thus a portion o fth e finest land is rendered
useless. The cultivated slopes at the base
of the mountains are subject to be buried
under eboulements*, when the rocks above
* There are a few words used by the natives of the
Alps, or by geologists, to denote certain forms or accidents
of mountains, which are very expressive; but they
cannot be translated without circumlocution, or the
substitution of English words which do not convey the
same idea. A previous explanation of such words may
be useful.
Aguille, or Dent, Fr. ; and German, Horn, are
synonimous; they denote a sharp and lofty pinnacle of
rock, throughout Savoy and Switzerland.
Col, Fr., literally signifies the neck, but is used in
Savoy and Piedmont to denote a depression in a mountainous
range or ridge, considerably lower than the
other parts. It is over these cols that the roads pass
from one alpine valley to another, as the Col de Balme,
the Col de Ferret, &c.
Eboulement, Fr., denotes a falling down of a mountain
or mass of rock, and consequent covering the lower
grounds with its fragments; when an immense quantity
of stones are suddenly brought down from the mountains
by the breaking or thawing of a glacier, it is also called
an eboulement.
Escarpment of a mountain denotes the steepest side
or declivity. Almost every mountain, or mountain-
range, rises more gradually on one side than the other ;
the side opposite to the escarpment is called the back of
the mountain. Matlock High Tor, in Derbyshire, presents
a good illustration of a mountain with an escarpment
nearly perpendicular; it faces the river Derwent.
Some of the summits of the calcareous mountains in
fall down, and sometimes cover many square
miles with their ruins.
The roads, with the exception of three
or four of the principal ones, are narrow and
rough: some considerable valleys and ex-
Savoy have perpendicular escarpments on every side ;
they resemble castles placed upon a hill.
Gorge, Fr. literally the throat, denotes a narrow strait
or passage in a valley, where the rocks on each side
approach near to each other.
The highest part of mountain ranges, from whence
the descent on each side begins, has no appropriate
term to designate it, either in our own or the French
language. By the Romans it was caWeájuga montium.
The word ridge, the top of a furrow, or rig, the top
of a roof, might be sufficiently expressive, were they
not appropriated to diminutive objects.
At the bottom of most valleys there is a fiat, or plain,
more or less broad ; this the Germans call the Thalweg,
or valley-way. Some valleys in the Alps have no plain ;
but the hills on each side slope down to the river which
traverses them. We have no word to denote the thalweg,
but use the bottom of the valley to designate the
lowest part of every kind of valley.
Thai, in the Swiss Alps, as well as in Germany, designates
a valley, but is always written after the name, as
Simmen-thal, or the valley of the Simmen, &c. In Auvergne
the summits of the volcanic mountains are called
Puys] they are generally dome-shaped, or conical.
The word is probably Celtic. The rough and broken
currents of lava that rise above the surface of the country
are called cheres, probably a contraction of sierras.
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