_d e_. First lines of projection. The debris falling from the glacier and the heights above. _k_, _l_, _n_.Three lines of escape. A considerable torrent (one of whose falls is the well-known Cascade des Pelerins[91]) descends from behind the promontory _h_: its natural or proper course would be to dash straight forward down the line _f g_, and part of it does so; but erratic branches of it slide away round the promontory, in the lines of escape, _k_, _l_, &c. Each row of trees marks, therefore, an old torrent bed, for the torrent always throws heaps of stones up along its banks, on which the pines, growing higher than on the neighboring ground, indicate its course by their supremacy. When the escaped stream is feeble, it steals quietly away down the steepest part of the slope; that is to say, close under the promontory, at _i_. If it is stronger, the impetus from the hill above shoots it farther out, in the line _k_; if stronger still, at _l_; in each case it curves gradually round as it loses its onward force, and falls more and more languidly to leeward, down the slope of the debris. _r s_. A line which, perhaps, would be more properly termed of limitation than of escape, being that of the base or termination of the heap of torrent debris, which in shape corresponds exactly to the curved lip of a wave, after it has broken, as it slowly stops upon a shallow shore. Within this line the ground is entirely composed of heaps of stones, cemented by granite dust and cushioned with moss, while outside of it, all is smooth pasture. The pines enjoy the stony ground particularly, and hold large meetings upon it, but the alders are shy of it; and, when it has come to an end, form a triumphal procession all round its edge, following the concave line. The correspondent curves above are caused by similar lines in which the debris has formerly stopped. [Illustration: 45. Debris Curvature.]