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be deemed a part of the Schrekhorn, at the northern extremity of which stand the immenseglaciers of Grindelweld, which extend considerably above the valley of the Rhone . Havinghere crossed this torrent, I perceived, nearly contiguous to its channel, a hill, which gradually risestowards the north, apparently coniposed of a species of pudding-stone of great coherency, with acement composed of silex or siliceous matter, consequently capable'fcf effervescing with acids. Thesestones, which lie in thick strata, appear similar to those which constitute the isolated rocks noticedin the neighbourhood of Lausanne . The valley then contracts so considerably, that in manyparts there is scarcely sufficient room for the course of the Rhone , and the road, which on thataccount has been hewn in the main rock, that still continues lamellated, containing quartz andmica.

On the other side of this defile there prevails, throughout, a very conspicuous disorder andconfusion in the strata, form, and structure of the mountains that bound the valley; and at thesame time, there species are so varied, that it would be impossible to give a minute description ofthem. I shall therefore confine myself to observing, that the schistus is most predominant, withstrata invariably forming deep zig-zags ; whereas, in other parts, that same species of stone formslofty mountains, divided from their summits, with their bases covered by fragments and immenseloose blocks of rock, on which grow a few shrubs and stunted trees. But what seems morestrongly to evince the remote period of time at which this convulsion of nature may have hap-pened, is the vegetable stratum of earth, ten inches thick, which now covers the greatest part ofthese stones : yet, advancing more towards the east, the cavities that exist between those hugeschisti and micaceous rocks are every where filled with sand, pebbles, and different fragmentsbelonging to the primitive mountains, and also covered over by a thick stratum of earth, whichforms some most excellent meadow-land,—another very forcible proof of the works of the sea atits sudden retreat.

This kind of disorder, so visible in the arrangement of the lateral mountains, evidently con-tinues to the neighbourhood of Lax, a village included in the Dizains of Goms; and then stretches,not only to the hill on which this small place stands, but towards the town of Niderwalde, ninemiles distant, where the mountains are in general composed of similar species of stone, and thesame kind of fragments, except a fetf, of micaceous compound rock. The country is here againso extremely elevated, that trees are scarce, exhibiting only a few stunted cherry, plum, snd othertrees, thinly scattered; though, nevertheless, at some little distance from Bisingen , the valleycontracts anew, and vegetation, of course, becomes more animated. The road then continuesbeautiful, passing through meadows and forests, intersected by fields of hemp and rye, as far asMunster, the capital of Goms, twenty-seven nules from Brieg.