Fragments of Science: A Series of Detached Essays, Addresses, and Reviews. V. 1-2Tyndall, John
Science
Fragments of Science: A Series of Detached Essays, Addresses, and Reviews. V. 1-2
Tyndall, John
Chemistry; Physics; Science
From Tusis I crossed to Tiefenkasten by the Schien Pass, and thence
over the Julier Pass to Pontresina. There are three or four ancient
lake-beds between Tiefenkasten and the summit of the Julier. They are
all of the same type--a more or less broad and level valley-bottom,
with a barrier in front through which the river has cut a passage, the
drainage of the lake being the consequence. These lakes were
sometimes dammed by barriers of rock, sometimes by the moraines of
ancient glaciers.
An example of this latter kind occurs in the Rosegg valley, about
twenty minutes below the end of the Rosegg glacier, and about an hour
from Pontresina. The valley here is crossed by a pine-covered moraine
of the noblest dimensions; in the neighbourhood of London it might be
called a mountain. That it is a moraine, the inspection of it from a
point on the Surlei slopes above it will convince any person
possessing an educated eye. Where, moreover, the interior of the
mound is exposed, it exhibits moraine-matter--detritus pulverised by
the ice, with boulders entangled in it. It stretched quite across the
valley, and at one time dammed the river up. But now the barrier is
cut through, the stream having about one-fourth of the moraine to its
right, and the remaining three-fourths to its left. Other moraines of
a more resisting character hold their ground as barriers to the
present day.
In the Val di Campo, for example, about three-quarters of an hour from
Pisciadello, there is a moraine composed of large boulders, which
interrupt the course of a river and compel the water to fall over them
in cascades. They have in great part resisted its action since the
retreat of the ancient glacier which formed the moraine. Behind the
moraine is a lake-bed, now converted into a level meadow, which rests
on a deep layer of mould.
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