the neceffary effedt 
of running waters propelling broken materials, is to fill 
up-with them every hollow place, till all the grounds 
which they pervade, being reduced to a regular flope, 
they wander promifcuoufly over thofe fpread materials. 
Let us then confult attentively the phenomena on that 
firft leading queftion. 
There is hardly any water that runs in thofe immenfe 
high valleys of the Alps: the waters that come down their 
fteep Tides, from rain or thaw of fnow, pafs immediately 
under the accumulated ice which fills them; where, con- 
ftantly flopped in the points of bearing of the ice upon 
the ground, they filtrate more than they run. This is a 
firft view of the objedt, which, in the very theatre of the 
greateft pafl devaftations, excludes completely the idea 
that they have been produced by running waters ; and the 
other following fadts will only illuftrate that peremp¬ 
tory exclufion. iff, A part of the waters that come out 
of thofe valleys, falls in cafcadcs, from the edges of fteep 
rocks, over lower grounds : if waters, thus ifluing from 
under the ice , had contributed to produce the vacancies 
now exifting between the upper ridges, the rubbifh car¬ 
ried off, accumulating up to thofe rocks, would have 
^ long ago prevented cafcades, as it has happened in many 
parts of thofe mountains, where rubbifh is really carried 
down, adly, In the lower outlets of the icy valleys, the 
water comes out of the ice in the fame manner as forne 
celebrated ftreams, Arethufa, Vauclufe, and others, come out 
at once from under fome rock or hillock; that water has 
no open channel, till it has cleared the ice, and being 
firft filtered through its crevices, it never brings out any 
other materials than coarfe fund : furely, the immenfe 
quantity of materials miffing in the upper parts, cannot 
have been carried away through fuch channels. 3dly, 
When thofe waters, being united in the firft lower val¬ 
leys, begin to form torrents, they often meet with narrow 
cuts, where they ftill undergo repeated falls between 
broken rocks; and thefe are the only paflages through 
which any water can have come out of the fame extent 
of high grounds, ever fince the exiftence of our continents: 
now, if the materials miffing in the upper valleys had 
been carried away by waters, that immenfe quantity of 
rubbifh would have either (lopped or widened thofe paf- 
fages, and reduced the whole length of the channel to 
an equal declivity. Laftly, if it were objedted, that the 
rubbifli has been carried down by degrees to wider places, 
we (liould then come to a decifive proof of the contrary, 
from a fadt already ftated: many hollow places, now 
lakes, are pervaded by fome of thofe accumulated waters 
ever fince they ran; there the whole quantity of the rub¬ 
bifh which they have propelled, has remained, and it 
amounts to nothing, compared with the vacancies above. 
I have begun this particular furvey of our continents, 
by diltindt and well-known parts ef the great feene of 
ruin and devaftation exhibited in the Alps ; not on ac¬ 
count of their great vacancies between eminences compofed 
of broken aqd mouldering Jlrata, which is a common 
phenomenon on the furface of our continents; but be- 
caufe of the peremptory proofs which we have in thofe 
parts, that running waters have had no (hare in the ruin¬ 
ous ftate of our mountains-, and that confequently their 
chafms exifted, from the beginning of the .prfent land, 'which 
was before in the bottom of the fca ; and now I fliali give a 
iimilar demonftration, in rd'pedt of abrupt eminences. None 
of the deeply diffedted tops of the immenfe ridge of the 
Alps, can be aft'edted by any water, except that of imme¬ 
diate rain or thaw of fnow, which, trickling down the 
fifing grounds in a thoufand rills, never unites on them 
in any ftream capable of difturbing large or weighty ma¬ 
terials; and confequently, the operations of the various 
caufes defigned by the colledlive word weather, may be 
obferved there unmixed with any fenfible eftedt ariftng 
from the impulfe of running waters. Now, fir, thofe im¬ 
menfe obelifks, which no continental caufe can have pro¬ 
duced, are as fhattered as any part of the valleys where 
torrents are raging ; and the only alteration produced on 
them by the weather, an alteration which ftill continues 
at a great rate, is that of foftening their abrupt furfaces, 
without any fenfible lofs of their materials, which accu¬ 
mulate round the fteep grounds whence they fall. 
When a long-continued inattention to certain objedts 
of nature, has rendered man infenfible to them, he com¬ 
monly remains fo, till fome objedt of the fame clafs, but 
of a great magnitude, roufes his attention. Our foft 
vales, their rich meadows, their rifing grounds covered 
with verdure up to pidturefque rocks, have been in all 
ages attracting fpots for men ; there were the firft fettle- 
ments, and there ftill the traveller flackens his pace: but 
we do not expedt to receive any important inftruftion 
from thofe objects, and, not being confulted, they remain 
filent. If the decaying ornaments of the bordering hills, 
thofe rocks boldly projecting with endangered trees over 
them, excite fome degree of aftoniftiment, it is foon diffi- 
pated by the vague idea, that time pajl has no bounds ; 
and if fome attention is given to caufes, without which, 
time effects nothing, the innoxious ftream, meandering ir» 
the vale, is charged with devaftations, from-which the 
vale itfelf is fuppofed to have proceeded : nothing, in 
that curfory manner of ftudying nature, flops the fpirit 
of fyftem ; the fpace is wide open before the prefumed 
thief; and his accomplice, as receiver of the boundlefs 
fucceffion of thefts, isnolefsthan the ocean-, but in the 
great ridges of mountains, there are immenfe excavations , 
bordered alfo by ruin-like eminences ; and we are abfo- 
lutely fure, that the materials miffing in thofe valleys, 
have not been carried into the ocean. Here imagination 
is flopped, and the aftoniftiment of reafon begins. I (hall 
now fuppofe, that fome attentive men, roufed by that 
firft faCt, and conceiving great doubts on what has been 
maintained by fome geologifts on the operations of running 
waters, is refolved to obferve for himfelf. 
Our obferver comes firft into one of thofe vales, fo nu¬ 
merous on our continents, where rapid ftopes, covered with 
verdure and furmonnted by abrupt rocks, are the winding 
borders of a fpace, the bottom of which is levelled and 
pervaded by a clear ftream. Nothing in that quiet feene 
raifes the idea of devaftation; but our obferver knows, 
that the now pacific water, fometimes fwells, becomes 
turbid, overflows the meadows, and that, in fome of its 
floods, it has produced great havock in the neighbouring 
grounds; and as this is the caufe referred to by fome 
geologifts, he will not form'any judgment on its effeCts, 
till he has fome opportunity to fee it at work. This may 
happen in autumn, when all the furrounding grounds 
having been foaked by a long continuance of heavy rain, 
the flood is greater than ufual: rapid and turbid torrents 
rufh out from all tides; the clear river is changed into a 
muddy pool, which covers the bottom of the vale-, and 
trees carried down by the ftream, are figns of a violent 
attack on fome parts of the neighbouring grounds. Thofe 
unwelcome changes of feene may have lodged in many 
minds a prejudice which they might remove : nobody is 
fond of going in queft of knowledge, during fuch an in- 
aufpicious ftate of the elements : but our obferver is re- 
folute ; and notwithftanding the inclemency of the wea¬ 
ther, and the badnefs of the roads, he approaches the 
feene, where the wet and weakened grounds are attacked 
by the raging waters. In going up the main inundation 
he meets with, muddy torrents, milling from receffes of 
the vale-, and there being flopped, he climbs by the lides 
of thofe waters, in order to examine their operations, and 
to find a paffage higher up. There he firft obferves, that 
thofe fwoln rdls are only made turbid, becaufe their chan¬ 
nels are ftill too narrow for the quantity of water gathered 
in them: for, the Tides of the fort of trough in which 
thole 
