n fissures: but even
this is unproved, and, were it proved, the fissures would still play
the subordinate part of giving direction to the agents which are to be
regarded as the real sculptors of the Alps.

The fracture theory, then, if it regards the elevation of the Alps as
due to the operation of a force acting throughout the entire region,
is, in my opinion, utterly incompetent to account for the conformation
of the country. If, on the other hand, we are compelled to resort to
local disturbances, the manipulation of the earth's crust necessary to
obtain the valleys and the mountains will, I imagine, bring the
difficulties of the theory into very strong relief. Indeed an
examination of the region from many of the more accessible
eminences--from the Galenstock, the Grauhaupt, the Pitz Languard, the
Monte Confinale--or, better still, from Mont Blanc, Monte Rosa, the
Jungfrau, the Finsteraarhorn, the Weisshorn, or the Matterhorn, where
local peculiarities are toned down, and the operations of the powers
which really made this region what it is are alone brought into
prominence--must, I imagine, convince every physical geologist of the
inability of any fracture theory to account for the present
conformation of the Alps.

A correct model of the mountains, with an unexaggerated vertical
scale, produces the same effect upon the mind as the prospect from one
of the highest peaks. We are apt to be influenced by local phenomena
which, though insignificant in view of the general question of Alpine
conformation, are, with reference to our customary standards, vast and
impressive. In a true model those local peculiarities disappear; for
on the scale of a model they are too small to be visible; while the
essential facts and forms are presented to the undistracted attention.

A minute analysis of the phenomena strengthens the conviction which
the general aspect of the Alps fixes in the mind. We find, for
example, numerous valleys which the most ardent plutonist would not
think of ascribing to any other agency than erosion. That such is
their genesis and history is as certain as that erosion produced the
Chines in the Isle of Wight. From these indubitable cases of
erosion--commencing, if necessary, with the small ravines which run
down the flanks of the ridges, with their little working navigators at
their bottoms--we can proceed, by almost insensible gradations, to the
largest valleys of the Alps; and it would perplex the