200
cemented with the other grains of the rock, resembling; the guariaim granulatum
coharens of A\'allerius, spec. 105. Then, continuing along the same valley, for the
space of five English miles, by a rugged stony path, ttndiog in a direction from north
to south, I unexpectedly gained a plalecii, or elevated flat piece of ground, which commanded
both the valley and the source of the Khone : here I could easily discern,
through a wood of larch, which covers the plateau, and shelters it from the north
wind, the extensive glacier of La Fourche, or Fnrca, called also Glacier du Rhône,
from its being supposed that a part of that great river issues from beneath the glacier,—
which may in some degree be the case, though it certainly is not the entire or real
source of the Rhône.
The prospect from hence is beautifully grand, and one of the most noble of the kind
I ever saw,—a description of which I shall endeavour to attempt, though difficult; for
the objects, in general, appeared of much greater magnitude than even those of the
Glacier des Bois, near Chamounie, and the adjacent mountains considerably more lofty
and majestic than those which surround the glacier of Grindelweld, in the canton
of Berne.
In the drawing XXIV. I have given as exact a representation as possible of this
astonishing tableau, from the ouUincs taken by myself on the spot, and which are such,
I may venture to assert, as they really appeared to an eye which is desirous of letting
nothing escape that deserves attention. I may therefore add, that this superb glacier,
of which a stranger can form no idea, and of the magnitude of which, as well as
the surrounding rocks, I am sorry to add, my drawing gives but an inadequate conception,
may be compared to an extensive amphitheatre of ice, whose steps are more than
three hundred feet in height, forming so many stupendous transparent pyramids of crystal,
reflecting on ail sides the beams of the sun.
These pyramids, or spiry peaks, are likewise arranged and piled, as it were, with
so much art and exactness, one above another, raising their lofty summits towards the
clouds, that their appearance is beyond conception. This glacier is situated at the eastern
extremity of the Valláis, and is nearly surrounded by a long chain of stupendous
mountains, that meet or join above this sea of ice, as if to form, by their junction,
the Mont St. Gotliard, whose basis is in part covered not only by this glacier, but also
by others of nearly the same extent. Its north-eastern side may be said to be supported
by the Turca, a mountain so called from the form of its summit, which terminates in