nice, has a freedom and force about it in the painting which no
copyist or engraver has ever yet rendered, though it depends merely
on the subtlety of the curves, not on the color.

[70] "_Out of_ perspective," I should have said: but it will show
what I mean.

[71] Nor did any nearer observations ever induce me to form any
contrary opinion. It is not easy to get any consistent series of
_measurements_ of the slope of these gneiss beds; for, although
parallel on the great scale, they admit many varieties of dip in
minor projections. But all my notes unite, whether at the bottom or
top of the great slope of the Montanvert and La Cote, in giving an
angle of from 60 deg. to 80 deg. with the horizon; the consistent angle
being about 75 deg.. I cannot be mistaken in the measurements
themselves, however inconclusive observations on minor portions of
rock may be; for I never mark an angle unless enough of the upper or
lower surface of the beds be smoothly exposed to admit of my pole
being adjusted to it by the spirit-level. The pole then indicates
the strike of the beds, and a quadrant with a plumb-line their dip;
to all intents and purposes accurately. There is a curious
distortion of the beds in the ravine between the Glacier des Bois
and foot of the Montanvert, near the ice, about a thousand feet
above the valley; the beds there seem to bend suddenly back under
the glacier, and in some places to be quite vertical. On the
opposite side of the glacier, below the Chapeau, the dip of the
limestone under the gneiss, with the intermediate bed, seven or
eight feet thick, of the grey porous rock which the French call
_cargneule_, is highly interesting; but it is so concealed by debris
and the soil of the pine forests, as to be difficult to examine to
any extent. On the whole, the best position for getting the angle of
the beds accurately, is the top of the Tapia, a little below the
junction there of the granite and gneiss (see notice of this
junction in Appendix 2); a point from which the summit of the
Aiguille du Goute bears 11 deg. south of west, and that of the Aiguille
Bouchard 17 deg. north of east, the Aiguille Dru 51/2 deg. or 6 deg. north of
east, the peak of it appearing behind the Petit Charmoz. The beds of
gneiss emerging from the turf under the spectator's feet may be
brought paral