miserable-looking ch<Met, whose honest and rustic inhabitants received us with hospitality,
and insisted on our partaking of their humble fare. From hence the prospect is
again superb, commanding an extensive glacier, which absolutely appeared as if
suspended between two spiry needles of granite, the Gries and Bllnt-liorne, at the
same time hanging over a valley of immense depth, forming a kind of lengthened vault
or cave, covered by a large cornice of ice, under which flows a rapid torrent, foaming
as it dashed from rock to rock, presenting to the eye a beautiful cascade, whose water,
as is generally the case, from the extreme height which it precipitated itself, was
reduced to vapour before it gained the bottom 5 but with this difference, that the spray
was here forced back again, as it were, and absolutely hovered like a cloud above the
itself—a phenomenon that afforded me much satisfaction, as it not only
amused me by the variety of forms which the water, thus reduced, offered to my view,
but wonderfully strengthened my ideas as to the general formation of clouds.
At about two miles from hence we began to ascend another mountain, which may
be considered as a continuation of the first, and this by a road both steep and stony, in
a continual zig-zag, along the sides of the same lofty height, whose summit could not
be discerned, being concealed in a thick wet cloud, which soon reached us; so that
this laborious undertaking was not effected till after four hours' un-interrupted ascent,
when we at last gained the top, which forms an irregular plain of one mile in width.
The fogs and mists, in which we had been involved, having descended into the
adjacent valleys we had not long since quitted, I could easily perceive (the atmosphere
with us being tlien perfectly clear), that the plain on which we stood was on all sides
nearly skirted by a number of pyramids of granite and micaceous and argillaceous rock,
at the bases of which lay such considerable quantities of fragments of the same rocks,
that the plain, still covered with snow, though in the middle of July, was absolutely
strewed with them. Among the pieces that pierced through the snow, I could discern
many of a blackish schist, with thin lamina, which effervesced with acids,—a circumstance
which, though it seemed to prove that they contained calcareous matter, yet
became singular, when I considered, that the summit of this mountain, on which passes
the boundary of the Valíais, is eight thousand nine hundred and twenty feet above tlie
level of the sea. I nevertheless experienced so great a degree of heat, and my eyes
were so incommoded by the reflexion and glare of the sun against the snow, not having
taken the necessary precaution of furnishing myself with a crape to throw over my face,
that it was with the greatest difficulty I could continue my journey; and indeed, for a
length of time, had cause to repent my omission;—a caution necessary to be remembered
by those who may hereafter be tempted to take a similar route.
As from the visible disorder and confusion which reigned in the arrangement and
species of stone with which this plain was covered, it would be impossible to enumerate
them, I shall merely annex the names of those that appeared most deserving the
lithoiogist's attention, beginning first with a brownish schistus, sandy, effervescing
with acids, and containing between its strata (which are in general thin) a species of
mica of a bright grey tinge : secondly, a red schistus, containing much white mica:
thirdly, another species of similar schistus, but more shiny and soft, resembling the
true molybdate, or black mica, which becomes curious from being striated: fourthly,
a kind of greenish schorl j another of vioiet, of rhomboidal form, containing particles of
magnesia, as also some silex and argil: in fine, a species of red granite, of great coherency,
in which were hornblende and quartz.
In descending the north-eastern side of the same mountain, similar confusion
seemed to prevail in both the blocks and huge pieces of rock which on all sides surround
It. Plants were scarce 5 and the first that I perceived were merely a few tufts of
carnillet moussier, or silene acaulis, to which succeeded the gentiana acaulis, whose
charming tint of azure blue most agreeably contrasted with the whiteness of the snow,
which was not entirely melted. I then gradually met with the Achillea genipi, the
saxífraga biyaides, and a number of embruñes, or vacdnium, of the three species; viz.
vitis Idaa, uUginosum, and myrtillus-, the last of which I ate much of, and found
extremely refreshing. But what Is singular, I have not been able to meet with any
of the same kind in England, though I am told that it grows on the mountains of
Scotland.
After another hour's descent, we at last reached a small dale, the surface of which,
though very irregular, is covered with excellent pastures. This kind of basin, whose
form is nearly circular, appears so much the more extraordinary, that it resembles the
extremity of a funnel, being surrounded by spiry needles of immense height, and its
surface nearly filled with their fragments, of which many of the enormous masses are
half buried under the soil, and then covered by a crust of vegetable earth five inches
thick. From this appearance, therefore, am I naturally led to conclude, that this small
plain owes its present elevation to pieces or blocks detached from the surrounding
iJ
M. I