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ATES SCIENTIA
VERITAS
A
ነ
GEOLOGICAL TRAVELS
IN SOME PARTS OF
FRANCE, SWITZERLAND,
AND
GERMANY.
VOL. II.

51
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GEOLOGICAL TRAVELS
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113
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IN SOME PARTS OF
1
FRANCE, SWITZERLAND,
AND
GERMANY.
BY Jean Andre
}
DE LUC, F.R.S.
ILLUSTRATED WITH TWO TOPOGRAPHICAL MAPS.
İN TWO VOLUMES.
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH MANUSCRIPT.
P
41
VOL. II.
LONDON:
1815.
**
PRINTED FOR F.C. AND J. RIVINGTON,
No. 62, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD;
By Law and Gilbert, St. John's Square, Clerkenwell
Фе
260
•D363
1
TRAVELS
IN SOME PARTS OF
SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY.
JOURNEY from DRESDEN through LUSATIA, to the
GIANT'S MOUNTAINS in SILESIA,with the Return
through BOHEMIA to BERLIN.
I
454. COMMUNICATED to Baron Von
Racknitz my wish to ascend the Elbe, in order to
observe its issue from the mountains of Bohemia,
which I had intended to do in the course of my pre-
sent journey to the Giant's Mountains; but he ad-
vised me rather to defer this part of my plan to a
future opportunity; telling me that it would be well
worth my while to go by land to observe the coun-
tries which on both sides border the Elbe from above
Pirna; and that his friend Baron Von Block would
with great pleasure accompany me in such an excur-
sion. When this plan was proposed, it occurred to
me that, from the right bank of the Elbe, I might pro-
ceed through Lusatia to the Giant's Mountains; and
on my mentioning this idea to Baron Von Rack-
nitz, he advised me to send on my own carriage,
B
with
VOL. II.
¿
with post-horses, to the place at which Baron Von
Block was to leave me, when he returned towards
Dresden, and to take another carriage for the present
excursion: this was arranged accordingly, and M.
Keuler desired to be of our party.
June 12th. 1798.-We set out from Dresden at
seven in the morning, and proceeded up the left bank
of the Elbe, but at some distance from the river.
Half a league from the city, near the village of Locke-
witz, we passed over hills composed of strata of ar-
gillaceous stone-marl, containing marine bodies. Far-
ther on, we came to a hill of granite; and at Maxen
we ascended others of gneiss, which do not however
bear the softened forms of the Freyberg hills; for
here a very wild appearance is given to the whole
country by deep vallies, with abrupt sides, which are
studded with sharp rocks interspersed with fir-trees.
These are indeed the same strata of gneiss that ex-
tend to Freyberg; but Maxen is much nearer to the
great subsidence which has produced the valley of the
Elbe, and which, in the part nearest to the river, has
been attended with many double fractures, where, as
the intermediate masses have subsided to a much
greater depth than the others, intervals have been
left, on the sides of which the strata appear in great
disorder, inclining various ways, with very picturesque
projections. None of those narrow fissures, how-
ever, wherein veins have originated, have here been
produced in the large masses.
}
455. From
*3
455. From many of the above large fractures have
resulted only combes, which, descending from the
higher parts of the hills, soon become of great depth :
in these there cannot flow any streams but mere ri-
vulets, formed by the springs that issue from the
sides; and though in general the latter are so rugged,
the bottom of these recesses has a very different cha-
racter, being covered with meadows formed on the
rubbish of gneiss, which has been spread and levelled
by the rivulets, when swelled by great rains or melt-
ed snows. At a league's distance from Maren, there
are mills; the last of these is a saw-mill, situated on
a brook; and near it I saw a very remarkable phe-
nomenon, of which I had already been informed by
Baron Von Racknitz. He had shewn me, in his
cabinet, some very large specimens of the most beau-
tiful agate, which had a white ground, with very regu-
lar angular stripes of red and violet, disposed in such
a manner as to resemble plans of fortifications; and
on my expressing some surprize at the size of the
pieces, he had increased my astonishment by telling
me that they were only fragments of a vein 20 feet in
thickness, passing across the mountains in the part of
the country which he had recommended to my ob-
servation. Baron Von-Block knew very nearly the
spot where this phenomenon was to be found; how-
ever, to save time in looking for it, we obtained a
guide from the mills,
456. Having proceeded some way along a meadow
bordering the mill-stream, we came to a part where
B 2
the
{}
2
the beauty of the bed of this stream exceeds all de-
scription; for it obliquely crosses the vein of agate,
of which a considerable extent is consequently to be
seen in it; and the brilliancy of the colours is height-
ened by the limpidity of the shallow water. I ob-
served here many of the plans of fortifications on a
scale surprizingly large, spaces of great extent being
enclosed within their continuous outlines; but in the
intervals of these there were smaller systems of the
same kind, on pieces of the size which I had seen in
the cabinet of Baron Von Racknitz. In this part,
the whole mass of the vein was full of fractures; and
my two companions detached a piece which particu-
larly attracted our admiration, and rolled it under a
bush, that it might lie concealed, till they should re-
turn to the spot to fetch it, as they could easily do at
any time from Dresden; not chusing to incumber
themselves with it during the rest of our present ex-
cursion. The beauty of this agate, and the variety
of its detached pieces, had at one time induced some
lapidaries to establish a manufacture, where they
were sawn and cut into different forms, and were
even made into small pieces of furniture set in gilt
bronze all these articles were very beautiful; but
as very high prices were required for them, on ac-
count of the hardness of the agate, the manufacture
could not be long supported.
-
'
457. The valley is, in this part, of considerable
breadth, having been produced by the subsidence,
between two fractures, of a large mass obliquely
crossed
M
5
crossed by the vein, the section of which appears in
a high abrupt rock on one of the sides, but is conceal-
ed on the other by a slope of rubbish covered with
trees.
458. We had entered this valley through another,
wherein flows the small river Müglitz, the waters of
which were red, having been employed in washing the
stamps of a tin-mine at Altenberg; and at half-past
3, we returned to the latter valley, by Schmors-
dorf. At this point meet the lower parts of two
combes; and on a large rock, left in an upright posi
tion by the catastrophe which produced them, stands
the castle of Wesenstein, the rock itself forming a
part of its walls. Having issued, by Kötwitz, from
this low space, we crossed some hills composed of
strata of sand-stone; and passing through the village
of Krebs, we arrived on the bank of the Elbe, near
Pirna. We here took a boat, in which we crossed
the river, with our carriage, to Coplitz, on its right
bank. Hence we ascended the hills, leaving the
vale of Liebthal on our left, and advancing further
inland, till, just as night was coming on, we arrived at
Lohmen, a village which, like many others in Lusa-
tia and Silesia, consists of an uninterrupted succession
of cottages, each with its garden and its orchard,
along the course of a little stream: some of these
villages are several leagues in length.
June 13th. We set out from Lohmen at half-past
6 in the morning. Baron Von Block, who was our
guide,
6
guide, wishing to surprize us, had not mentioned whither
he meant to conduct us. He led us back towards the
rocks, which, on this side, border the Elbe above
Pirna, and of which the abrupt fronts indicate, un-
doubtedly, a great fracture of the strata; but not
such an one as has been imagined by some geologists,
and especially M. Meierotto, who supposed this
to be the point of discharge of a higher sea, which
had cut the channel of the Elbe in effecting its own
issue from Bohemia; an opinion not deducible but
from very superficial observations, as I shall soon
have an opportunity to shew. Neither M. Keuler
nor myself could imagine why the Baron had led us
so far from the river as to Lohmen, in order after-
wards to bring us back to these precipitous rocks,
which, however, were to be among the objects of
our observations. He made us proceed in our
carriage as far as the village of Uttewalda, whence
he ordered the postillion to go on, in a few hours,
to Radenwalda, a village some way higher up on
the course of the Elbe, where he was to wait for
us.
459. At Uttewalda we alighted on ground, very
high and nearly flat, bounded at the horizon, on the
side next the Elbe, by a line of firs. The first object
to which Baron Von Block, while we were still at a
distance from it, directed our attention, was a fissure
in the ground, two or three feet in breadth at its
commencement, but becoming gradually wider, as it
wound towards the line of firs. Of the nature of this
fissure,
7
fissure, however, we had not formed any idea, till
we arrived on its brink. But when we reached
this spot, what was our astonishment! Those poets,
who have chosen to celebrate the descents of heroes
to the infernal regions, would have done well to come
hither, in search of imagery to enrich their descrip-
tions. We here saw before us an abrupt chasm,
down which there were steps cut in the sand-stone;
it bore completely the appearance of one of the spi-
racula of Tartarus, its sides being covered with a
blackish moss, against which, (from the narrowness
of the passage) our shoulders rubbed at every step, as
we descended, one after another, into the dark abyss.
At last, we saw light below, under the rocks, which
seemed to form a kind of gate-way; and when we
had passed through this opening, we found ourselves
on the top of a heap of blocks, partly covered with
moss, which formed the termination of the wildest
and most gloomy of descents. Here we perceived
the sky, but only through the narrow interval be-
tween the sides, bordered with firs, at a great height
above our heads; and many of the same trees were
likewise growing on projecting rocks, covered with
moss, where they appeared as if placed on brackets.
460. At the first view, it appeared impossible that
we should find any way out of a space thus enclosed,
but that by which we had entered it; Baron Von
Block, however, walked first as our guide; and after
we had very cautiously descended from this mount of
blocks covered with moss, we found at its foot a path
winding
ï
8
winding between the mossy rocks with the fir-trees
growing on them. After we had advanced a certain
way in this narrow and tortuous valley, which led us
towards the Elbe, we discovered, in the rocks on the
left, a cleft from top to bottom; and on approaching
it, we found it to be the entrance of a larger valley,
parallel with the river, but sloping in a direction op-
posite to the current of its waters; so that, while we
descended the valley, we were at the same time as-
cending the stream. The bottom of this valley was
covered with grass, and its sides, which continued to
rise abruptly, with firs on all their projections, were
sections, produced by fractures, of the same strata of
hard sand-stone, with a shining grain, which form the
steep banks of the Elbe, in this part of its course. As
we proceeded, we came to several clefts in the sides
of the valley, quite equal to itself in breadth and
depth, and descending down to its level; some of these
have a winding course, while others are so strait, that
the
eye
loses itself in the shadow of the fir-trees which
grow in them. It may be judged that some extend
but a little way, because no water issues from them;
rivulets flow in such as are of greater length; but
though these streams are very numerous, they are so
inconsiderable, that, when united in the valley itself,
which is a league in length, they form only a small
brook.
144
461. The bottom of all these vallies is strewn with
large blocks, which suffer decomposition from the ac-
tions of the air: the sand thus produced is spread by
}
the
鼻
​9
the rains, and the grass continues to grow on it; so
that the vallies themselves, whether wide or narrow,
are so far from having been hollowed out by the wa-
ters which flow in them, that their bottom is really
raised by this process. Each of these vallies is ex-
tremely unequal in breadth; the principal one, espe-
cially, contains some very wide spaces, while in other
parts it is contracted into a mere defile. The
pro-
jecting rocks here exhibit the situation of the strata:
in the front of those which follow the direction of the
valley, the lines marking their separations are nearly
horizontal; but in some of these projections, they are
scen, on the sides, to incline towards the valley, in
others, towards different points; which indicates a
difference in the angular movements undergone by
the parts remaining at a higher level, at the epoch of
that catastrophe of the strata, whence have resulted
these interior vallies, which, as I have already shewn
and shall continue to shew, assume so great a diver-
sity of forms and directions, branching off from both
the sides of the deepest and largest valley, namely,
that which receives the Elbe at its issue out of Bohe-
mia; in a future journey I shall describe the asto-
nishing variety observable in the forms of this latter
principal valley, as well as in the height of the moun-
tains on its sides. My two companions, on viewing
the objects before us, readily acquiesced in my opi-
nion, that the waters flowing in these vallies had not
had
any share in their formation, which could only be
ascribed to fractures, often double, through the whole
mass of the strata; that the widenings and contrac-
“
1
tions
10
3
tions observable in the course of each valley had
been occasioned by differences in the width of the
masses subsiding in the intervals of these fractures;
and that the various inclinations of the strata had
arisen from the unequal subsidence of the masses re-
maining at a higher level on their sides.
462. At half-past 8, we arrived at Wehlen, a vil-
lage on the borders of the Elbe. Here begin, on the
right bank, those precipitous rocks; which, with no
other interruption than a few fractures, extend a
league up its course to the village of Ruden, situated
in a part where this river is joined by a brook. At
Wehlen we hired a boat, in order to ascend the Elbe
as high as the latter village; and the wind being fa-
vourable, and this part of the stream not very rapid,
we soon accomplished our little voyage with the as-
sistance of a sail. It is within this space that there
are, on the right side, the principal quarries of that
beautiful sand-stone, which is transported along the
whole course of the Elbe by the name of Pirna stone,
though Pirna itself is on the opposite bank of the
river; but the same stone is found also near that
town, and was probably first worked there, as being
more easy of access. The quarries on the right bank
being at a considerable height, their rubbish forms
below them a long slope, which covers the sections of
the inferior strata. When blocks are detached from
the uncovered strata above; they are easily made to
slide down this slope, to a platform of considerable
breadth, which lies between it and the river, and on
which they are hewn for their various uses, before
they
11
they are put on board the barges. In time, it will
become necessary to clear away the upper part of
this slope of rubbish; which will be no easy task, be-
cause the sections of the strata are already much co-
vered by it. I went a little way up the slope, in
order to examine whether these strata contained any
marine bodies; I found on their fragments a great
many impressions of large pectines; and my two com-
panions told me that, in some parts, several other
species were observed. Thus it is evident that these
strata, which we now see broken, inclined, and par-
tially sunken, must have been originally formed, like
all others, in a continuous and nearly horizontal
situation.
463. By these quarries, the whole front of this side
of the Elbe on which they have been opened is ren-
dered entirely bare: above the slopes of rubbish, it
rises precipitously to the summit; and the slopes
themselves are too incessantly accumulating to per-
mit vegetation to overspread them. The top of the
precipice is extremely picturesque, being deeply dis-
sected into distinct rocks, of very irregular forms. It
was here that I observed, for the first time, the phe-
nomenon to which I have referred as explanatory of
the rounding of the scattered blocks, while still re-
maining in their original places, by the decomposi-
tion of their angles. These distinct rocks on the brow
of the precipice have acquired their present form in
consequence of fractures, attended by the crumbling
down of the parts that once occupied their intervals,
which
12
+
፧
which has reduced them into a kind of columns, com-
posed of insulated masses of the strata: now the up-
permost masses having been most exposed to the ac-
tions of the air, especially of the winds, which have
not in the same degree affected those below them,
and these actions not having been equal on all
their sides, it has hence resulted that most of the co-
lumns, when viewed from a distance, have the ap
pearance of giants with deformed heads on mon-
strous bodies: the firs which have sprung up in the
intervals of these rocks, and now encircle them, ren-
der their general aspect still more picturesque. On
expressing to the Baron my wish to examine the
ridge more nearly, he told me that to take me up to
it from Raden, formed a part of his plan; and that
we should afterwards descend from it into another
valley, which would lead us to the place where he
had appointed our postillion to wait for us with the
carriage.
464. We reached Raden at half-past 10. I have
already said that this village is situated at the point
where a brook discharges itself into the Elbe; this
sinall stream arrives through an opening in the rocks,
extending inland a considerable way; and on its
right advances a promontory, the continuation of the
abrupt ridge in which are the quarries. We ascend-
ed the extremity of this promontory by a path at first
very steep; and when we had reached its summit, I
remarked a circumstance which I had afterwards fre-,
quent opportunities of observing in a journey towards
སྐ
the
"
}
15
I
the higher part of the course of the Elbe; namely,
that the abrupt sides turned towards the river are
those, not of any wide hills, but of ridges of narrow
hills, with angular summits only a few feet in
breadth: there are here two ridges of this kind,
which have been produced by fractures more or less
parallel with each other, the angular motions of the
strata having been directed towards deep vallies. The
ridge nearest the river is that in which the quarries
are; and the other is but a little behind it, being se-
parated from it only by a vale of inconsiderable depth.
This inner ridge slopes down rapidly, on the side far-
thest from the river, to a very deep combe descend-
ing towards Raden; the slope consists of rubbish, and
is clothed with a fir wood. It was during the catas-
trophe which reduced these masses of strata to the
form of ridges, that the narrowness of their summits
occasioned them to split in so many places; and
since the birth of the continent, the winds have
widened their fissures, and given to their separated
masses this columnar form; for the ridge within is
in this respect perfectly similar to that which com-
mands the Elbe. We entered the small vale dividing
the two ridges, by an interval between the columns of
that farthest from the river, the inner side of which
we observed to be cut down vertically.
465. Having followed a very narrow path, bor-
dered by a line of rocks, on the upper part of a small
slope of rubbish rising up to the brow of the abrupt
side next the Elbe, we arrived at the foot of one of
those
14
those great rocks which tower above the precipice;
the summit of this rock is called the Canopy. I shall
not enter here into any farther description of the ro-
mantic appearance of these masses, my object being
only to deduce from them an explanation of the
rounding of the blocks scattered over the low grounds,
which it was natural enough to ascribe to their
having rolled; and which M. Meierotto, in parti-
cular, adduced as a proof that their dispersion
had been effected by the action of currents of
water rushing down from mountains. But it will
presently appear in what manner these masses have
been rounded, without any migration from their ori-
ginal place; and the same effect will be seen to have
been produced even on granite, in the mountains of
Silesia, as I have already shewn to be the case near
Darmstadt (238).
466. The latest of the catastrophes which were
here undergone by the sand-stone having produced,
near the Elbe, these parallel ridges of angular emi-
nences, split down from the top by fractures inter-
secting the strata, each of the masses thus separated
was at first properly a pile of parallelopipeds. But
in this high and insulated situation, the intervals be-
tween the piles were soon enlarged by the winds, the
rains, the sun, and the frost, which attacked the sur-
face of the stone, especially on the angles. When
the winds had thus obtained a freer course, they pro-
ceeded to erode the joinings of the strata; and pro-
portionally as they produced these deeper furrows,
new
15
new angles were formed, which became more and
more exposed to their action: thus, by degrees, each
of the parallelopipeds of the original pile was round-
ed, without being removed from its place, and every
pile now appears to consist of large cheeses: where-
ever the highest mass, of which the upper part, as
well as the sides, is exposed to atmospherical actions,
has been of equal hardness all around, it has assumed
the form of a Dutch cheese; but all these masses are
not thus equally indurated; to which circumstance it
is to be ascribed that many of these apparent giants
have such irregular heads, and that the forms of their
bodies are likewise so singularly grotesque, as to al-
low the imagination to find various resemblances for
them. One of these figures particularly, in the rocks
above Raden, on the course of the Elbe, is known by
the name of the Monkey, because it has, at the top,
a mass shaped like the head of that animal. That
these masses have suffered erosion is not only evident
from their forms and high situation, where the above
effects so conspicuously appear; it is also shewn by
the quantity of sand of their own nature, which is
found accumulated between them; in this sand the
fir trees grow.
467. We ascended from block to block, till we
reached the Canopy, which is the more accessible,
because the interval between two large masses has
been cut into the form of a gate-way. This was for-
merly the passage to a castle built on the rocks at
some distance, of which some traces remain, and
which
16
which is said to be the most ancient edifice in the
whole country. The Canopy is the uppermost block
of such a pile as I have just described, and is of an
oval lenticular forin: several persons may stand toge-
ther on the flattest part of it, if their heads are suffi-
ciently strong not to turn, on seeing the Elbe flow
many hundred feet below them.
#
P
468. What an extraordinary scene had we here
within our view! On the opposite side of the Elbe,
we saw immediately before us the summits of many
hills terminating in sharp angles, and dissected into
various forms, like that whereon we stood; and at a
greater distance, we distinguished the summits of the
hills of gneiss, separating the vallies or combes of
Maxen, Schmorsdorf, and the Müglitz, through
which we had passed the preceding day. Now
when, on viewing these hills of gneiss rise above those
of sand-stone, it is recollected how much greater an-
gular motions have been undergone by the former
strata than by the latter; when it is farther consider-
ed that these latter, which contain marine bodies, are
of great thickness, and that consequently a very long
time must have been required for their accumulation
on an extensive tract of the bed of the ancient sea,
a very lively idea may be formed of the revolutions to
which that bed must have been exposed, after the
strata of gneiss, already fractured, were covered by
these new strata; a great part of the mass of all the
strata having undergone, during the latest of these
revolutions, the subsidence whence resulted the deep
valley
17
valley of the Elbe, towards which the strata of sand-
stone slid down over those of gneiss, breaking into
several ridges, as has been seen in the small lateral
vallies.
469. If any farther proof were required that the
valley of the Elbe has not been excavated by the river
itself, this proof might here be afforded by the ap-
pearance of its opposite bank, which is very low, and
much intersected. For all action requires a reac-
tion; so that it could not have been possible for a
river with a strait course, like the Elbe in this part,
to cut down its bank precipitously on the right side,
unless it had had a support, from the top, on the oppo-
site side. Now if the level of this river had been,
perhaps not more than 10 or 15 fathom, higher than
at present, it would have extended its waters, through
several openings, over a very wide tract of country,
in which, losing its rapidity, it would have formed
lakes. Many openings of this kind will be seen on
both sides of the Elbe, towards the upper part of its
course; where it is every where equally evident that
this river has merely followed a channel which it found
already open when it first began to flow.
470. The whole of the country, which lay within
our view from the Canopy, appeared very evidently
to have been a scene of great catastrophes, from the
multitude of pyramidal mountains, not only in the
tract composed of strata of sand-stone, but in that
consisting of primordial strata. In the first of these
C
VOL. II.
tracts
-18
1
tracts there were some very remarkable eminences
rising to a great height above others of a similar kind,
which had subsided. The strata that form these
pyramids contain marine bodies, and must conse-
quently have been originally continuous, and nearly
horizontal, at the highest level which they now attain.
It would therefore be desirable to bring hither those
who persist in imagining that the pyramids in the
Alps are a kind of large crystals, formed on the bot-
tom of the sea, in the same manner as those are,
which we see rise on the bottom of the vessels where-
in salts are made to crystallize; when these persons
beheld similar pyramids composed of strata that con-
tain marine bodies, they would surely understand the
real cause of all eminences in this form; namely, that,
during the subsidence of the whole mass of the strata,
some parts were left at a higher level, having found
supports beneath, in the caverns into which the rest
of the mass then sunk. Of the large pyramids here
within our view, the most distant, on the right bank,
was the Zirkel-stein; and nearer to us, on the same
bank, rose the Lilien-stein. On the left bank was
the famous Königs-stein, with its summit crowned by
a fortress; and behind this we saw many similar
eminences, among which were the Pfaffen-stein and
the Quell. I shall give a farther description of these
pyramids in a subsequent journey, when I had a
nearer view of them.
471. After we had observed the commencement
of this country of pyramids, which extend into Bohe-
mia,
19
mia, we came down from the Canopy; and passing
through its gate-way, and through one of the open-
ings in the parallel ridge of eminences behind, we
descended the wood on the opposite side by a very
steep path, down to the bottom of the above-men-
tioned combe, where the soil, being levelled by the
sand washed down from the slopes, is now covered
with grass. We went up the combe, till we came to
the foot of an amphitheatre of high rocks, which ter-
minate it, at the higher end, and which shew very
evidently that all these hollows, whether combes or
vallies, are merely the effect of subsidences. As
there was here no passage, we returned down the
combe, to a low space called Raden-grund, in which
several vallies meet in a kind of half-star; and the
rivulets issuing from them unite to form the brook
that passes through Raden to join the Elbe. We
ascended the course of the largest of these streams,
through a valley, the bottom of which is, to a great
extent, horizontal, and covered with grass; and when
we had advanced a certain way, we fancied ourselves
in another cul-de-sac, on account of the large rocks
which rose before us. But the Baron, who was ac-
quainted with the spot, led us up a path obliquely
ascending the slope of rubbish on our right; and this
brought us to the entrance of a chasm, which is at a
considerable height in the rocks above, and winding
through them for a long way, with an insensible rise,
at last opens into the elevated plain whence we had
descended into the first of the systems of vallies, which
I have described as arriving separately in the great
C 2
valley
·20
h
valley of the Elbe: but at the point where this chasm
opens into the plain, it is less abrupt than that which
had first afforded us a passage. The brook that
flows in the combe descends through this defile, where
it forms a cascade, as I shall presently describe, and
then rushes down the slope of rubbish which we had
ascended to gain the entrance of the chasm from be-
low; when, swelled by great rains, the stream has
made furrows in this slope, carrying down the rub-
bish, and spreading it over the horizontal part of the
bottom of the combe, on which it has accumulated;
and below this point, the waters no longer propel
any thing but sand along their course. This is one
of the very numerous operations which are carried
on in the vallies belonging to mountains, and of
which the origin, the progress, and the limits, are all
within our observation.
472. It is a little within the entrance of the chasm
from below, and at a point where it suddenly be-
comes deeper, that the brook falls in a cascade, from
the top of a rock in which there is a grotto. The
brow of the rock being horizontal, the brook here
spreads to a greater width, and rushes down in a
fine sheet of water; but we passed behind it without
being wetted, and entered the grotto, which we found
lined with various ferns and mosses. The Baron
told us, that, at the moment when the rays of the
sun fall on the sheet of water, those who are in the
grotto behold the most beautiful assemblage of pris-
matic colours; an effect resulting from the different
refractions
21
1
refractions of the rays produced by the small rills
into which the cascade is divided. I must here say
a few words generally, respecting grottoes and cas-
cades.
473. Grottoes and caverns constitute one of the
effects of those catastrophes which the strata have
undergone; the cause of their production is that,
during the subsidence of the already fractured mass,
some of the pieces, finding beneath them larger va-
cancies than the rest, and consequently sinking to a
greater depth, left above them cavities, either interior
or exterior, in some places under the plane of the
superior strata still remaining continuous; in others,
between large fragments which fell in such a manner
as to support each other archwise. As for the cas-
cades, so frequent among mountains, they are to be
considered, not only as effects of the catastrophes
which had produced those abrupt sections of the
rocks here occurring in the course of the streams,
but as belonging to the number of the proofs that
vallics have not been excavated by running waters.
Some streams, after having flowed uninterruptedly in
a high valley, suddenly arrive at one of these abrupt
sections of greater or less depth, and precipitating
themselves from the top, they are thus brought to a
lower level, where it is evident that they can never
have had power to act. It would have been easier
for them to cut the brow of the rock over which they
pass thus rapidly, than to hollow out a continuous
bed; but this brow, on the contrary, affords a proof
that
s
@2
that they do not excavate any where, since it is in
general covered with moss; the growth of that plant
being favoured by the air, to which the sheet of water,
becoming thinner proportionally to its increase in
rapidity, affords access on its bed. Such is the case
on the border of the cascade in this defile; and other
examples of it will appear in the sequel of my jour-
ney.
474. Ascending one of the sides of the cascade,
we proceeded by a narrow cleft in the rocks, through
which the brook arrives, and of which the slope is
such, that the stream is enabled, by artificial means,
to turn several mill-wheels in its course. At the
upper end of this cleft, which opens into a ground
higher than the summits of the steep ridges separat-
ing the lower vallies, stands the village of Raden-
walda, or Radewald, where our carriage was waiting
for us.
From this point we continued for some time
to ascend, till we reached the highest part, whence
looking back towards the Elbe, we had a prospect
which conveyed a very exact idea, though on a small
scale, .of an extensive tract in Tartary, described by
travellers as above the level of the summits of some
lofty mountains, the vallies of which are entered on
descending from it; and the cause of this very plainly
appears in the spot whereof I am now speaking. For
here we looked down on many lines of the rocks
forming the dissected summits of the abrupt hills,
between which we had found vallies manifestly pro-
duced by fractures, with partial subsidences, and
angular
1
23
angular motions of the separated pieces; these in-
deed being the general cause of the formation of
ridges of mountains, which are composed of strata
originally horizontal and continuous, and are sepa-
rated by vallies, in consequence only of the greater
subsidence of some of their parts, and the angular
motions of those remaining at a higher level than the
rest, though lower than that which these masses oc-
cupied in their original situation; as appears both
here and on the high ground in Tartary. Many rows
of fir-trecs, one behind another, on the higher part of
the course of the Elbe on this same right bank, led
us to judge that catastrophes of a similar nature had
there extended much farther than in the part which
we had now observed.
475. Hence we proceeded towards the castle of
Stolpen, built on a conical eminence, of which, how-
ever, the summit was not higher than the ground
whereon we were travelling. In this road the gra-
nite appeared very near the surface, and we could
even distinguish its strata in some parts, where the
road was cut in it. Thus we had passed from the
straia of sand-stone to those of granite, without per-
ceiving the transition; the hill's being covered with a
very thick loose soil. These granitic strata are the
continuation (though, as they have subsided, at a
lower level) of those that form the chain to which
the Borsberg belongs: I have already described that
eminence, and we here had it on our left.
476. We
•
1
24
24
1
476. We now descended into a vale, from the bot-
tom of which rises the mount whereon stands the
castle of Stolpen; the base and the slope of this
mount are covered with grass, except in parts where
there are projecting rocks; and the castle is built on
those of the summit, which we found to consist of a
great mass of prismatic basalts, not large, and loosely
arranged in groups; so that the rain water penetrat-
ing between them, their surface was become greyish
by decomposition. It is remarkable that, at the foot
of this cone, on both sides, we saw rising above the
grass some small rocks, which, though of the same
stone and much shattered, had so little regularity in
their fractures, that, in another situation, they could
never have been taken for basalts. I have met with
this circumstance in several other places; I mean the
association of regular basalts, with the same basaltic
substance irregularly fractured. I shall have fre-
quent occasions to mention basalts in the sequel of
these Travels; but I shall mostly confine myself to
a description of phenomena. For, in places where
basalts are not accompanied with porous lavas, scoriæ,
volcanic ashes, or pumice-stones, as they are in the
volcanic mountains of the country of Treves, and in
some of those of Hesse, it is very difficult to decide
the general problem with any certainty.
477. In the road from hence to Schmidtfeld, where
we arrived at 6 o'clock, we saw blocks of granite in
the loose soil. Here I found my own carriage, which
had been sent on from Dresden; and I took leave,
with
25
with much regret, of my two friendly and intelligent
companions, who were this evening to return to Dres-
den, whence we were only at the distance of 3 miles
and a half, while I was to continue my journey to-
wards Lusatia. The weather being fine, I deter-
mined to travel all night, that I might the sooner
reach the great objects which I had in view. At half
past 7, therefore, I set out for Bautzen, distant 3
miles and a half, and arrived at that place at half
after 1 in the morning. My road lay through woods
and arable lands, interspersed with several villages
and towns; the soil is of sand; and in several places
I saw in it great accumulations of blocks, some of
which were very large.
June 14th. I set out from Bautzen, at three quar-
ters after 4, for Löbau, which is at the distance of 3
miles, and where I arrived at half past 8. For some
way, I saw granite occasionally at the surface; but
afterwards it disappeared, even where deep intersec-
tions were made in the sand, the upper part of which
contained abundance of granitic blocks. As I pro-
ceeded, I found the country become more hilly, and
some of the hills had abrupt sides. I saw among
them several large insulated eminences, rising with
a sharp summit, and sloping down all round to the
general level of the soil: the tops of these were co-
vered with firs, and their slopes were cultivated.
On an attentive study of the country, it is manifest
that these are eminences, only because other masses
of strata have subsided around them: I had reason
for
26
for supposing them to consist of granite; but I had
not a near view of any of them; I saw a chain of
more continuous mountains at some distance on the
left. As I approached Löbau, I observed that the
road was paved with basalts.
478. From this place I set out, at a quarter after
9, for Herrnhutte, a mile and a quarter distant, and
arrived there at a 11 o'clock, having travelled over a
very good causeway, almost entirely paved with ba-
salts. The hills, which are very numerous, become
herc narrower and more rapid. The soil is sandy,
and is seen, in the intersections, to be very deep; but
in some places I observed the granite rising above it,
and there are everywhere granitic blocks on the sur-
face. I ascended the last hill on my road through a
wood of firs and birches, where the soil was very
stony, being full of fragments of granite. As this
hill is of considerable height, its summit commands
a view of an extensive vale, with several eminences
rising in it, on one of which is Herrnhutte, where 1
spent this and the following day.
479. This is the principal settlement of the Mo-
ravians, or United Brethren, for whom I entertain
much esteem; as I expressed in my first Travels,
where I described another of their settlements at
Neu-wied. I had here the satisfaction of seeing
Baron VON WATTEVILLE, the chief head of the So-
ciety, with the Baroness, his wife, daughter and
heiress of Count VON ZENZENDORFF, who had esta-
blished
27
·
blished this brotherhood under its present form, and
had presented to it this town as a central place, con-
venient for the residence of the Directors, who com-
pose the body of Elders. I saw here likewise some
of the chief of the Moravian Clergy, who were very
respectable men: among these were M. J. LORETZ,
of the country of the Grisons, and M. JEROME RIS-
LER, who had both belonged to the society from the
period of its first establishment at this place; M. Du-
VERNOIS, of the country of Monbelliard, where the
brethren have another of their chief settlements; and
M. HÜFFEL, secretary to the counsel of Elders, who
kindly engaged to accompany me the next day to
view the adjacent country.
June 15th. M. Hüffel conducted me to an insu-
lated eminence, which is called the Spitzberg, or
pointed mountain, and is at a league's distance from
Herrnhutte, near Hennersdorf, on the S. E. of that
town. The Spitzberg is the highest of two hills
rising from one common base, which is covered with
granitic and basaltic rubbish, and ascends with a
gentle slope to the foot of these eminences. From
this point, we proceeded up a more rapid slope to the
top of the Spitsberg. Its summit is a rock composed
of basaltic prisms, which are inclined, and present
their sections on the outer side of the hill; they split,
and a talus has been formed by their fragments; but
it is not yet overspread with vegetation, because of
the continual falls of fresh rubbish from the rock
above. Hence it is manifest that this operation,
though
I
28
though it must have commenced at the birth of the
continents, cannot have continued through a very
great number of ages.
480. We descended the Spitzberg on the inner
side, or that next the small eminence. Of the Spitz-
berg itself, the slope was covered a considerable way
down with basaltic rubbish; but, on entering a cul-
tivated space at its foot, about 300 paces in breadth,
we saw there nothing but granitic rubbish; till,
reaching the foot of the small eminence, we found it
bordered with a little ridge of basaltic balls, which
were about a foot in diameter, and appeared to have
rolled down from the summit. To this we ascended,
in order to discover the origin of these balls; and it
proved to be very singular. The rock was a conge-
ries of spherical masses, 5 or 6 feet in diameter; and
the interior part of several of these spheres, which
rose above the general surface of the rock, being dis-
covered by the decomposition of the external crust,
we saw that they were composed of several distinct
coats, within the innermost of which such balls as we
had observed at the bottom of the slope were lodged,
like the seeds in a pomegranate. We found cups,
formed by the lower part of the coating of these
spheres, which contained many of the smaller balls.
In places where the rock was uncovered, we could
perceive the points of contact of some of the large
spheres, which scemed to have been produced by de-
composition in a mass naturally continuous. How
singular are these properties in stony bodies!
481. While
6
29
481. While we were still on the Spitzberg, the
circuit of the horizon had struck me as a very inte-
resting panorama; and M. Hüffel had pointed out
and described to me the principal objects within our
view. When we looked towards Herrnhutte, this
horizon was bounded by the hills that I had crossed
in
my way from Löbau; but beyond these appeared
a summit called Solunderberg, towards the extremity
of which, on the right, rose a basaltic eminence
named the Rolestein. On turning to our right, we
saw another insulated eminence, bearing the name of
Spitzberg, like that on which we stood, and having
on its summit a similar rock composed of prismatic
basalts; and behind this we perceived a chain of dis-
tant mountains. Continuing to turn in the same di-
rection, we saw three conical eminences, of which the
middle one was the Landskrone, near Görlitz; this
eminence is basaltic, and very high; that on the left
is also of basalt, but that on the right is of granite.
After we had thus viewed half the circle of the hori-
zon, we turned towards the extremity of a chain of
mountains belonging to Lusatia; this extremity is
called Friedlandische-gebürge, being near the town of
Friedland, in Bohemia; some of its eminences are
very high, and through an opening in them, we per-
ceived some summits belonging to the chain of the
Riesen-gebürge, or Giant's mountains; the rest of
the circuit was occupied by another chain, the sum-
mits of which constitute the boundary between Lusa-
tia and Bohemia. All these chains are composed of
granite and gneiss.
482. Within
30
482. Within the space encompassed by this ele-
vated horizon rise several hills, many of which are of
basalt, others of granite, and a few of corneous schis-
tus. That whereon Herrnhutte stands is of granite;
I walked round it with M. Hüffel, who led me first
to a quarry, in which the strata of the granite sepa-
rated the more easily, because they were strongly in-
clined forwards: he made me remark that this rock
had on one side been covered with a stratum of ba-
saltic balls, which followed the inclination of the
granitic strata. Most of these balls having been
cleared away, none remained but in the lower part,
where the stratum passed under the loose soil at the
foot of the hill. Continuing our walk, we came to a
brook, which flows in the interval between this hill
and the next. This interval is a very pleasant vale;
paths have been made in it on the sides of the brook,
and alleys have been cut through a wood descending
to it, benches being placed at certain distances along
the alley leading to the summit of the hill, on the op-
posite extremity of which Herrnhutte is situated; this
highest part, where the inhabitants have a very pretty
walk, commands a fine prospect. I saw in the vale
a great many blocks of granite; these might be sup-
posed to have fallen from the sides, if there were not
among them some of white quartz, no strata of which
externally appear.
483. Here then we have an assemblage of great
monuments of successive catastrophes, wherein strata
of various kinds, certainly formed one on another,
have
8
31
have been overturned beside each other, and covered
with heaps of fragments, which are too widely dis-
persed to have been produced on the continent since
it has existed; for that no cause can have detached
them, and brought them down from the heights, ap-
pears very manifestly on considering the lowness of
the neighbouring hills, the small quantity of water
that descends from them, and the prodigious abun-
dance in which these fragments are found: they must
therefore have been ejected from within by explo-
sions of the expansible fluids violently compressed in
the caverns that received the vast masses of strata,
which have disappeared externally, and from the
subsidence of which have resulted the vacancies be-
tween the hills and mountains now existing; the latter
being only the ruinous remains of those strata left
at a higher level. The fragments produced during
these catastrophes were triturated and dispersed by
the agitation of the water on the bed of the ancient
sea; and the sunken strata having also been covered
with new precipitations of sand and other loose sub-
stances, a veil has thus been thrown over their state,
which is consequently only discoverable in caverns
and in mines.
June 16th.. I set out from Herrnhutte at 5 in
the morning, and went first to Reibersdorf, the seat
of Count VON EINSIEDEL; knowing that he and the
Countess, very respectable people with whom I had
had the good fortune to become acquainted in Lon-
don some years before, were at present residing at
this
32
1
1
this place. In the road, I continued to observe the
same varieties in the nature of the eminences sepa-
rated from the chains of mountains, some being of
granite, some of basalts, and others of schistus ;
while the soil of the adjacent fields was mingled with
fragments of all these different stones. As I ap-
proached, at Zittau, the chain of mountains over
which lies the road into Bohemia, I again observed
strata of the same sand-stone as on the borders of
the Elbe, containing the same marine bodies. I have
already remarked that these strata, composing a mass
of such great thickness, must necessarily have been
formed, within a certain period, over all that part of
the bed of the ancient sea, on which, at present, por-
tions of them are found; those at Zittau, therefore,
have been separated from the greater mass along the
Elbe by subsidences and angular motions, which have
brought to view externally the strata whereon those
of sand-stone were originally deposited.
484. At half past 9, I arrived at Reibersdorf,
where I met with a most obliging reception from the
Count and Countess, who pressed me to make some
stay with them. But I could not allow myself that
satisfaction, on account of the length of the journey
in which I was engaged, being well aware that its ob-
jects would require very particular attention; more-
over, before I began my observations in the Giant's
Mountains, where I was principally to seek for the
phenomena to which M. Meierotto had referred
me as supporting his system, I was to receive direc-
tions
33
L
tions from a gentleman to whom he had given me a
letter, Baron VON GERSDORF, who was then at his
seat at Mäffersdorf, situated at the entrance of those
mountains. I set out from Reibersdorf therefore at
3 o'clock, in order to reach Mäffersdorf the same
evening.
485. In the fields, I again saw fragments of ba-
salts mingled with those of granite. I passed
through Friedland, the castle of which is built on a
basaltic eminence. This town, and that of Neu-
stadt, where I afterwards arrived, are on a slip of
land belonging to Bohemia. From hence to Berg-
strass, I found granite become more and more pre-
valent among the stones scattered in the fields; and
there were some immense blocks of it, as well as of
white quartz, though several ridges of hills still in-
tervened between these grounds and the granitic
mountains.
ZA
486. It was 6 in the evening when I arrived at
Mäffersdorf, where Baron Von Gersdorf, to whom
I was as yet a stranger, received me with that hos-
pitality which particularly characterizes gentlemen,
who, after having spent the early part of their lives
in general society, have retired to their own estates,
where they chiefly reside, continuing to exercise their
minds in liberal pursuits. The Baron had studied
several branches of natural philosophy and natural
history, which soon supplied us with many common
subjects of conversation. Among his instruments
D
VOL. II.
of
34
of experimental philosophy, were some electrical
apparatuses, most admirably constructed, and of
great size. Aerial electricity had, in particular,
been the object of his very assiduous pursuit, by
means of an electrical kite, the string of which,
composed of metallic threads intertwined with
hempen, was more than 1000 feet in length. When
the kite was raised, this cord was put in communica-
tion with an insulated conductor, which was solidly
fixed near a window, and near which another con-
ductor, in communication with the ground, might
be brought by means of an insulating handle; and
thus, without any danger, sparks might be drawn
during a thunder-storm; the Baron told me that he
had sometimes drawn them at the distance of two
feet. The course of his very interesting and instruc-
tive observations relative to this object has been pub-
lished, with the description of his apparatus, in the
Memoirs of the Society of Investigators of Nature
at Berlin. The changes in the elevation of the kite,
occasioned by those in the force of the wind, are
here seen to produce sudden transitions from the po-
sitive to the negative state, and vice versa, which
are indicated by the electroscope, and of which I
have explained the cause in a paper presented to
the same society. These are not changes in the
quantity of electric fluid contained in the whole ap-
paratus of the kite, but removals of the fluid itself
from the kite to the bottom of its string, or from
the latter to the former, occasioned by the influence
of the various electric states of the strata of the
atmosphere
$5
atmosphere attained by the kite: an effect similar to
that which is produced on a long insulated conductor,
when a body, whether positive or negative, is ap-
proximated to either of its extremities.
487. The lithological collection of Baron Von
Gersdorf was immense, and the specimens being
very large, it was, on that account, the more in-
structive: he had, in particular, taken pains to col-
lect all the genera and species of stones disseminated
in the sandy plains of the country. There being a
great variety of these, as is the case in many places,
and some of them being very beautiful, I asked him
whether the same stones were found in strata in the
neighbouring mountains; he replied that they were
aot, and that this had always very much surprized
him. Here then appears a new example of the
great geological fact, that the blocks scattered at the
foot of the mountains differ, as much as those ob-
served in very distant plains, from the strata which
compose these mountains; whence it is evident that
the latter cannot have been the source of the stony
masses disseminated in the plains. The Baron's col-
lection contained also many species of flints, which
had been found among other stones in the same sand,
and of which some were of so bright a red, that, had
they been cut, they might have been taken for car-
nelians: yet, in the whole country, there were no
strata of chalk, nor any other kind of calcareous
strata containing silices; and this affords a new
proof of the cause which I have assigned to the dis-
semination
D 2
1
36
}
semination of so many silices on the surface of our
continents, namely, the dissolution, at a certain
epoch, under the liquid of the ancient sea, of the
calcareous strata in which they were originally
formed. Lastly, in this sand the Baron had likewise
found pieces of yellow amber. That resinous sub-
stance is found also in Brandeburg, Mecklenburg,
and other sandy countries in the north of Germany;
but its origin is still a mystery; because the tree of
which it was the product no longer exists. We know
that, at the moment when it issued in a soft state
from the bark of this tree, it frequently enclosed
within it insects of several species. It is on the
sandy strands bordering the Baltic and the North
Sea, that amber is collected in the greatest abund-
ance; not that any is now formed on these strands,
but that, having been contained in the sand of the
cliffs, when this sand crumbled down, and was
washed away by the waves, the masses of the amber
were left on the surface, like other gravel. Amber
is likewise found near brooks in the interior part of
the country, because there also the sand contains it.
488. M. Meierotto had requested the Baron
to give me such directions at my entrance into the
Giant's mountains, as might enable me to go, by the
straitest roads, to the parts which he wished me to
observe; and first to Schriebers-hau, where I was to
obtain farther instructions. The Baron advised me
to proceed to that place on foot across the moun-
tains; but first to visit a mountain in his own neigh-
bourhood,
+
37
bourhood, called the Tafelfichte, (table of firs,) or
Tafelstein, (table rock;) to which purpose he wished
me to devote the following day. He rendered this
excursion the more agreeable to me, by proposing
to M. ULRICH and M. HERMES, two young friends
of his who were then at his house, that they should
accompany me in it; and they very readily agreed
to be also my guides to Schriebers-hau, but we were
prevented by bad weather from accomplishing the
latter part of our plan.
June 17th. We set out from Mäffersdorf at 5 in
the morning, accompanied by a man who carried
provisions for our dinner on the great table. At first
we returned back on the road by which I had arrived
at Mäffersdorf, as far as Bergstrass and Ober-
gräntzdorf, whence we began to ascend a first ridge
of mountains, called the Dreslerberg, cloathed with
a forest, on rubbish of micaceous schistus and of
quartz. On the highest part, we found some rocks
of these stones; but they appear very clearly not to
have been the source of the rubbish which covers
the large summit and the gentle slopes of the moun-
tain. These rocks were left at their present high
level, when the rest of the strata subsided around
them; and it was during this catastrophe that they
were overspread with the rubbish of the latter. The
strata of these rocks appear at the summit of a cone
formed by their own fallen materials, which it is very
easy to distinguish from the rubbish that covers the
rest of the mountain. These strata are strongly in-
clined
38
{
clined towards the outer side of the mountain, and
their section is at the top of the cone.
489. Hence we descended into a vale of little
depth, beyond which rises the Tafelfichte, a high
mountain, with a gentle slope covered with angular
blocks of granite; some firs were growing among
these blocks, but they were very young, because, a
few years before, a violent hurricane had stripped
this whole side of the mountain of the forest that
covered it. At 7 o'clock we arrived at the entrance
of the woods which had escaped this destruction,
where we were glad to have recourse to our basket
of provisions; and at 8 we reached a hut erected
by Baron Von Gersdorf on the summit of the moun-
tain, for the purpose of affording shelter to those
who make this excursion, while at the same time
they may enjoy from it a view of the prospect. This
hut was placed on the most elevated part of a very
extensive summit, from which the mountain has a
gradual descent all around, without any rocks. Two
chains of mountains, enclosing between them the
part of Silesia called the Principality of Jauer, here
meet and unite, forming a rounded angle, in the in-
terval of which rises the Tafelfichte. One of these
chains, extending to the N. W. of this spot, sepa-
rates Silesia from Lusatia; the other, stretching S.
by E. divides it from Bohemia: the latter chain is
that of the Riesen-gebürge, or Giant's mountains,
here beginning by the mountains of Friedland which
belong to Bohemia, and separated from the Tafel-
fichte
7
39
fichte by a valley. The nearest summit of the other
chain is the Hau-fuder, separated likewise from the
Tafelfichte by a deep valley, in which flows a small
stream called the Schwartzbach. On the slope of
the Tafelfichte towards this stream, there is a stone,
marking the limits of Silesia and Bohemia; and as
a slip of Upper Lusatia terminates at the same point,
all these three countries may be successively entered
by only walking round this stone.
490. While I was on the Tafelfichte, I could
judge, from a map of the country which I had in
my hand, that my view extended first over Upper
Lusatia, and afterwards, as I walked to the right,
all around the summit of the mountain, over the
county of Glatz, Moravia, Bohemia, Misnia, and
the Upper Palatinate. The whole of this vast space
had the appearance of an agitated sea; for it pre-
sented nothing but chains of mountains rising behind
each other, as far as the eye could reach. The sum◄
mit itself, thus insulated and without rocks, is entirely
covered with blocks of a whitish granite containing
very little mica, which is not liable to decomposition
from the air; these blocks are consequently angular;
and as they lie on a soil of little depth, the firs that
grow here merely throw out their roots under and
between them; hence this part of the forest was
easily torn up and swept away by the above-men-
tioned hurricane. In this same country, I shall have
occasion to describe a granitic mountain, the strata
of which having undergone an angular movement,
the
40
the sections of those of various species of granite
appear at the summit: some of the strata are of this
whitish, kind with little mica, and the blocks com-
posed of them are angular, not having suffered any
decomposition; these strata, however, are separated
by others, which are easily decomposed; and the
blocks of the latter are rounded, but not in conse-
quence of being rolled, for they are on the very
summit of the mountain, where they lie on a great
depth of sand, produced by the decomposition of
granite of the same species. This is a subject to
which I shall return in the sequel.
*
*
491. In our way back to Mäffersdorf, we de
scended from the Tafelfichte on the side fronting the
mountain of Hau-fuder. On this side of the former
-
eminence, the planes of the strata under the loose
soil are certainly parallel to the slope, and thus pre-
vent the rain waters from penetrating beneath this
soil. The humidity occasioned by this circumstance
produces here a very thick moss covered with bil-
berry plants, in which the blocks scattered on the
slope are almost buried; so that the descent would
be very dangerous, had not paths been traced out;
and these paths must be carefully followed. Between
the blocks, there gush out several springs, forming
rills, which are perfectly limpid, being produced by
the water thus retained on the surface of the gra-
nitic strata. Among these little streams, that which
descends from the highest point is called the Iser-
brunn, or source of the Iser, a small river composed
of
戚
​41
of a vast number of rivulets flowing in the inflexions
of the slopes, and uniting at the bottom of a valley,
where the size of the stream increases as it receives
the contributions of a greater extent of slopes; for
some way, it forms the boundary between Silesia
and Bohemia; then, entering the latter country, it
soon unites with the Elbe in the upper part of its
course, and might indeed as properly be called the
source of that river, as the stream which is now so
entitled. Continuing to descend this slope, we
found, towards the bottom, a change in the nature
of the granite, the masses scattered on the soil being
as much rounded as those that we afterwards saw
on the bed of the Schwartzbach; at which when
we arrived, we returned to Mäffersdorf along its
banks.
June 18th. Our schemes for this day were de-
feated by the rain. It was no longer possible to
think of walking over the mountains to Schreibers
hau, because they are covered with high heath and
bilberries, through which there is no path; so that
we must have been wetted up to the knees at every
step. I could not, therefore, follow my original
plan, nor could I even set out this morning by the
common road; for rain renders observation difficult
as well as disagreeable. However, it made me some
amends that I enjoyed more of the company of Baron
Von Gersdorf; and the rain having ceased, he was
so good as 'to accompany me himself to Flinsberg, a
place much frequented on account of a spring of
mineral
42
i
mineral water. But before I detail what we ob-
served on our road, I ought to explain the object to
which these observations referred.
492. M. Meierotto's principal motive for sending
me to this part of the mountains of Silesia had been
that I might observe, in the way from Schreibers-
hau, a succession of streams, beginning with the
Kockel and the Zackel, which flow together to join
the Bober, and on the course of which he had as-
sured me that I should find evident signs of ruptures
of the dikes of elevated seas, and, of the impulsion
of the fragments of these dikes by the streams which
had followed this direction. He had also mentioned
to me the courses of the Queis and the Schwartzbach,
as exhibiting the same operations, and had referred
me to Baron Von Gersdorf for full conviction on
this point. I observed the three former of these
rivers during the following days; and the two latter
were our object at present.
493. We proceeded first to the village of Gräntz-
dorf, which belongs to the estate of Mäffersdorf;
we then entered Silesia by the village of Herrnsdorf,
whence we went on to Ullersdorf, situated on the banks
of the small river Queis, which arrives through a
valley terminated by the high mountain of Hohest cin.
This river, at the point where we met it, passes be-
tween the Hau-fuder and another mountain; hence,
continuing its course northwards, it joins the Bober
a little above Sagan, and they afterwards proceed to-
gether
43
gether to unite with the Oder at Crossen. This then is
the whole extent of the space to which M. Meierotto
had referred me for proofs, that the masses of stones
scattered in low situations were fragments of dikes
whereby superior seas had originally been retained in
successive basins, one lower than another, each of
which had been emptied in its turn by the rupture of
its dikes; that this having extended all the way into
Sweden, masses of the granites and porphyries of
that country had been brought over to the lands on
the south of the Baltic, by the ice of that sea, at
its successively lower levels; and that the sand scat-
tered over these same countries was the detritus of
the masses of granite, rolled along and rounded by
the torrents of the mountains. In the itinerary
which he had made out for me, he had indicated the
places where I should find examples of the above
operations; I visited all these places, and likewise
many others with the same view; and it will be seen
what were the results of my observations, beginning
with the river Queis.
494. When we approached that river by Ullers-
dorf, we were on its left bank; and we continued to
ascend it on the same side till we came to Flinsberg,
which is situated on a ridge of hills, and commands
a view of the whole valley of the Queis, rising gra-
dually towards the Hohestein. All the mountains
within this extent have rounded summits, separated
by combes, where springs produce the rivulets which
unite to form the little river. Throughout the whole
space,
44
space, there are no abrupt faces, and very few pro-
jecting rocks, though enough to shew the nature of
the strata, In these it is seen that the slopes towards
the valley are composed of strata of granite, and
that, on the outer side of the mountains there is a
ridge of micaceous schistus, like that which we had
crossed in our way to the Tafelfichte; whence it is
evident that the valley has immediately resulted from
the angular motions of the masses of strata on its
sides. There is also another respect in which these
mountains resemble the Tafelfichte; namely, that
their rounded summits and their gentle slopes are
covered with fragments of their strata, forming a
superficial soil, by which the strata themselves are
almost entirely concealed, The road that I was to
have taken, had I not been deterred by the wetness
of the heath, was over the Hohestein, behind which
I should have descended to Schreibers-hau.
ร
495. I have now shewn what is the real nature of
these mountains; they are masses of stony strata of
various species, which remained at a higher level
than the rest, during the general subsidence; and
the most lofty amongst them still exhibit marks of
this catastrophe; for besides that they are broken,
their strata have undergone angular movements,
and are so much shattered, that the whole surface is
covered with their rubbish, as well on the summits
as on the slopes, and in the hollows, whether the
latter do or do not afford a passage to streams. As
there are neither any higher mountains in the neigh-
2
bourhood,
i
400
45
4
bourhood, nor any steep rocks on the summits of the
existing eminences, the masses of stone that are scat-
tered on their surface cannot possibly be ascribed to
the rupture of the dikes of a superior sea; these,
however, are the only masses which, in places
within the reach of torrents, are exposed to their
action. During the rainy seasons, when the slopes
are penetrated with water, the stony fragments easily
slide into the beds of the torrents, and are thus car-
ried down into the principal vallies, where these ma-
terials, being deposited in all the wide spaces, are
spread by the waters, and mixed with sand, and
earthy particles; and in this manner are formed
meadows, of which the soil is raised by new sedi-
ments during every inundation. But in those narrow
parts of a principal valley, where the river, when
swelled, occupies its whole breadth from side to side,
if any accumulations of rubbish are made by lateral
torrents, the water, on meeting with these obstacles,
rises against them, and impels them before it, being
enabled to move even masses of a considerable size,
in consequence of the instability of the smaller frag-
ments on which they lie. During great inundations,
the noise of the stones thus set in motion is heard on
the beds of shallow rivers, where some are even seen
to move: but, if the valley again widens, they are
deposited below the defile. If, lastly, one of these
narrow passages happens to open on the outer side
of the mountains, where the water may spread with-
out any impediment, we there find accumulated, all
the
+
W
46
}
the large masses which the stream has brought down
from the mountains ever since it began to flow."
496. In my first Travels, I described very parti-
cularly these different effects of torrents, at the
points of their arrival in the large low vallies of the
Alps; and the Schwartzbach, to which M. Meierotto
had referred me for a proof that the materials of the
dikes of a superior sea had been brought down from
the mountains and scattered over the plains, will
afford me an example of the last of the above-men-
tioned cases. As I was desirous to see the spot at
which this river issues from the mountains into a
large open space, instead of returning from Flins-
berg by Ullersdorf, we passed over the mountain of
Hermansdorf, properly the schistose foot of the
Hau-fuder, to the opening of a defile through which
the Schwartzbach arrives from the westward. The
bed of the river is in this part covered with large
stones; and the Baron told me that he had been here
with M. Meierotto at a time when the stream was
very much swelled, and that they had really heard
the noise of the stones rolling on its bed. But this
is again a spot which absolutely contradicts that
gentleman's hypothesis respecting the mode of the
transportation of the blocks scattered over the
plains; for we here saw accumulated all the masses
which the stream had detached from its shores, and
brought down so far as this, since it originally began
to flow; such only excepted as had been taken away
for
47
I
for the purpose of building. Now these are pre-
cisely the same stones which cover the whole of the
slopes of the hills, down to the river, and of which
some, happening to fall into it, are carried along by
its current: being confined within the defile, it rises.
against these masses, and forces them to yield
to its pression; but, on issuing forth into a wider
space, it immediately deposites them, propelling them
no farther than to the extremity of a kind of pro-
montory which has been formed by their accumula-
tion, and which is continuing to increase in extent
by the addition of new materials on its sides. The
inhabitants have dug a canal along the top of this
promontory, in order that the stream, when not too
violently swelled, may carry the stones on to its ex-
trenity, instead of scattering them over the adja-
cent lands: this is indeed their quarry for building
stones; or rather, the Schwartzbach is the carrier,
who, taking up these stones at the foot of the
mountains, brings them down hither for the conve-
nience of the builders. This was the spot which
M. Meierotto had particularly desired Baron Von
Gersdorf to point out to me as demonstrative of
the truth of his system; but the above observations
sufficed to induce the latter to form a very opposite
opinion. Now it will be seen that the case is the
same in all the other places to which M. Meierotto
had referred me for a similar purpose.
497. The weather being still rainy, I determined
to continue my journey by the common road, en-
tering
48
tering Silesia farther to the north through a very
open passage in the mountains, and then going
round by Hirschberg. Baron Von Gersdorf- gave
me a memorandum of the places through which I
was to pass, following at first the outer side of the
mountains; and he was so good as to lend me his
own horses for the first stage. As I intended to set
out very early the next morning, I took leave at
night of the Baron and Baroness, and of the two
agreeable companions of my excursion to the Tafel-
fichte; but this did not prevent my kind host from
rising in the morning to see me again, lest any thing
should be forgotten which might be of use to me
during the remainder of my journey.
✔
June 19th. I set out from Mäffersdorf at half-
past 5; it was still raining, but after some time the
weather cleared up. At first, the road led me a
little away from the mountains; but I then again
approached them, and followed their schistose ridges,
passing through Alt-Scheib, Heyde, and Neu-Scheib,
where I crossed the Schwartzbach to Egelsdorf.
Here begin the excellent causeways, which traverse
Silesia in every direction. At three quarters after 6
I arrived at Friedenberg, where I crossed the Queis,
and afterwards passed over a hill called the Herts-
berg, at the bottom of which I again saw granite;
but at the top I found basalts containing transparent
olivin. This is a volcanic sign; for I have seen
olivin in the very evident lavas of the Winter Cassen,
near Cassel, below the remains of a crater, the
borders
1
49
borders of which consist of scoria. I passed on
the left the ancient castle of Greiffenstein, built on
a basaltic eminence, and I afterwards crossed se-
veral villages similar to that of Lohmen, which I de-
scribed § 458; these villages, extending some leagues
in length without interruption, are built along the
course of small rivers, and are inhabited, partly by
husbandmen, who cultivate the slopes of the moun-
tains, and partly by manufacturers, whose labours
are assisted by the streams. I had great pleasure in
observing the simple manners of these villagers, and
their natural civility.
498. As I passed over the eminences in this road,
I had a distinct view of a great extent of the chain
of the Giant's mountains, which, at this distance,
was perfectly dissimilar in appearance to that of the
Alps, though, like the latter, it is composed of
strata of granite, of gneiss, and of schistus: it rather
resembled the chain of the Jura; the strata of the
different classes not having been here thick enough,
nor the subsidences sufficiently great, to form high
mountains, rising in peaks, like those of the Alps.
Having passed through Ottendorf, I arrived at
Langwasser at a quarter after 8. Below Frieden-
berg, there are several pools, or small lakes, on the
course of the brooks flowing towards the Queis, as
well as on that of the various branches of the
Schwartzbach. These pools, which I saw from the
heights, are certainly the result of cavities, or, in
other words, of greater partial subsidences, on the
E
VOL. II,
courses
50
courses followed by the waters ever since they have
been collected into streams; now as, till these cavi-
ties are filled up, none of the materials propelled by
the waters can possibly pass beyond them, it is very
evident that, wherever this phenomenon is observed,
the entrance of each pool must exhibit to our view
the whole amount of the sediments which have been
deposited there since the time when the streams began
to flow; whence it plainly appears that they cannot
have flowed during any very great number of ages.
This is the general conclusion which I have drawn
from the existence of lakes; and since I have al-
ready described, and shall continue to describe, so
many of these, at all heights, and in very different
situations, I flatter myself that the gratuitous hypo-
thesis of the production of such cavities by local
causes, subsequently to the birth of the continents,
will no more be renewed against this great class of
chronometers; for in every country they abound so
much, that, independently of the marks which most
of them exhibit of having been produced by the
catastrophes of the strata, this circumstance alone
would suffice to shew the absurdity of such a suppo-
sition.
-
·499. Langwasser probably takes its name from
one of these pools in its vicinity; and between that
place and Spiller, I passed over a hill, on which,
in the middle of a field, rises a small basaltic
mount, not above 15 feet in height, and 100 paces
in circumference: as I walked round the slopes of
its
51
its rubbish, I saw on the summit a rock, in which
prisms, not very regular, lay flat, and presented
their section on one of the sides. Beyond this, at
Barthelsdorf, I crossed the small river Kemnitz,
flowing over a bed covered with stones; but they
were overspread with moss, which is always a proof
that stones do not roll. I mention this circumstance,
because, in the sequel, we shall meet with the same
river, at a lower point, under a very different
aspect.
500. I stopped at Reimnitz to rest the horses,
and employed the time in ascending an insulated
eminence, of which the slopes had very different
inclinations, on account of the situation of the
strata; and the summit, as well as the gentle decli-
vities on the sides, were covered with granitic rub-
bish, and cultivated. This summit was another very
interesting panorama. Immediately around me, I
saw on all sides many similar mounts, for the most
part cultivated, and presenting no rocks of granite
except on their sides. Between these and the
Giant's mountains, of which my view became more
and more distinct, there were vast numbers of py-
ramidal eminences, with rocks on their summits,
some composed of granite, and others of basalts;
a phenomenon belonging to all the low grounds
around this chain of mountains and its different
branches. These eminences rise in spaces torming
a kind of basins, being those where the greatest
subsidences have taken place. For wherever there
happened
E 2
52
happened to be great inequalities on the bottom of
the caverns into which the mass of the strata sunk,
their elevated points serving as a support to some
parts of this shattered mass, it fell in pieces, and
thus were produced as well these eminences, as the
lower spaces around them. It was in this manner
that the separated parts of the strata were subjected
to the angular movements by which those of dif-
ferent species were brought to view. Whatever may
be the nature of basalts, within this space they were
disposed in strata; but in what order they were
placed among the other strata, it is difficult to de-
termine, because they are seen only on the summits
of mounts, the slopes of which are entirely covered
with rubbish. Now we here find that the rocks, on
the summits of eminences at but little distance from
each other, consist some of basalt, others of gra-
nite, and others of gneiss or schistus; yet the slopes
are every where covered with rubbish of various
kinds, which is an indication of great convulsions.
501. I afterwards proceeded to Hirschberg,
where I arrived at half past 2. Here I entered the
principal field of observation, which M. Meierotto,
expecting that it would lead me to embrace his
system, had recommended to my attention. Here
also I was to be under the guidance of the same
persons with whom he had viewed this tract himself,
and whom he requested, in letters of which I was
the bearer, to be so good as either to accompany me,
or to send with me others who were equally well ac-
quainted
53
quainted with it; and besides this, he had even
written to his friends by the post, that they might
be ready to receive me on my arrival. The course
of the Bober, and of its branches from the moun-
tains, was now to be the chief object of my atten-
tion; and the first person to whom I was to apply
for directions was M. FREDERICI, Syndic of Hirsch-
berg; he was at home when I arrived, but was on
the point of setting out on a journey; however he
had already received a letter from M. Meierotto,
and being desirous to gratify his wish, he had drawn
up for me instructions relative to all which I was to
observe; recommending me, at the same time, to
his friend M. SCHAUM, who was perfectly acquainted
with the country, and readily undertook to supply
his place. It was agreed that, before I viewed the
Bober in the neighbourhood of this city, I should go
to observe its sources, and those of its different
branches, on the slopes of the Giant's mountains,
availing myself, for this purpose, of my recommen-
dations at Schreibers-hau, (where, but for the rain,
I should have begun my observations ;) and that, on
my return, I should follow the same river down to
its junction with the Oder, a little below the issue
of the latter from the mountains. For it was along
this course that, according to M. Meierotto, I was
to see the points of rupture of the dikes of a supe-
rior sea, and the impulsion of their fragments down
to the plains.
502. Not staying at Hirschberg any longer than
was
54
I
was necessary to arrange this plan, I proceeded to-
wards Schreiber s-hau through Cunersdorf, Heris-
dorf, and Warmbrun, the latter of which places is
much frequented on account of a hot spring, whence
it derives its name; hence I went on to Petersdorf,
situated in a wide intersection of the foot of the
chain. Persons unacquainted with the magnificent
scenery of the Alps, may certainly be struck with
that which, on this road, presents itself to their
eyes; but on this subject I shall chiefly remark,
that, if those who consider mountains as belonging
to a certain primordial state of the earth are with-
held, by that persuasion, from entering on the study
of geology by this previous question: To what
cause is the existence of these eminences to be as-
cribed? it is because such persons, not extending
their view in the vast field of natural phenomena
beyond certain marks of catastrophes which they su-
perficially behold, are consequently led to attribute
the most remarkable ruptures and dislocations of the
strata to those causes which have acted on the con-
tinents since their birth; and this was the case with
M. Meierotto. When, however, the clue supplied
by M. de Saussure has been carefully followed ;
when it has been perceived that all mountains are
composed of strata which must have been originally
horizontal and continuous, and that eminences, vallies,
and plains, can only be ascribed to partial subsi-
dences, and angular motions of the separated parts;
these catastrophes will be found to explain, not
merely the phenomena on account of which recourse
has
I
Į
GRE
55.
has been had to particular causes, but the whole
construction of the mountains themselves: this will
appear no less evidently in the Giant's mountains,
than I have already shewn it to be the case in many
others.
503. As I approached Petersdorf, I saw that the
whole front of the chain on this side was occupied by
rocks much fractured and in great disorder, forming
a multitude of pyramids; among these, on the left
of the road, I distinguished the Kynast, a naked
eminence, on which is a castle, and of which the
whole outline is irregularly indented, with sections of
granitic strata, nearly vertical, and very distinct.
Here then it appears very evidently that these pyra-
mids are nothing but ruins of the same strata which
compose the neighbouring mountains, left at their
present level in the part where the rest of their mass
has undergone the greatest subsidence. Between
these eminences are the beds, covered with large
blocks, of the torrents which issue from the moun-
tains. These torrents were considered by M. Meie-
rotto as putting in motion the masses of the ancient
broken dikes, and propelling them down to the plains;
I therefore paid very particular attention to their
phenomena.
504. From Petersdorf, having proceeded some
way by the side of the Little Zackel, I crossed that
stream, in order to gain the banks of the Great
Zackel, or Zack, which I followed, turning towards
I
9
the
56
the left, till I came to a point where it issues from a
cleft in the rocks. Above its entrance into this cleft,
and below the opening of another, through which
lies the ascent to the village of Schreibers-hau, there
is a great manufacture of vitriol, belonging to Messrs.
PRELLER and SCHAUL, to the former of whom my
recommendation was addressed. This gentleman
did not happen to be at home; but to him also M.
Meierotto had taken the precaution to write before-
hand, and M. Schaul had in consequence engaged
to be my guide. It was only half past 4 when I
arrived here, so that I had time to observe the ob-
jects particularly mentioned to me by M. Meie-
rotto; namely, the cascade of the Kockel, above its
confluence with the Zackel, and the bed of the latter
river, on which large blocks of granite have been
seen to move.
505. As I ascended, from the manufacture, the
course of the Zackel, I saw it flowing at the
bottom of a large cleft, from which rise slopes
studded with rocks of granite interspersed with
firs. In these sides also there are some wide and
deep clefts; by one of them arrives the Zackel itself,
and by another the Kockel rushes down in a cascade
to unite with the former. The other clefts bring no
water, because they receive none on the mountains;
and it will appear in the sequel in what manner these
two torrents enter their respective channels.
506. It is not surprizing, either that large blocks
arrive
{
57
arrive on the bed of the Zackel, or that, within a
certain space, they move along it; for the rapid
sides of the valley are covered with these blocks,
and with many smaller fragments; and the channel
of the river has resulted from a double fracture, at-
tended with the subsidence of the intermediate mass,
the much inclined bed of the stream being formed
by the planes of the strata which compose this
mass; so that, at the times when very heavy rains
cause blocks, mingled with smaller stones, to slide
down to this bed from the sides, both the torrents,
being then much swelled, and not having room to
spread, the stream formed by their union propels
the blocks before it, the smaller stones beneath them
serving as a kind of rollers to facilitate their motion
over the planes of the granitic strata, which, as I
have said, possess a considerable declivity.
507. M. Schaul led me up to one of the large
blocks, which M. Meierotto had mentioned in his
note as being certainly known to have changed its
place by the action of the stream; it lay on a ledge
of rocks forming the right bank of the river. M.
Schaul shewed me the spot where he had himself
seen it some years before, for its size rendered it
remarkable; and how far it had travelled since that
time was consequently very evident. On viewing
the situation of things, I could entertain no doubt
of the fact the block lay on a smooth plane, and
when the stream, very much swelled, entered this
narrow passage, it rose against all the obstacles which
opposed
58
opposed its course, and drove before it such as it
was able to more. But from this, no consequence
can be deduced with regard to the blocks dissemi-
nated on hills, and on plains remote from mountains,
without previously examining, not only what has oc-
casioned the rounding of the blocks which we see
on the bed of torrents, (that is to say, whether
they have really been rolled along there,) but like-
wise whence such blocks originally proceeded.
M
508. I began my observations in this place by the
examination of these two important points, espe-
cially with respect to this very block which was
known to have migrated: its edges were rounded,
but its length and breadth much exceeded its thick-
ness, its form being a flattened and elongated oval,
7 or 8 feet long. It is easily to be conceived that
the pression of a confined stream above may have
caused a mass of this form to slide along on the sur-
face of a hard smooth plane: but, in order to effect
the rounding of its edges in rolling, the stream must
have repeatedly raised it up on one side, and turned
it over on the other; an action which the water
cannot be supposed to have exercised on it.
1
Now
as we saw that most of the blocks on the bed of the
torrent, where at present there was very little water,
were of the same general form, that is to say, of
small thickness comparatively with their breadth and
length, M. Schaul agreed with me, that the rounding
of their edges could not possibly have been effected
by their rolling of these, likewise, many had slidden
along
J
59
along this bed, and had been observed to change
their places on it; a circumstance on which M.
Meierotto laid great stress.
509. But how had these blocks at first arrived on
the bed of the Zackel? It was easy, on the spot, to
determine both this question, and that of the round-
ing of their edges. The block first mentioned lay,
as I have said, on a kind of terrace formed by the
plane of a stratum of granite, on which the effort
of the torrent, when swelled, had caused it to slide;
and in this spot the materials failing from the slope
had consequently not been able to accumulate; but
farther back, at some distance, these materials rose
in a slope, which had assumed the form of a half
tunuel, on account of a great fracture in the strata
behind it. We entered this recess, and ascending
one of its sides, we saw that the slope consisted of
the sand of decomposed granite, and that above it
there were rocks rising in great disorder. Now in
this sand were great quantities of blocks, with their
edges rounded exactly in the same manner as those
of the blocks, which, having slidden, in very rainy
seasons, down these sandy grounds, had arrived on
the bed of the torrent. It is therefore not on this
bed that these masses have been rounded, since they
are found in the same state on the slopes which
border it.
510. The granite of the greater part of these
mountains is subject to decomposition by the action
of
60
of the air; a decomposition which begins on the
angles of the masses, where all these causes have
the most power, and continues along the surface, as
the latter is laid open, unless from the nature of the
granite, which differs in the degrees of hardness and
tenacity of its ingredients, or from its particular ex-
posure, it happens to be overspread with lichens.
This is the source of the granitic sand wherewith, as
will be seen, the whole country is here covered; and
as for the blocks on such rapid slopes as that which
I have just described, they, being already rounded
by these actions of the air, slide by their own weight
down the sand, whenever, after great rains, it is
fully imbibed with water. From the spot where we
stood, I pointed out to M. Schaul, on the opposite
side, not only clefts, similar to that affording a pas-
sage to the Zackel, with rounded blocks on their
slopes, but distinct rocks, which were composed of
masses of strata nearly horizontal, certainly still oc-
cupying their original situations, though reduced, by
the erosion of the angles of each mass, into blocks,
apparently separated, and piled on each other. I
have already spoken of the same phenomenon in the
rocks of sand-stone on the banks of the Elbe; but
these mountains will present examples of it, on a
very large scale, in the granitic strata.
!
511. It is therefore very certain, in the first place,
that the rounding of the blocks which are scattered
over the plains affords no proof that these masses
yere transported thither by running waters, since
those
1
61
:
1
those still on the mountains are found to be also
rounded, even before they have been delivered up to
the action of the highest torrents. And as it is im-
possible to believe the torrents to have been the cause
of this migration, so neither, for a yet stronger
reason, can it be ascribed to the rivers; since the
former, which are the only impetuous streams, if
they flowed in less contracted channels, would not
have power to communicate to these masses the mo-
tions observed within this short space. But on the
course of all torrents there are some wide parts,
where such motions cease, and where, consequently,
all these masses are stopped. This is a circumstance
which has escaped the attention of those who for a
long time have pretended, that the blocks scattered
on the plains have been brought down from the
mountains; but I shall prove it by repeated instances
along the whole of the road here traced for me by
M. Meierotto himself.
512. It is through a fissure at a considerable
height, that the Kockel arrives to throw itself into
the bed of the Zackel, which flows in the principal
cleft; and these two fractures of the strata meet at
the point where began the subsidence of a large in-
termediate mass; a catastrophe which I shall pre-
sently shew to have been attended with others lower
down.
513. We entered the cleft which affords passage
to the Kockel; and by a path formed on its left bank
up
62
up a slope interspersed with rocks and fir-trees, we
came to the place where the torrent, issuing from
the fissure above, descends in a single fall from a
considerable height. How is it possible to imagine
that this stream, after having arrived at a higher
point by a channel nearly horizontal, can have cut
the rock below it at right angles? Nothing can be
more evident than that it must have found on its
course this abrupt cleft formed by the subsidence
whence the valley itself resulted; and the following
is the whole of the effect produced by this torrent.
We passed between the cascade and the rock, which
is covered with moss, in consequence of the humidity
constantly preserved in this interval; and the moss
extends up to the point where the stream, being im-
pelled by the pressure of the water behind it, rushes
forward from the edge of the rock. This we saw,
as we ascended on one side of the cascade, up to its
issue from the fissure.
514. After these observations, in which M. Schaul
had taken the more interest from the remarks that I
had led him to make while we had the objects before
our eyes, he obligingly offered to be himself my
guide the next day in my intended excursion over
the neighbouring summits of the Giant's mountains ;
adding that he would lend me a horse, as we might
ride part of the way. I accepted this offer with
particular satisfaction; and he engaged a man to
attend us on foot, and carry some provisions for us.
June
63
June 20th. We set out at 6 in the morning, and
took the road towards the lowest and most consider-
able part of the village of Schreibers-hau, being
that where the church stands. On quitting the ma-
nufacture, we first went up, by a very rapid slope,
to the cleft, or combe, which I mentioned before as
here rising from the left bank of the Zackel. A ri-
vulet issuing hence was at present, as is the case in
common seasons, so inconsiderable, that a part of its
course was concealed from me by the grass; yet the
sides of this cleft were neither less abrupt nor less
high than those bordering the Zackel; they were co-
vered with granitic sand; and the blocks of granite,
which had fallen at their foot, were rounded in the
same manner as those on the banks and on the bed
of that torrent.
1
515. Schreibers-hau is another of the villages
which are remarkable for covering as much ground
as is occupied by many capital cities; but it does
not extend in length, like those before-mentioned,
which consist of a double row of houses following
the course of a single stream; for it is built on a
high slope intersected with many rills, and the houses
are placed along the sides of all these, chiefly be-
cause there is here a great manufacture of cut glass,
in which vast numbers of workmen are employed.
After having passed through the lower part of this
village, we entered a vale following the foot of the
mountains, and separating them from all the broken
and ruinous promontories which I had crossed on
$
t
this
64
1
this side of Petersdorf, and which extend along the
whole of the chain. Here we saw the Little Zackel
issuing from a deep cleft, with its sides and their
summits studded with rocks and covered with firs,
like those bordering the Great Zackel above the ma-
nufacture of vitriol, and those in the sand-stone strata
along the course of the Elbe. The bed of this tor-
rent was covered with masses of granite, which were
rounded, but evidently not in consequence of their
transportation by the stream, for both the slopes de-
scending to its bed are entirely composed of rounded
masses of the same kind, imbedded in a soil of gra-
nitic sand; so that the only operation of the torrent
has been to wash away this sand from the blocks
which have fallen on its bed, where, during great
inundations, it carries them forward in the rapid parts
of its course, but abandons them in the more horizontal
spaces. Here we quitted our horses, and gave them
in charge to a peasant, whom we appointed to bring
them back to the same spot at a certain hour; and
then, taking on with us the man who carried our pro-
visions, we proceeded forward on foot.
516. We were now on the chain of the Giant's
mountains, where the slopes are very rapid, and
every where consist of granitic sand, in which large
fragments of granite are intermixed. The lower
parts of these slopes, where the surface is composed
of an accumulation of large blocks, are covered
with woods of firs; but the upper parts are in pas-
turage, the blocks being there buried in granitic
sand,
*
1
65
sand. When we were at a sufficient height to com-
mand a prospect of all the lower eminences forming
promontories branching off from the chain, we saw
in those projections many large clefts with abrupt
sides, which contain no streams, because they are
properly combes, beginning on higher parts of the
mountains. But the most surprizing phenomenon
within view from this spot consists in the numerous
piles of granitic blocks rising here and there among
the firs. We approached one of the most remark-
able groups of these piles, which bears a very appro-
priate name, being called Die Brüder; as if it were
composed of a fraternity of giants. Not having
been able to gain any information relative to the
origin of the name of the Giant's mountains, I am
inclined, from this circumstance, to ascribe it to
these gigantic families, of which there are great
numbers on this side of the chain; many similar
giants being also dispersed on various parts of it,
either singly, or in smaller groups.
517. In the Brüder, may easily be seen the cause
which has produced rocks of a construction appa-
rently so strange: a mass of granitic strata, split
by vertical fissures in consequence of the shock re-
sulting from the general subsidence, was left at a
comparatively high level, while all the other parts of
these strata either sank lower, or were overturned,
around it. Where any of the rocks in this group
stand very near each other, the separations of the
strata are plainly seen to pass from rock to rock;
F
VOL. II.
but
→
66
1
but the masses thus separated are no longer parallelo-
pipeds, as they must originally have been; they are
now rounded by the decomposition of their angles,
and of a considerable part of their surface; so that
they have acquired the appearance of piles of gourds,
and the uppermost mass in each pile, being most
exposed to the actions of the air, is reduced nearly
to the form of an orange. M. Schaul having told
me that he had accompanied M. Meierotto over this
part of the mountains, I asked him whether that
gentleman had observed these rounded blocks, which
certainly never had rolled, and which ought to have
engaged him to change his opinion that those scat-
tered over the plains had rolled along the bed of the
torrents, and had been propelled by the river to the
outer side of the mountains: M. Schaul replied that
M. Meierotto had not seen these phenomena; be-
cause, while they were ascending the mountain, rain
had come on, and had prevented them from distin-
guishing objects at any distance. Thus it is that
errors arise and are propagated in geology, in con-
sequence of the opinions precipitately formed by
those who have not had opportunities to travel over
a great variety of mountains at different seasons,
and in this manner to familiarize themselves with the
different phenomena which those eminences exhibit.
I had observed similar rocks of granite rising above
the peat that covers the Blocksberg in the Hartz ;
and in the course of my present journey, I had seen
rocks of sand-stone near the Elbe, which were like-
wise composed of rounded masses of strata. I had
therefore
t
67
སྙ
therefore not been surprized at the first piles of gras
nitic blocks that I had viewed this morning on the
sides of the valley of the Zackel; and these, of
which I am now speaking, presented a spectacle of
precisely the same nature, though of a more striking
appearance.
518. Continuing to ascend, we came to the Kockel,
which rises in the lower part of a deep cut beginning
at the summit of the mountain; there are two of
these cavities; and they are called Schnce-grübe, or
snow-pits, because the snow commonly lies all
through the year in that part of them which fronts
the north. Indeed we found a great deal of snow
at the bottom of the Little Schnee-grübe, where we
first arrived, and whence issues the principal branch
of the Kockel; this stream being afterwards enlarged
by a junction with the other rivulets which here
furrow the slopes of the mountain. In the part
where we saw the torrent, it had excavated its rapid
bed to a great depth in rubbish. When very much
swelled, it continues to deepen its channel by im-
pelling the stones before it; but it deposites them in
the spaces where there is less declivity, and where
its course is consequently slackened. It is on ac-
count of the mobility of the materials on all these
slopes, that, wherever there are no deep original
channels, the torrents frequently change their beds :
this happens in the spring, during the melting of the
snows, when some of the masses, still frozen, ob
struct the course of the torrent, which then, impe-
F 2
tuously
68
{
tuously throwing itself on one side down the rapid
slope, soon excavates a new bed in the loose mate-
rials, though already covered with grass and even
after the stream has widened its channel to a suffi-
cient breadth, it continues to wash away the sand
from the parts over which it passes, where, for this
reason, all the stones are found uncovered. We
crossed several of the beds thus abandoned by the
torrents, which we saw flowing at present in different
channels.
M
519. At half past 8 we came to a large dairy,
above the woods, called Baude, where we rested
ourselves for half an hour, and then ascended di-
rectly to the summit of the mountain, leaving on our
right the Reiftrager, a large promontory, which is
as high as this summit, but beyond a certain space
slopes downwards on all sides. At 10 o'clock we
reached the top of the mountain, near a high rock
called the Blau-stein, on account of the bluish co-
lour of the stone; this stone is in very distinct.
strata, inclined towards the side on which we had
ascended, but all much shattered: we found rounded
blocks on the summit of this mountain, as well as
on the lower part. It was here that I saw, for the
first time, the Pinus pumila, or crceping pine; this
species forms no trunk: its branches rise to the
height of about 3 feet, then fall, and throw up
others, which fall likewise, always, however, raising
to the same height their lateral boughs, terminated
by large tufts of leaves, and producing abundance of
cones.
69
cones. This is the only tree, if indeed it may be
called such, which grows on the summits of the
Giant's mountains, where here and there it forms
large bushes in the manner that I have described;
and as yet I had never seen it on any other moun-
tain.
520. The summit, from the point to which we
had first ascended, continues to rise towards the
part where the two Schnee-grübe are situated: it
was three quarters of an hour before we reached the
promontory which separates them; and though the
ground was much broken, we went on to its extre-
mity. Here, as we faced the outer side of the
mountain, we looked down over the whole of both
these great cavities in the summit, the smaller of
which was on our left hand, and the larger on our
right. In carrying our eye from hence towards the
exterior side of the chain, it would have been im-
possible to doubt that the highest ridge, on which
we were now standing, had become such, only be-
cause the strata had subsided in its front. The
Schnee-grübe were formed by partial subsidences at
the top of the ridge; the masses that once filled up
these vacancies having sunk, as I shall shew, below
the level of the rubbish covering the slope under
them. Hence we had a view of all the ridges of
low mountains which I had crossed, through their
vallies, between Hirschberg and Schreibers-hau, as
well as of the course of our ascent from the latter
place to the summit whereon we now stood; and
after
70
#
after the remarks in which I had engaged my com-
panion on the road, he was fully disposed to agree,
that this whole space exhibited merely a chaos of
masses, reduced to their present state by a great
subsidence, during which these eminences had hap-
pened to remain at a higher level than the rest.
521. The beds of the Zackel and the Kockel, as
well as those of their branches, when viewed from
this height, appear to be nothing more than furrows
in the slopes of rubbish; and there is a proof, not
only that the excavation of these beds has been the
whole effect of the action of the streams on this side
of the mountains, but that the abrasion of the pre-
cipices, which were produced by the subsidence of
the rest of the strata in their front, cannot have been
continuing during a long succession of ages. I said
that the masses once occupying the two Schnee-grübe
had subsided below the level of the rubbish pro-
ceeding from the last great catastrophe, and cover-
ing, on the slopes, the ruins of the sunken strata,
which are only here and there perceived. Now in
a line with these great cuts in the mountain, there
remain on the slope deep hollows that have become
pools, in which the water is perfectly limpid: several
of these follow each other below the greater Schnee-
grübe, and there is one at the foot of the smaller,
whence issues the first branch of the Kockel. The
steep sides of both the Schnee-grübe crumble down,
because in winter the water freezes in the crevices of
their rocks: their fallen materials form slopes, the
hases
71
· bases of which extend to the edge of the pool whence
the Kockel issues, and to that of the highest of those
below the Great Schnee-grübe. That this operation
is still continuing is very evident, because these
slopes are not yet covered with vegetation; fresh
quantities of rubbish fall every year into the pools;
nevertheless they are not filled up. Thus therefore,
at this height, we find precisely the same chrono-
meter which I have shewn on the course of all
waters, wherever there are pools or lakes.
599. In one of the sides of the small Schnee-
grübe I saw the section of three nearly vertical
veins, which seem to be filled with the same sub-
stance as those pointed out to me in porphyry, on
one of the sides of the Plauen grund, by M. Werner,
who had called this substance trapp. M. Schaul
had had a near view of these veins; and he told me
that their gangue was arranged in distinct prisms.
It was not possible at present to approach them, the
upper part of that side being abrupt, and the snow
still rising up to the point at which they were open
to view.
523. On looking down from the brink of the great
Schnee-grübe, the height of the precipice is cer-
tainly very striking; but there are many in the Alps
which are more considerable; and even in the Jura,
the Creux du Vent, described in my journey to the
mountains of Neufchatel, is on a much larger scale.
But a similar cavity in the Molc, a mountain within a
few
72
few leagues of Geneva, is still more remarkable, on
account of the circumstances which accompany it,
When viewed from the neighbourhood of the town,
this mountain has the figure of an acute cone; but
it extends behind in the form of a sharp roof, being
only the section of a ridge. The mountains belong-
ing to this ridge, including Mont Salève, which is se-
parated from the Mole by the valley of the Arve,
consist of strata of lime-stone; and they form a
chain of the same nature as that of the Jura, which
they follow at a greater or less distance. It is very
dificult to ascend the Mole on the grass that covers
its strata, because, these strata being strongly in-
clined towards the valley of the Arve, their plane,
on that side, forms the surface of the mountain,
But many people, on arriving at the summit, without
having heard any previous description of the scene
which here presents itself to the view, have shrunk
back from it with sudden terror. The mountain is
cut down from the top in a semi-circular precipice,
much deeper than the Great Schnee-grübe, and also
much more abrupt; for when very large stones are
thrown from the brink, they may be followed by the
eye in their perpendicular fall, till they diminish to
the size of butterflies. This precipice is the vertical
section of the strata which are so much inclined on
the opposite side; and as their upper point thus
forms an acute angle, I was able to set on it astride,
with one leg over the brink of the precipice. These
great phenomena of the mountains should be seen,
in order that it may be fully comprehended how
imaginary
73
imaginary is the hypothesis that vallies have been
hollowed out by running waters; this hypothesis,
indeed, is still repeated by some geologists of repu-
tation; but, after an attentive observation, it is evi-
dent that these cavities have been produced by the
catastrophes of the strata, of which we see marks
impressed on all parts of the mountains, and even
on the sides of all vallies, as well as on every pre-
cipice.
524. From the two Schnee-grübe, the summit con-
tinues to rise, but with great interruptions, up to the
highest point, which is called the Schnee-koppe,
(snowy summit), because it is covered with snow
during great part of the year.
We could not pro-.
ceed to that point, because we were to return in the
evening to the manufacture of vitriol. We therefore
went no farther than to the eminence next in height,
named the Grosse-rad, (great wheel), which had
engaged my attention. The base of this eminence,
on the side of our approach, presented a phenomenon
of a very singular appearance; it has been called by.
some writer, in a picturesque description, the Sugar-
dish of Garagantua; but it is, in itself, of the greatest
importance, as manifesting the interior composition
of these mountains, of the state of which within
no judgment could otherwise be formed, except from
the abrupt sides; because their surface is covered.
with granitic sand, mingled with blocks, and over-
spread by vegetation. We here found a zone se-
veral feet in height above the rest of the soil, and
of
1
74
$
of considerable breadth, which we could not cross.
without great caution, it being entirely composed of
large blocks of a granite of the same nature as that
of the Tafelfichte, white, with very little mica, and
not liable to be decomposed, so that its blocks con-
tinue to be angular: there is no vegetation in their
intervals, because no sand is accumulated by their
decomposition; and in some places, where they were
all large, the eye penetrated between them to as
great a depth in the heap as any light could reach :
they were not covered with the same grey lichens as
other granitic blocks, but some parts of them were
overspread with a brimstone-coloured lichen, and
others with a rose coloured species, which has a scent
like violets.
525. This is not the only part of the summit of
the chain where the above phenomenon appears;
from the highest part of this mountain, similar cones
are seen to pass across it, at various distances, in
the same direction. Hence it appears that the gra-
nitic strata, which present their section at the summit,
are so much inclined as to be nearly vertical in the
mass of the mountain; and that, in some parts,
there are between the rest some strata of that white
granite in which little mica is contained. Of the
composition of these mountains, no distinct idea
could be formed from the abrupt parts here and
there appearing in them; nor could it be discerned
even at the summit, unless there were these differ-
ences of species among the granitic strata; for
in
1
75
F
in consequence of the very catastrophe which has
fractured and subverted the strata, this whole
summit is covered with blocks; and if these were
all of the same nature, they would have suffered the
same effects from atmospherical actions. But no
sensible decomposition having taken place on the
blocks which covered the section of the strata of
white granite, while those in the intervals were de-
composed, and the sand produced from them was
washed away before it was overspread by vegetation,
these intervals are become lower, and the rows of
the blocks of the white granite remain in relief above
them. This difference of level is still increasing;
for the rains are continually carrying away some
part of the granitic sand from the wide intervals
where it is produced, and where it is covered only
by a thin turf, mixed with a great profusion of that
grey and bitter ramified lichen, which has been for
some years used in medicine under the name of Ice-
land moss; it having been known only as imported
from that island, when it was first introduced into
England and the north of Europe,
:
526. From the top of the Grosse-rad, an exten-
sive horizon presents a great variety of very interest-
ing objects. On the west, I saw a chain of lower
eminences branch off from these summits, and ad-
vance northwards into the plains, where it was ter-
minated by the Tafelfichte; and as in my road from
Mäffersdorf to Hirschberg I had frequently caught
a sight of the Giant's mountains, so here I had a
prospect
76
¦
prospect of the whole tract over which I had then
travelled, and of which the eminences were gradu-
ally lost in the fine plains of Upper Lusatia. This
was a beautiful distant view; but I had more plea-
sure in tracing the features of nearer objects in a
kind of large basin on the N. E. which was encom-
passed on one side by these mountains, and on the
other by the heights behind Hirschberg; for this
space was not only richly cultivated between the in-
sulated mounts of granite and basalts, which, from
this height, could no otherwise be distinguished than
by their woody summits, but was farther embellished
by a vast number of small towns and villages sur-
rounded with gardens and orchards, and some large
bleaching grounds in meadows which were constantly
watered.
527. I here saw before me the whole extent of
Schreibers-hau, and its houses looked like a great
herd of cattle drinking along the sides of the rivulets
that flow in their pastures; for, as I have said, these
houses follow the course of the small streams, which
descend through the combes wherewith the whole
upper part of the mountain is intersected, and
which, above the village, appear as if marked out
by hedges, trees being planted on their borders.
528. From this height, M. Schaul pointed out to
me likewise the two clefts through which the Zackel
and the Kockel take their course to the point where
the latter of these streams rushes down in a cascade
into
77
into the bed of the former. These clefts, at their
upper extremity, resembled that into which Baron
Von Block had led me at Uttewalda, and from
which we followed the defiles leading towards the
Elbe; and here also I saw several other clefts, on
the same slope of the mountain with the former, and
in all respects perfectly similar to them, but not
communicating with any of the combes in which ri-
vulets are formed, and consequently not affording a
passage to any stream. After having observed in
mountains many phenomena of this nature, (and in
all mountains they are seen, in a manner more or
less striking, but always originating from the same
causes,) it is impossible to entertain any idea that
the waters descending from the heights have pro-
duced either the clefts through which they enter the
vallies, or any part of the rallies themselves.
529. On looking from this eminence along the
chain to which it belongs, it seems surprizing that,
when viewed from a distance, this chain can appear
continuous: for not only do the mountains succeed
each other in a winding line, but they are separated
by several very deep vallies. Such a valley, for in-
stance, divides the Grosse-rad from the following
eminences, of which one that is very lofty, and pro-
jects beyond the chain, is called the Mittagstein,
(south rock,) probably from its position relatively to
some particular place: next to this, on the right, is
the Kleine Sturm-haube, (Little Storm-cap,) so called
to distinguish it from the Grosse Sturm-haube, which
is
78
is at some distance to the westward; probably some
prognostics of storms are commonly seen on the
summits of both. Between the Mittagstein and the
Kleine Sturm haube, we had a view of the Schnee-
koppe, the highest eminence of this chain: we were
at so great a distance from it, that, unless we
had known its height, we should not have ascribed
to it the rank among these mountains which it really
holds; it is separated from the rest by a large valley;
and on its slope there are two lakes, the Grosse
Teich and the Kleine Teich; the former is a league
in circumference. In these lakes, from which issue
small rivers, are collected all the waters of the upper
slopes. Here then we find, on a large scale, a phe-
nomenon similar to the cavities at the bottom of the
Schnee-grübe; the basins of these lakes having been
produced, in the same manner, by greater partial
subsidences; and it is beyond a doubt that none of
the masses which are on the lower part of the course
of the small rivers issuing from them can have de-
scended from the Schnee-koppe, because the lakes
must have been filled up, before any materials could
have been carried beyond them. In my description
of the courses of the waters on these mountains,
proofs will be found at every step, (and this will
equally be the case on all mountains, when confi-
dence shall no longer be reposed in superficial ob-
servations,) that no masses of stone, either sinall or
large, have ever been transported by these waters
down to the plains.
1
530. I have
1
79
550. I have already said that the boundary line
between Silesia and Bohemia generally follows the
summits of this chain; but the chain itself is so
irregular, that there are many exceptions to the rule;
and for example, the Schnee-Koppe is in the latter
country, out of this line. On looking from the
Grosse-rad on the Bohemian side, I saw nothing but
mountains behind mountains, retiring at last to so
great a distance, that they appeared like the waves
of the sea.
M. Schaul shewed me the direction in
which Prague may sometimes be discerned, when
the air is very transparent, and the sun in a favorable
position. As I looked that way, I could judge for
what reason, when I had viewed this chain in my
road from Lusatia, it had appeared to me continuous,
with only some slight inflexions in its outline, except
in the part where the Schnee-koppe rises above the
rest; this had been, because, through the inter-
sections of the nearest ridge, appear the summits of
that immediately behind it, and so on from one to
another: and hence, unless these ridges are
separated by vapours, they form to the eye only a
single mass.
4
531. I was informed by M. Schaul, and after-
wards by several other persons, that the part of the
Schnee-koppe which commands all the other emi-
nences consists of gneiss. On this summit, there-
fore, the strata of gneiss have retained their original
position upon those of granite; every where else,
they have slipped down during the subsidences, and
P
}
have
80
"
"
•
$
have thus left the latter strata uncovered; but in
many places they are again met with, forming in-
terrupted ridges of lower eminences which follow
the granitic chain, as has been shewn in the Tafel-
fichte, and will appear elsewhere in the sequel of
this journey.
was the origin of the Elbe, the river which had
chiefly fixed my attention in these countries, and
which I have actually followed, at different times,
along its whole course to the sea; I have already
described a great part of its channel, but only be-
tween hills composed of sandy strata; in a future
journey, I shall resume my account of it, in that
part where it issues from the mountains, and enters
the defiles of those hills; but at present I have
only to speak of its origin in the mountains. This,
while it will afford an example of the origins of all
great rivers, will particularly shew how erroneous is
:
+
the opinion of some gcologists, that the Elbe has
broken through high dikes, and thus opened for
itself a passage from Bohemia into Saxony, continuing
to scatter the fragments of these dikes on its course
down to the plains.
瀛
​532. Among the very important objects that I
had intended to observe in the Giant's mountains
533. The part just described of the chain of the
Giant's mountains descends, on the side next to
Bohemia, in seven promontories, separated by six
combes, which begin from the summit, and slope
down
/
81
down to a low valley, passing along their front, and
forming a seventh hollow space; this whole tract is
designated in the maps of the country by the name
of Die Sieben Gründe; (the seven vallies;) and in
these channels are collected all the waters which
descend on this side from the mountains. In our
return from the Grosse-rad, we passed by the heads
of all the above combes: now it is impossible to view
the rivulets that enter them, with any idea that such
vast chasms, of which, towards their lower part, the
sides are abrupt, can have been produced by these
feeble streams.
534. These are the first branches of the Elbe
but they are all distinguished by different names,
excepting that which is most to the westward, on the
back part of the Blau-stein, and which, even before
it descends from this summit, is called the Elbe;
it issues from the foot of a heap of granitic rubbish,
where in the maps it has the title of Elb-brunn, the
source of the Elbe; but this is a distinction merely
arbitrary. Having crossed the other rivulets, most
of which rise in marshy hollows, we stopped on the
banks of the Elbe, above its junction with them,
and in a part where it forms a small cascade. Here
we spread out our provisions, and dined with a very
good appetite; we had brought wine; but as we
were very thirsty after our walk, we gave the pre-
ference to the water of the Elbe, of which we received
the whole stream in a goblet; this water was very
cold, for the spot whence it issued was still covered
G
with
VOL. II,
82
}
with snow; but in all my excursions among moun-
tains, I never experienced any inconvenience from
drinking such water.
535. After our repast, we followed this rill,
which is honoured with the name of the Elbe, and is
increased, while flowing down the slope, by several
other little streams that arrive to unite with it; we
passed some of these on bridges of frozen snow, be-
neath which they had preserved their course. As we
descended to lower ground, a slope rose on our left,
and over this we were obliged to pass, in order to
reach a spot, where the Elbe precipitates itself into
a large cleft. On reaching the border of this cavity,
I was much struck with its appearance; it is a cul-
de-sac, similar to that described (§. 28.) at St. Sulpi
in the mountains of Neufchatel; but the cleft which
begins from this point is of inuch greater length;
and here also there is a direct proof, though of a
different nature from that observed at St. Sulpi, that
the rocks have not been thus intersected by the
action of the water; for the stream does not enter
the head of the cleft, but is led by the inflexions of
the ground above to the brow of a lateral promontory,
from which it precipitates itself to the bottom. The
water being at present low, it descended in several
cascades; but during the time of the melting of the
snows, the whole stream darts forward from the top
of the rock; and I saw the spot where it then falls
on a slope of rubbish, in which it has formed a deep
hollow, whence the water oozes out on all sides.
536. I have
1
1
83
536. I have already remarked that, when water
rushes in a cataract from the brow of a rock, it exer-
cises no action there; and we observed this to be the
case here, as well as on the brow of the cascade of
the Kockel. There being so small a quantity of
water in this particular branch of the Elbe, it threw
itself forward at first no farther than to fall on a
rock a little below. The rock being abrupt on both
sides, we could not approach this higher cascade;
but lower down the course of the stream, the mate-
rials fallen on one side had formed a slope of rub-
bish, covered with trees and bushes, along which I
descended to the brow of the great precipice in the
valley; and there, by taking hold of a branch of a
tree, I was able to advance far enough to see the
cascade in its whole extent, both above and below
the point where I stood; now not only the rocks
which lay under the insulated stream, but those on
which it again fell, were covered with moss in every
part; an evident proof that these rocks do not suffer
any erosion.
+
537. The mountain which we had ascended, and
which forms the right side of the defile thus pre-
cipitantly entered by the Elbe, is called Elb-berg,
(Elbe mountain.) Hence we had a view of a cer-
tain extent of the defile, with its abrupt sides; but
below this it turns to the left, and taking a S. E. di-
rection, opens into the valley already mentioned as
communicating with the six combes, the streams of
which unite with the Elbe; and during the melting
G 2
of
;
84
of the snows, their waters greatly contribute to swell
this river along its course. Beyond the tract dis-
tinguishable by the name of the Sieben-gründe, we
saw a mountain called the Silberberg; but about
half way between the Elb-berg and that large emi-
nence, the chain is intersected on the southern side
by a great valley, into which the Elbe enters, after
having received on the east a stream formed by the
collected waters of a vast number of other combes;
for in these and in all mountains, the combes are
incomparably more numerous than the vallies. The
most remote of the rivulets which compose this
branch rises in a high ground called Weisse-wiese,
(white meadows;) and hence the branch itself bears
the name of Veisse Elb-brunn, (the source of the
White Elbe.) As we followed towards the east, the
line of these great eminences separated by vallies,
we had a distant view of the Schnee-koppe.
538. Terminating here our observations, we
crossed the ridge of the mountain, following a line
of high posts, which serve here, as is the case on
Mont Cenis, to mark out in winter the beaten path,
when it cannot otherwise be traced, on account of
the snow drifted by the winds: this path forms the
communication between several parishes of Bohemia
and Silesia. At 3 o'clock, we came to the dairy at
which we had stopped in our ascent; and proceed-
ing hence on foot down to the bed of the Little
Zuckel we there found our horses, and reached the
manufacture of vitriol at 6 o'clock.
539. By
1
?
85
539. By this time M. Preller was returned; and
as he was the person whom M. Meierotto had parti-
cularly desired to shew me the blocks which were
known to have moved on this part of the bed of the
Zackel, I requested that he would be so good as to
conduct me to them. He very readily complied;
and I learnt from this gentleman, that, besides the
changes observed in the heaps of smaller fragments,
after every great inundation produced by the melting
of the snows, some of the large blocks had been re-
marked to have also slidden some way down, the
small masses acting as rollers under them. He led
me to a bridge over the Zackel a little above the
manufacture, and from thence he shewed me a very
large block, which he said he had seen, a few years
before, near the bridge, though it was now at some
distance below it. With respect to the smaller
masses, he shewed me certain parts where the river
was fordable in common seasons, which saved foot-
passengers the trouble of going round by the bridge;
but he told me that, after every great swell of the
water, it was necessary to repair these fords with the
stones brought nearest to them by the stream; some
of those which had lain there before, having been
carried lower down. As at this moment there was
little water in the river, I could observe a great
part of its bed, consisting of the planes of the gra-
nitic strata. Now these planes being inclined, this
is a base on which masses of considerable size may
be put in motion, when the torrent arrives, much
swelled, to enter this narrow passage.
540. As
I
86
L
540. As for the rounding of the edges of these
large blocks, M. Preller agreed that, since they were
all fragments of strata, and since, consequently,
their superficies exceeded their thickness, they could
never have rolled, but must have slidden along on
their flat side, the smaller fragments rolling under
them; and that therefore this rounding of their
edges could not have proceeded from any other
cause than that to which I assigned it; namely, the
decomposition of their angles by the actions of the
air; an effect that had been produced on the slopes
of the mountains, before these masses had slidden
down on their own sand to the bed of the river. He
added that there were on this bed many other large
fragments, which were rounded in the same manner,
though they had certainly never moved since they
had lain there, on account of their weight; and he
pointed out to me as an example some immense
masses, which supported the piles of the bridge;
he made me remark, indeed, that as, when the river
was much swelled, the water rose and broke around
these masses, in the same manner as between rocks,
fragments of considerable size might easily, at such
times, be displaced; but he allowed that this was a
local effect, produced by the contraction of the bot-
tom of the valley within a certain extent; for he
added, of his own accord, that, below the manufacture,
where, as the right bank descended with a gentle
declivity, the water, when very abundant, had room
to spread, the larger masses no longer experienced
any motion, though the stream continued to flow in
the
2
1
}
87
the same direction for some way, before it turned to
the right. On all these points, therefore, both M.
Preller and M. Schaul concurred in my opinion, as
I stated in the paper which I gave, on my return,
to M. Meierotto; who, after having had it in his
hands for eighteen months, returned me no other
answer than that he purposed again to visit these
places; a purpose which, as I have said, his death
prevented him from carrying into effect. I spent
the rest of the day at the manufacture, and quitted
it the next morning, very thankful to both the gen-
tlemen for the kind assistance which they had afford-
ed to me.
June 21st. I set out at six in the morning, and
following the route traced for me by M. Meierotto,
I proceeded along the foot of the mountains as far
as Schmiedeberg, in order to see in the way some
masses of granite, supposed by him to be the remains
of the dike of a superior sea which had been broken
on this side, and of which other fragments had been
carried along the bottom of the vallies down to the
plains. I only mention this, to shew what had been
M. Meierotto's object in engaging me to take my
present road; on which I will confine myself to the
description of my observations, until I shall have
collected all the facts.
541. I returned, as far as Petersdorf, by my
former road along the course of the Zackel, which
had no appearance in any part of this space, of
having.
1
88
having afforded a passage to blocks. At Petersdorf
I quitted that river, and turning to the right, pro-
ceeded through the villages of Hernsdorf, Giersdorf,
and Seydorf, passing in front of those promontories,
which, when viewed from above, had evidently ap-
peared to be the more elevated parts of the masses
that had on this side subsided: here also I saw their
strata dipping under the superficial soil, like those of
Mount Kynast, near which I again passed, leaving
it on the left.
•
542. The different branches of the Zackel and
the Bober, all of which I either followed or crossed,
are the only streams that descend from this northern
part of the chain of the Giant's mountains. The
promontories of the chain, as I passed before them,
clearly shewed the history of their strata, being all
shattered, with deep clefts, whence issue the rivulets
which, within a certain space, flow towards the
Zackel; and over all the fore-part of these promon-
tories, and the intervals between them, are scattered
blocks, rounded by decomposition; as appears very
evidently, since they are partly buried in a very
thick soil, which consists entirely of granitic sand:
in the cultivated spaces, these blocks have been taken
up, and are laid along the sides of the fields. In
some spots, also, there are detached masses of a much
larger size, as well on the slopes, as at the foot of the
mountains.
543. Here then we find a great abundance of
fragments; and these are the masses which M.
Meierotto
+
89
Meierotto had in view; but what he sought was
an explanation of the blocks scattered on the plains :
now from the foot of the mountains where these
fragments lie, to the bed of the Zackel by which he
supposed them to have been transported, there is
a very wide space, where the declivity is so small,
that all the rivulets flowing across it have pools on
their course, as is represented in the map. This
space is even so nearly horizontal, that artificial
pools are made in it, which, like those described in
my Travels on some part of the coasts of the Baltic
and of the North Sea, are for some years full of fish,
and are afterwards drained and again brought into
cultivation. Is it possible that these can have been
channels for blocks, when they do not even afford a
passage to gravel, the whole of which is retained in
the pools?
544. At Seydorf I entered a large cleft with an
ascending course; and I afterwards crossed a branch
of the mountain in my way to Arnsdorf. Here I
saw that all these projecting parts are separated
from the body of the chain by a valley of considerable
breadth, running from north to south, wherein flows
one of the branches of the Bober, called the Lomnitz,
which falls into the principal stream before it arrives
at Hirschberg. The Bober is the receptacle of all
the waters descending from the northern side of the
Giant's mountains, within a space of four leagues,
from the Schnee-koppe, which I saw on my right, to
the mountains above Schmiedeberg, which lay on my
left,
00
left, where the chain is interrupted by many vallies.
The Lomnitz at present contained very little water;
but I could judge of the abundant quantity which
sometimes flowed in it, by the width of its stony
bed, occupying the whole bottom of the valley. It
is by no means surprizing that this space is covered
with stones, and even blocks; for all the slopes of
the mountains which come down to it are composed
of these masses, and the bottom of the valley must,
in the same manner, have been covered with them,
before the waters began to descend from the moun-
tains; in other words, before the birth of the con-
tinents so that the whole operation of these waters.
has been to carry away the minute fragments, and to
leave the stones bare.
545. Before I descended into this valley, I saw
on the left, besides the small mountains in front of
the chain, some very large pyramids which stand
farther forward in the plain, along the left bank of
the main branch of the Bober, and are so distinct
from each other, that each has its particular name;
the most remarkable are the Bober-stein, the Forst-
stein, the Falken-stein, and the Polzen-stein. With
respect to the masses of strata which have passed
beneath the soil by a greater subsidence, these stony
eminences, as well as all the smaller ones scattered
over the basin extending from hence to Hirschberg,
are like the masts of a ship, that appear above water,
and indicate the spot where the vessel has struck
on a sand-bank, into which it has sunk.
2
546. In
1
91
546. In my way from Arnsdorf, I looked with
regret towards Buchwald, a seat belonging to Count
Von Reden, chief of the mines of Silesia. I had
met this gentleman the winter before at Berlin,
and had had great pleasure in conversing with him
about an excursion which we had made together
above twenty years before in the Hartz, where he
was then studying the labours of the mines under
his worthy uncle Baron Von Reden. He had:
invited me to accompany him in a similar excursion
this summer in Silesia, and I had set out from
Berlin nearly about the time which he had proposed
to me; but as the first part of my journey had oc-
cupied me longer than I expected, I had been told,
when I was at Schreibers-hau, that he had already
quitted Buchwald; which being confirmed to me
in the neighbourhood of that place, I did not go
there.
547. Crossing the valley of the Lomnitz, I camer
first to Nieder-stein Seiffen, and afterwards to
Buschfur. This valley also has several pools at
its bottom: I had a view of great part of both its
sides, consisting of nothing but ruinous masses of
granitic strata which follow each other, and amongst
which I remarked one as being very characteristic
of the catastrophe that produced the valley; this is
a line of insulated rocks extending to a great diss
tance, with both its slopes covered with fragancats,
and terminated by a detached rock in a pyramidal
form; whence it evidently appears, that is mass
of
92
4
of the strata having found a support beneath in the
partial subsidence from which the valley resulted,
did not follow the rest to the bottom of the cavern
wherein they sank. Nor can this explanation admit
of any doubt; because, as has been seen, the same
phenomenon occurs in the mountains of the country
of Neufchatel, where, as the strata, which are
calcareous, contain marine bodies, they must neces-
sarily have been formed in a horizontal and con-
tinuous position on the bottom of the ancient sea.
548. At three quarters after 10 I reached
Schmiedeberg; at which place M. Meierotto had fur-
nished me with a recommendation to Dr. OSWALD,
who gave me a very obliging reception, and offered
me whatever assistance I might desire. Baron Von
Gersdorf had particularly advised me to ascend the
Friesen-stein, an eminence which stands at the ex-
tremity of a promontory advancing from the chain,
and commands a fine view of the confused assemblage
of mountains belonging to the county of Glatz, and
to Moravia. At that moment, clouds were spread-
ing over the summits of the mountains, and especially
of the Friesen-stein; however, on the chance that
these signs might prove equivocal, and that the air
might become clear, Dr. Oswald proposed that we
should try the adventure.
Had the distant pros-
pect been the only interesting object of our walk,
we should have had reason to regret that we took this
trouble; but there was much to observe in the
mountain itself.
549. Accord-
#
93
the sea.
549. According to the barometrical measure-
ments of Dr. Oswald, the summit of the Friesen-
stein rises about 1500 feet above Schmiedeberg, which
place is at nearly an equal height above the level of
On the spreading base of this mountain,
nothing is to be seen but granitic sand, mixed with
masses of the same stone, of various sizes, and all
rounded by the decomposition of their angles, of
which operation this sand is the result. But in the
part where the acclivity becomes more rapid, there
are some spaces that are occupied with angular
blocks, the granite of which they consist not being
sensibly decomposed by the actions of the air. We
found the same alternation repeated towards the
top of the mountain; and several of the rocks on
the slope being of this latter kind of granite, we saw
in them the joints of the strata, which are easily
distinguishable from the vertical fissures whereby
these rocks have been separated into a kind of
columns. But the summit is merely a vast heap of
rounded blocks, and of the sand produced by the
decomposition of their angles: it is here evident
that as, in consequence of this decomposition, the
blocks have lost their support below, while the loose
sand has accumulated around them, they have suc-
cessively glided down the slope; for I found great
numbers of these masses collected together in a wide
space at the foot of the mountain. This is, on a
larger scale, and with the differences necessarily
resulting from those in the nature of the granite, the
same phenomenon which I have described (§. 452.)
On
94
}
$
on the Borsberg, near Pilnitz, on the low granitic
chain along the course of the Elbe; and I have also
pointed it out on several summits of the Hartz.
This then is a large class of phenomena, (for there
are many examples of it in other parts of the globe ;)
and it is manifestly of much importance with respect
to the dissemination of the blocks and smaller masses
over the hills and plains, by shewing immediately a
very great effect of the compression of the interior
fluids, consisting in the expulsion of these fragments
from within, during the general subsidence of the
strata around the eminences, whether mountains or
hills; these eminences being only the masses, which
after the various catastrophes undergone by the strata,
remained at the highest level.
550. We employed four hours and a half in this
walk; and no sign of better weather appearing on
our return, I determined, though with regret, to
continue my journey the same evening to Hirschberg,
where I arrived at three quarters after 8. There
are few spaces of the same extent which can present
to the view an equal number of interesting objects,
either geological or picturesque. The scalloped
chain of the mountains was on ny right; and I saw,
in their front, rows of high rocks, which had remained
on their slopes, or at their foot, during the sub-
sidence of the rest of the strata. These eminen-
ces, as well as those scattered in the plain, brought
to my recollection what must have been the appear-
ance of the steeples in Jutland, and in the province
1.)
of
95
of Dordrecht, after the terrible catastrophes which
happened in those countries some centuries ago;
when the dikes, enclosing vast tracts of ground formed
by the sediments of the rivers and the tides, having
been broken down by tempests at the time of high
water, the sea rushed in upon the lands within, and
so greatly diluted them, that all the houses and
other buildings which had been erected on them
sunk down; nothing remaining above the level of
the water but the steeples of the churches.
551. On the eminences of which I am now speak-
ing, I saw rocks, 2 or 300 feet high: wherever the
summits of the eminences are of sufficient extent,
they are covered with firs which grow between
these rocks; on the other parts, there are only bushes;
and the slopes, composed of their rubbish, are over-
spread with grass. Some of the rocks have pre-
served their angles; but others are rounded, and
I saw several which, by the erosion of the joints
of the strata, have been reduced into piles of distinct
blocks, like those on the Giant's mountains; some of
these piles have fallen down, in consequence of the
complete separation of the masses, which, where
they have not found room to lie on the summits,
have rolled down the slopes. The forms of the
blocks depend on the thickness of the strata, and
the size of the columns into which those strata were
originally divided by vertical fissures; such masses
as at first were nearly cubical, are now become
almost-spherical, Now around some of these emi-
nences
į.
96
nences I have observed the progress of blocks of
different forms in their descent from the summits;
the most spherical, having acquired an accelerated
motion on the slopes, have rolled to a considerable
distance on the ground below, which is nearly hori-
zontal, and is covered with grass; the others have
not proceeded so far, and some have not even
reached the bottom of the slopes; so that, by the
succession of the blocks scattered around these emi-
nences, it is easy to trace their history, from the
time at which they all were first delivered over to
the different actions of the air.
552. Besides these, there are some large insu-
lated masses on the low grounds, at a distance from
the eminences. The whole soil of this plain, which
is very fertile, is composed of granitic sand; but it
is interspersed with large masses of granite; and
wherever these masses have happened to consist of
several strata, if their divisions have been horizon-
tal, the rounded blocks into which they have been
reduced have remained one on another; I saw soine
of these on high grounds, where certainly piles of
this kind could no otherwise have been formed; for
the blocks were of a very large size; and it is not
possible to suppose that any of the ancient inhabi-
tants of the country could have had the fancy to
employ a great mechanical force to raise them upon
each other in this manner for no purpose. As I
approached a village, I saw some objects between
the trees, at a distance, which I took for the ovens
of
97
of the villagers; but, on coming nearer, I perceived
them to be two separate blocks, nearly round, from
15 to 20 feet in diameter: I made the postillion
stop, that I might observe them; and he told me
that they went by the name of brod und käse, being
thought to resemble a loaf and a cheese.
553. We thus find that the operation of the air
has been the same on all the masses of granite which
have been left exposed to it, whether on the highest
summits, on their slopes, or on the plains; the
rounding of the angles of the blocks having taken
place, in all these different situations, on the very
spots where they were left by the catastrophes of the
strata; and it is this which has produced the granitic
sand forming the whole of the superficial soil: in
this sand, none of the smaller masses are found but
at a certain depth; so that those above this depth
have been entirely decomposed; but the larger
fragments, which have been only rounded, remain at
the surface. Wherever the granite has been of the
kind not susceptible of decomposition, its masses
have continued angular. This operation has been
cffected out of the reach of any stream; for the
space of which I am speaking lies between the
Zackel on the west, and the two branches of the
Bober on the east; and the only action of the various
rivulets which cross it, in their way to join these two
rivers, has been to spread the sand during their inun-
dations; for they have not even carried along with
then any gravel; almost all of them having found
H
VOL. II.
on
98
7
on their course cavities, which they have not yet
filled up, and which consequently remain pools.
Thus, exclusively of the atmospherical actions just
defined, and the levelling of the sand during floods,
nothing within this space has undergone any change
since the continent has existed; in particular, no
mass of stone has been carried down from it by
streams into the vallies, much less as far as the
plains; which was here the principal point to be esta-
blished. However, as it is customary to search sus-
pected persons when they come out of a house where
some theft is supposed to have been committed,
and not to acquit them till it is certain that nothing
can be found on them, I resolved that, as I had ob-
served the principal streams which unite at Hirsch-
berg under the name of the Bober in the upper part
of their course, so I would now continue to follow
that river down to the point where it issues from
the mountains, and joins the Oder.
June 22d. As M. Schaum informed me that it
would be possible for me to keep the Bober con-
tantly in view, if I travelled on horseback, with a
man to lead round the horse when I came to parts
where its course could only be followed on foot, I
did not set out this day, because the morning was
very rainy. But the weather clearing up in the
afternoon, M. Schaum proposed to me that we should
take the opportunity of visiting a spot which M.
Meierotto had particularly recommended to my ob-
servation, and which bears a name very charac-
teristic
99
teristic of its aspect; that of Welt-ende, the end of
the world. I was indeed to see it from above, in
my intended journey on horseback; but M. Schaum
assured me that I should lose a great deal if I did
not take a lower path, in order to enter this extra-
ordinary chasm, which had all the appearance of a
descent into Tartarus; he offered to accompany
me, as did also Dr. THEBESIUS, one of his friends;
and we set out together on foot at 2 o'clock,
554. Before we reached this place, however, we
were to observe the Zackel near Hirschberg, where
it arrives after it has passed through the country
in which I have already described it. I have shewn
that, in the higher part of the course of this stream,
there are, in some places, many large blocks on its
bed; now if it had brought these down from the
mountains, and were still continuing to carry them
on into the Beber; and if the latter river conveyed
them to the open country, according to the opinion
of M. Meierotto, who had sent me hither for proofs
that this was really the case; at least blocks should
be seen on the bed of the Zackel the whole way above
its confluence with the Bober. But not the smallest
vestige of any blocks appeared on this part of the
course of the former river, which here flows in a
plain the streain was at present several feet below
its banks; and no masses of sufficient size even to
ruffle its surface were lying on its bed, of which it
occupied the whole breadth, in consequence of the
late rains, though its water was still very shallow.
H 2
My
100
1
My companions told me that, in dry seasons, this
bed might easily be crossed on foot, since it was
covered only with stones of a moderate size, like
those in the adjacent soil, from which the river had
merely washed away the sand: it can never have
here possessed any rapidity to transport stones; for,
when it rises above the borders of this hollow part
of its channel, it finds on the right a spacious plain
where it can spread, and where it evidently does not
excrcise any action, since the soil near its bed is laid
out in gardens, which it fertilizes by its inundations,
without doing any damage to the culinary plants.
The Bober enters this plain on the right; and the
two rivers unite a little below Hirschberg. After
an attentive consideration of this spot, it is impossi-
ble to suppose that stones, and much less blocks,
can at any time have been brought hither by either
the Bober or the Zackel; the common operation of
both these rivers has merely been to raise the soil
of the plain by the sand which they bring down in
their inundations; and it is well known that they
are still continuing to raise it in this manner; a proof
that they cannot have flowed during many centuries.
555. The two rivers, when united under the name
of the Bober, continue for some way to flow in a
horizontal bed, which has a hill on the left, while
its right bank is formed by the plain. But, as we
procceded between the hill and the river, the latter
suddenly turned to the left, and disappeared. It is
this part of the course of the river which is called
the
ป
n
I
1
101
the End of the World; and indeed it seemed the
final termination of all things, and might have fur-
nished a poet with an image of the return of chaos.
The Bober here precipitatcs itself into a narrow and
rapid defile, where it foams amidst immense masses
of granite; and the steep rocks which command this
scene of desolation seem threatening to crush by their
fall any one who may venture to pass along the
space remaining when the water is low, as was the
case at present, between them and the cataract: we
were bold enough, however, to follow, betwixt the
blocks, a narrow path, which sometimes led us over
the slopes at the foot of this abrupt side; and we
soon came to a point whence we had a view of the
whole extent of the IVelt-ende, which here appeared
to be completely a cul-de-sac, like many of those that
I described in the mountains of Neufchatel; there
was absolutely no passage to be seen for the Bober.
But, as we continued to follow the left bank, at last
we descried, near the extremity of this cul-de-sac,
a fissure from the top to the bottom of the moun-
tain, through which the river rushes. In the plan
of my road traced for me by M. Meierotto, he had
called this a rock cut through by the Bober; it is
therefore under this point of view alone that I shall
at present speak of it.
556. Let us first consider the Bober in that part
of its course where it suddenly turns to enter the
Welt-ende; this defile being a fracture in the very
hill along which the stream has hitherto calmly
flowed,
102
flowed, while its right bank has been formed by the
plain, or large open space, already mentioned. Let
us now suppose the hill to have been continuous, at
the time when the rain waters, beginning to flow
along the surface of our continents, were first col-
lected in this spot: they must naturally then have
produced a lake, which would have extended con-
siderably above Hirschberg, and would have found
a discharge at some point much below this hill.
The waters of lakes exercise no action except by
their waves, which, as they attack equally the whole
circumference of the basin, and not any particular
part of it, could never have cut through, from top
to bottom, a very wide hill of granite, so long as
they had elsewhere a free discharge. Hence it is
evident that, before the rain-waters were collected in
this space, this fracture must already have been
made by those catastrophes of the strata, to which
must be attributed the many similar clefts wherein
no waters flow. Let us however suppose the defile
to have existed at the time when the streain was
formed, but to have had at first no issue. The whole
of the cavity would then have been filled with water,
up to the lowest point of the rocks which encompass
it; and from that point the river would have fallen
in a cascade. Now it has been seen in the falls of
the Elbe and of the Kockel, and it is indeed every-
where the case, that cascades, do not erode the rocks
from which they rush. But it will farther appear
in the sequel, from the very nature of the fissure
here affording an issue to the Bober, that it also
i
4
&
"Bay
must
..}
}
I
103
must have been produced by the catastrophes of
the strata, before any water arrived to pass through
it.
557. The Felt-ende is much widened at its lower
extremity by the retreat of the rocks on the left,
which rise in a slope up to the top of the hill, but
with several projections and abundance of blocks;
and as these blocks lie only on granitic sand, they
roll or slide down the rapid declivity, at times when
the soil happens to be penetrated with water, aſter
great rains, or thaws of snow. Beneath the rocks that
apparently close this extremity, there is also a slope
of rubbish, resting on a rocky ledge, which retaius
not only the smaller fragments, but the blocks like-
wise, when they slide down the declivity above.
The blocks on this ledge, as well as all the others
accumulated at the bottom of the defile, are already
rounded; which I pointed out to my two companions,
who had been here with M. Meierotto, and who
readily agreed that the figure of these masses by no
means implied that they had been propelled by
torrents. Ainongst the rest, we saw a very large
block of this form, which had arrived on the ledge,
and partly projected over it, near the fissure that
affords a discharge to the river; hence we could
judge that whenever any great swell of water should
spread over this terrace, and carry away the sand
from the foot of the slope above it, (which contri-
butes to support the block,) the latter would fall
into the great heap of similar masses already accu.
mulated
**
104
mulated on the bottom of the defile; where, unless
purposely removed, they will certainly always con-
tinue; there being no possibility that any of them
should ever enter the fissure itself; which will very
evidently appear, when I shall describe it as viewed
from above.
-
558. The side of the defile opposite to the fissure
through which the Bober rushes, is formed by the
slope of a mountain, called Helicon by the inhabi-
tants of Hirschberg, who have cut paths in this
slope, which they have laid out in a kind of poetical
pleasure-ground. The highest rock on the Hirschberg
side is crowned by a Temple to Apollo; and in the
descent from this are several retreats for the Muses,
in groves adorned with seats, on which are sculptured
many classical subjects. The walk carried through
this amusing pleasure-ground opens sometimes on
very beautiful prospects, and afterwards returns
into the woods.
559. The whole of the scenery here derives its
picturesque appearance from the effects of the
catastrophe which has produced in the Welt-ende the
very image of chaos: many partial subsidences in
the mass of the mountain follow the direction of the
defile; and on the slopes there are many projecting
rocks and large blocks interspersed with fir-trees.
The surface being covered with a thick soil of
granitic sand, the parts least obstructed with blocks
have been cleared and cultivated: the blocks taken
up
Į
105
up here are rounded in the same manner as those on
the summits and on the slopes; and we saw many
of them laid along the sides of the fields, which are
very fertile. The lower spaces, where moisture is
longest preserved, are covered with grass. In the
higher parts, the superficial strata are of gneiss, be-
neath which is granite; and though I had not per-
ceived any basaltic eminence, I saw some basalts on
the slope; a sign that all these strata have undergone
great successive catastrophes.
560. The Temple of Apollo commands a view of
nearly the whole chain of the Giant's mountains,
terminated on the west by the Tafelfichte, and on
the east by an eminence, around which the Bober
flows as it issues from behind that chain, and on which
stands the town of Kupferberg. Dr. Thebesius
was so good as to give me an outline of the chain,
as it appears from this spot. I have already said
that, in its general form, it much resembles the Jura ;
and I am the more inclined to believe that the name
of the Giant's mountains has been given to it on ac-
count of the gigantic piles of blocks, which I de-
scribed §. 416, because in height it is rather inferior
to the latter chain. For I am informed that the
Schnee-koppe, the most lofty of its summits, is 5000
feet above the level of the sea: now the Dole, which
is the highest summit of the Jura, according to my
barometrical measurement, is 5082 feet above the
level of the Mediterranean.
561. On
106
}
561. On our return to Hirchberg, M. Schaum
assisted me in arranging my future journey, accord-
ing to the plan of M. Frederici. I sent on my
chaise, with post-horses, to Löwenberg, 4 miles
lower down on the course of the Bober, because M.
Meierotto having mentioned several places which he
wished me to observe on that course in the interval,
I had resolved never to lose sight of it, but to follow
it on the heights which border it. With this view, I
hired a horse, with a man who was to serve me as a
guide, and to lead the horse in those parts where I
could only proceed along the river-side on foot.
June 23d. I set out from Hirschberg at half past
5 in the morning, by a road which first led me over
Helicon as far as the lower extremity of the Welt-
ende, where I alighted, and walked along the upper
part of the rocks that close this extremity, till I came
to the edge of the fissure which affords a passage to
the Bober. From this point it very manifestly appears
that the aperture is not the work of the river; for
could it even be thought, in opposition to all that I
have said of the inefficiency of cascades, that this
stream, beginning to fall from the highest point, had
here cut through the rock from top to bottom, it still
could have acted no otherwise than as a saw, without
producing any enlargement on the sides. Instead
of this, the passage of the Bober, which is narrow at
the entrance, becomes afterwards considerably
wider; it then contracts itself, but is again enlarged
as it turns to the left; and the river, when it at last
issues
107
issues from the defile, enters a vale behind the hill,
where it flows in the same direction which it had fol-
lowed before it entered this lateral rupture.
562. We have therefore here direct proofs that
the abrupt rocks between which the Bober passes,
and the vast accumulation of blocks in their interval,
are the effect of catastrophes antecedent to the period
when this stream began to flow, or, in other words, to
the birth of our continents. It has been seen that
the Bover, before it enters the Welt-ende, flows
calmly on a bed along which it can never have pro-
pelled any block, since it forms a lake during its inun-
dations. Now the case is the same at its issue from
this cavity, when it emerges into a space where I
saw that it must necessarily spread its waters, when-
ever it overflowed; and my guide accordingly told
me that here also a lake was at such times formed.
This, then, is not a channel which can possibly have
afforded a passage to blocks; and all those produced
by the catastrophe are certainly still remaining in the
Welt-ende. In consequence of the width of the
space which the Bober here enters, there is not in
general sufficient water in this river to turn under-
shot mills; and it has therefore been found necessary
to procure an artificial fall. For this purpose, a
canal has been cut which, diverging at a certain
point from the bed of the river, follows the side of a
sloping ground on the right, in a nearly horizontal
direction, till it is at a sufficient height above the
level of the stream to fall with the requisite force, on
AL
the
108
1
the wheels of some mills. In order to turn the
water into this canal, and to open for it a free course
when it exceeds the necessary quantity, a dike has
been made, which obliquely crossing its usual bed,
obliges it to take this new direction; but on the
outer side of the dike there is a long slope of planks,
down which the superfluous water pours itself. A
pond is consequently formed above the dike, at
about 100 paces from the Welt-ende, and the water
in it was at that time so clear, that, as I looked
down upon it from this high point, I could see that
there was nothing on its bottom but small gravel;
though it must evidently have been filled up, had
any materials passed over the dike. No stones,
therefore, are brought down hither from the Welt-
ende; and all those heaps of blocks which are found
there, whether produced at the moment of the ca-
tastrophe, or since fallen from the abrupt and shat-
tered sides, remain within that cavity, where they are
partly consumed by decomposition: thus nothing
comes forth from it but the granitic sand, which,
being spread by the river during inundations, forms
the whole superficial soil of the plain below.
563. After all that I have said of this defile, out
of which it is very certain that no stony masses have
been brought by the Bober, the only stream here
under consideration, it cannot be supposed that any
have issued from the great tract of mountains, hills,
and plains, which, in this country, has been the ob-
ject of my observations: all such as have been set
in
5
109
in motion either by this river, or by the Zackel above
Hirschberg, have served only to fill up the cavities,
and to level the open spaces on the course of both
the streams; and even these effects are gradually
diminished, by the straitening, clearing, and widen-
ing, of the narrow parts of their channels. This is
what has happened in all mountainous regions,
where those disasters, of which ancient chronicles
contain accounts, now so rarely occur. From time
to time, indeed, the sudden fall of some abrupt side
of the rocks is occasioned by internal fissures, which
the water, carrying down into them the minute par-
ticles collected in its course, makes every winter,
when it is frozen, a powerful effort to widen; or some
of the large slopes of rubbish, which have risen
against such sides, slide down after long rains, if any
rill has penetrated between them and the rocks be-
hind them. But accidents of this nature only con-
tribute to reduce to a fixed state all those parts of the
mountains which had been left exposed to them by
the previous catastrophes of the strata.
564. This defile must have been very superficially
observed by M. Meierotto, since, in his itinerary, he
desired me "to take notice of the size of the stones
already rolled down to Bober-Rührsdorf, and
"thence to Rober-Ullersdorf;" (two places below
this on the course of the Bober.) For, if he had
paid attention to the facts which I have above ad-
duced to prove that no stone has been brought by
the stream out of the Welt-ende, he would not only
،،
1
have
110
have plainly seen, in the very places to which he re-
ferred me, that none of the stones in question had
ever travelled on the bed of this river, but would also
have perceived the source whence they really pro-
ceed. As I approached those places, I found this
bed become so wide and so horizontal, that not even
the greatest abundance of water could possibly set
any blocks on it in motion; for the stream flows be-
tween these masses and over them: but the slopes on
the sides are covered with blocks, lying on the grani-
tic sand, on which they slide downwards in very
rainy seasons, as I have elsewhere shewn there were
some on a steep part of the bank, 7 or 8 feet above
the level at which the river then flowed; now
when the stream is swelled so much as to fill the
whole of its channel, the base whereon the blocks lie
being sapped by the water, they fall, and remain on
its bed; but by this process, the bed is widened, and
the banks continuing to retreat, will at last be re-
duced into slopes, and covered with grass, as in some
parts is already the case.
:
565. The bed of the river, continues thus covered
with blocks a little way beyond the bridge of Bober-
Rhörsdorf, by which I crossed over to the right bank.
That these blocks are stationary is very evident: for
lower down is a space where there are none, and
where the river flows calmly; it then again foams
among
blocks; but afterwards it resumes its tranquil
course for a considerable time. In this part, how-
ever, it is again bordered by granitic hills, in which
there
3
111
there are projecting rocks, and of which the slopes
are covered with rounded blocks; but here, when
swelled, it has room to spread; and the blocks,
sliding down the slopes in rainy seasons, fall on its
bank, where it does not move them: it has even
formed on its course some islands, which it still
covers in its great inundations; for no grass yet
grows on them; but, instead of attacking them, it
only spreads over them gravel and sand: below
these, it is again, for some way, ruffled by blocks on
its course; but afterwards its bed is so much widen-
ed as to form a kind of lake, through which it flows
very slowly.
566. When I came to the lower end of this wide
space, I saw that the level of the river was here
raised by a natural dike, consisting of a mass of
granite, which, in the subsidence that produced the
valley, had remained higher than the other masses,
and above their rubbish. After having had frequent
opportunities of observing phenomena of this kind,
it is impossible to retain the slightest idea that rivers
can have crcavated their channels in rocks; since
they have not even cut through these bars which
obstruct their course in their very beds. In my
Travels already published, I have pointed out the
same circumstance on the Dartmoor hills in Devon-
shire; and I shall soon have occasion to give a new
example of it. Rivers rise, in order to pass over
these bars, but they cannot destroy them by erosion,
because, as is shewn by the growth of aquatic plants
on
112
ou the bottom, it is always the surface of the water
that falls. All the materials, therefore, which the
stream has been able to bring down to this point,
are deposited in the deeper space above the bar: if
there is a sufficient abundance of them, they fill up
that space, and the water continues to flow over
them and over the bar; but this is not yet the case.
in the spot of which I am speaking, the cavity is not
filled up, and the Bober is perfectly limpid when it
passes over its bar; not bringing down with it any
thing in its inundations, except such minute particles
as remain suspended in those streams which still,
during floods, attack some parts of their banks.
567. Below this bar, the Bober flows for some
way with so much rapidity as not to leave any
sand betwixt the blocks which lie on its bed: it here
passes between hills with steep slopes, whereon there
are great numbers of rounded blocks; some of these
probably slide down to the bed of the river, when the
sand on which they lie, and which is not covered
with
grass, is penetrated to a great depth with water;
but a particular circumstance affords a direct proof
that they do not move on this bed: I observed that
the fore-part of these blocks (by which I mean the
lowest on the course of the river) was covered with
moss, as was also partly the case with their sides;
but on their higher end there was scarcely any, un-
doubtedly because of the sand brought down by the
stream, which beats against them at that end, when
sufficiently swelled to cover them.
Į
568. At
1
113
368. At Bober Ullersdorf a wide basin is formed
by the retreat of the mountains on both sides. Ad-
vantage has been taken of a large rock of granite
rising in the midst of it, for the purpose of throwing
over it a wooden bridge, which rests on piles, till it
meets this firm support in the centre. Here also a
dike obliquely crosses the wide bed of the Bober,
whence a stream is thus led to supply some mills on
the right bank the river being here of a considerable
size, part of its water passes over the inclined plane
of the dike, and is carried, in several rills across a
space levelled by the sand and the gravel, and now
become dry. Here then we again find a kind of
sieve, in which the river leaves behind whatever
materials it has been able to bring down to this
point.
569. As this basin, during inundations, becomes
a lake, it is impossible that any part of its borders
can ever have been attacked by the Bober; yet
below it, this river enters a long defile with abrupt
sides, which, in some places, it entirely fills; and
there being consequently no space on the banks of
the stream, the road is here carried a great way
round. That the river could never have had power
to cut for itself this passage through the mountain is
the more evidently seen, because, had its water ever
been at the level of the higher part of the sides of the
defile, it must have formed a large lake on the right,
where the bank is quite open. I asked my guide whe-
ther he thought that I could pass on foot along the
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VOL. II.
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114
top of the rocks, without losing sight of the bed of
the river: he told me that I should find it very dif-
ficult, but that, if I met with any obstacle which
stopped me, I might at any time return to the road:
I therefore resolved to attempt this way, while he
followed the road with my horse. I succeeded in my
undertaking, though not without much fatigue, as I
had some very steep rocks to climb and to descend;
but this I did not regret; for I found many interest-
ing objects of observation, as well on the bed of the
river, which I kept constantly in view, as on the
abrupt sides of the defile itself.
570. The bed of the Bober is here again, in two
places, crossed by bars, consisting of masses of strata
left at a higher level than those from the subsidence
of which this valley resulted. Above these bars,
the river still flows slowly; and on arriving at them,
it finds a passage through winding fractures, in some
parts of which, however, it is so much confined, that,
when greatly swelled, it rises, and a portion of its
water flows over the bars. As I proceeded, the op-
posite side of the defile retreated, and my road lay over
an eminence which was cut down abruptly towards
the river on the first part of the ascent, I found a
great many blocks of granite; but when I gained the
summit, I was much surprized at its appearance, for
it was composed of a vast number of spheroids, which
were arranged in such a manner as to give it a re-
semblance to a bunch of grapes. The name of this
eminence is probably descriptive of its appearance
when
!
115
when viewed from some different point; it is called
the Nelken-stein, or Clove-gilliflower rock.
571. In this part of the defile, I saw the whole of
the opposite side, from top to bottom; and it will
afford a new example of the disorderly state of the
masses of strata divided by the catastrophe which
produced the vallies between the mountains; a state
occasioned by the unequal subsidences of those
masses. This opposite side is at the same level as
the other; but though both consist of granite, the
species are different. The strata on the side were
here very distinct, and strongly inclined; I could not
see whether they had the same inclination with those
on my side; but I perceived very plainly that their
fragments, as well on the summit, as on the banks of
the Bober below, were angular; a proof that they were
of a granite not liable to decomposition; while all those
which belonged to the strata on the right side of the
river were, by this process, reduced to a spheroidal
form; as I have instanced in those composing the
summit of the Nelken stein: on a lower part of the
course of this stream, still greater contrasts will appear.
572. When the Bober has passed through this
winding defile, it resumes, at first, a very tranquil
course; but as I proceeded along the brow of the
rocks, I came to a spot whence I beheld a scene of
a truly astonishing nature. I here saw, in the rock
on the opposite side, several wide clefts, in front of
the largest of which, in a part where that side re-
I 2
treats,
{
116
treats, an immense accumulation of blocks forms a
kind of dike across the Bober; and in the midst of
this heap, a small river, issuing from the above cleft,
arrives to join it. This small river is the Kemnitz,
which I described § 499, as flowing in the high
ground above, on a bed where the stones are covered
with moss, a little before it rushes into this narrow
passage, to discharge itself into the Bober. It is cer-
tainly not the Kemnitz which has produced this cleft,
since there are, on the same side, so many similar
openings whence no water issues. It is equally certain
that the immense accumulation of blocks at the point
of the junction of the Kemnitz and the Bober has
not been formed by either of these two rivers; for
as the spot in which I stood commanded a great
extent of the valley, I saw them flowing together
very calmly but a little below this chaotic scene.
573. Proceeding onwards in the same direction, I
came to a point where a large combe, which rises up
to the top of the mountain, opens below on the right
bank of the Bober; and on descending into it, I
found my guide there waiting for me with the horse.
This combe, as its lower extremity, is wider than
many parts of the valley of the Bober; yet, notwith-
standing the late rains, no stream but a mere rill
was flowing in it. This is, more or less, the case
with all combes; and I have shewn, at the beginning
of these Travels, how important it is in geology to
distinguish them from vallies. It is evident that
these different kinds of interruption in the continu-
ou
117
ous mass of the strata must both have been pró-
duced by one common cause: now superficial ob-
servers, when they see streams passing through
vallies, may easily be led to suppose that the latter
have been excavated by the former; but this illu-
sion must cease in combes, which can never have
afforded a passage to any water but that of the
drops of rain immediately falling in them, or of the
springs issuing from their sides, in consequence of
those fractures of the strata in which both combes
and valleys really originated. Moreover the combe
now under consideration presents a new example of
a circumstance sometimes attendant on these catas-
trophes; namely, that, the whole mass of the strata
having been subverted, some strata are now found
at the same level with those others whereon, at first,
they certainly were formed. The side of the combe
which I had descended is composed of granitic
strata; while the opposite side consists of strata of
schistus and gneiss.
C
574. In this place appears also a case which is
very frequent in the great vallies among mountains,
and which furnishes one of the documents of the
history of those vallies. The combe above men-
tioned being very wide and low near the Bober, that
river has here room to spread, and has accordingly
levelled this space during floods; yet it passes after-
wards through a defile of the schistose mountain.
Its principal current docs not at first take a direc-
tion towards the defile, but flowing round the bottom
of
118
of the combe, it has attacked the foot of this schis-
tose eminence, in which it has made an excavation,
because the schistus easily crumbles down; and at
the point where the river bends its course to enter
the defile, these attacks are still continued. Now
this stream, proportionally as it has extended itself
into the lower part of the combe, which is likewise
excavated by it, has withdrawn from its ancient bed,
where there is at present a large tract of alluvial soil,
composed of sand and gravel. These, then, are the
only materials which have been brought down hither
by the Bober in its greatest swells; and in its pre-
sent inundations, though still sometimes sufficiently
considerable to cover the greatest part of this soil,
it no longer deposits any thing but sand, on which
as yet I saw no grass but in the parts most remote
from the course of the river. This operation will
be continued; and by degrees, in consequence either
of the accumulation of the sand in parts still nearer
to the stream, or of the reduction of the latter to a
lower level by the widening of the entrance of the
defile, there will be a greater extent of ground be-
yond its reach, and in a state proper for tillage.
This has already occasioned the erection of a mill
called Neu-mühl, which has been too recently built
to have obtained a place in the maps, and around
which some cultivation is carried on. This is a kind
of chronometer common along most
rivers in mountainous regions.
of the great
575. The
119
575. The Bober, after having entered this defile,
continues to flow between hills, but makes a wide
turn to the left; which induced me to cross the hill
bordering the combe on that side, that I might re-
cover sight of the river beyond it. This hill belongs
to a ridge, the upper part of which is all cultivated
on a soil consisting of rubbish of gneiss; and in
ploughing, blocks of that stone are taken out; nor
is this surprizing, for the mass of the hills is in this
part of gneiss. But among these blocks there are
some of granite, although this ridge is separated from
the granitic region by the large combe which I have
described; and here I began also to observe blocks
of white quartz. Now therefore I had entered a
country where the scattered blocks, in part at leaſt,
are extraneous to the soils on which they lie; yet I
had followed from the mountains the only streams
capable of transporting these masses without per-
ceiving that any were propelled by them; and on
the bed of the Bober, every appearance of such an
operation will be found to cease.
576. In proceeding along this road, I crossed
another large combe, descending, like the former,
from the top of the hills to the bed of the Bober,
which here also has gained by degrees on the lower
part of the open space, retreating, at the same time,
from the opposite side, where a horizontal soil has
been formed, similar to that already mentioned as
opposite to the other combe. This phenomenon,
which, as I have said, occurs very frequently in all
moun-
1
120
-
mountainous countries, evidently proves that combes
and vallies are effects, not of the action of running
waters, but of catastrophes of the strata antece-
dent to the birth of the continents; since streams.
are so far from having ever been able to produce
these interruptions of the continuity of the strata,
that their only operation has been to raise and level
all low spaces which have lain in their course,
and in which they have found room to spread.
577. When I came to the border of this second
combe, I saw the Bober issuing from a defile on the
left, and afterwards flowing in a strait wide bed
which extended a considerable way to the right:
throughont this whole space, though the water was
not deep, its surface was smooth, because there
were no blocks on its bed; nor below this did I see
any more on the course of the river. At this point
it quits the mountains, and no longer flows but be-
tween hills; how can it then be supposed to have
carried any stony masses on to the plains, when
none are found on its bed, after it has issued from
the passages where blocks have fallen from its sides?
Here I went down to the bank of the Bober, and
coasted it, till I came to a very large horizontal
space, which, when much swelled, it still overflows,
and in which it divides itself into several branches:
that change their places during great inundations;
as obviously appeared from the sand and gravel co-
vering the whole space. This is a circumstance
which very commonly occurs in the great vallies of
the
J
}
121
}
the Alps, if no prospect of advantage has induced
the inhabitants to employ the times when the rivers
are low, in deepening their beds, and raising their
banks with a gentle slope, in order to form for them
permanent channels. That operation has been per-
formed in many places, where the soil levelled by
the waters has happened to be covered with a suf-
ficient quantity of sand, either to form meadows, or
to become fit for tillage: in the latter case, villages
have been built; and when wells are sunk for the
use of the inhabitants, the history of these soils, and
consequently of the river itself, may legibly be seen.
Below the sand, of which the stratum varies in
thickness, is found small gravel, increasing in size
proportionally to its depth; under this there are
stones; and these likewise are larger and larger, till
the original bed is reached, on which the river inade
its first deposites. In my Travels already published,
I have described this succession of materials, pro-
gressively increasing in size from the top to the bot-
tom, in the alluvial soils of several rivers. The ex-
tensive space over which the Bober thus wanders
has no large stones on its surface, but there is not
here sand enough to form a soil fit for any use, and
the river is therefore allowed to follow its own ca-
prices; before it enters this space, it is made to
pass over a sloped dike constructed of basalts,
which obliquely crosses its course, and carries a part
of its water into a canal that leads it to some mills
at Mauer.
578. It
1
122
578. It was near noon when I arrived at these
mills, which were on the right bank of the river;
and I stopped at them to rest my guide and my
horse. I found the miller a sensible and obliging
man, who was very ready to answer all my ques-
tions, though it gave us both a great deal of trouble
to understand each other. I chiefly inquired of
him whence the stones had been brought for the
dike; and he shewed me, on the top of the hill
along the foot of which I had just passed, an emi-
mence entirely composed of them, called the
Schlossberg or Castle mountain; but he told me
that it was not necessary to fetch them from this
eminence, because the slope below it was com-
pletely covered with them, and there were likewise
great numbers in the soil of a vale descending to-
wards Mauer. This honest man was going to din-
ner with his family; he invited me to sit down to
table with them, which I was glad to do; and
when, at my departure, I inquired what I was to
pay on account of my horse and my guide, he rallied
me for the question; saying that when people were
wandering about the country, as I was, they must
not expect to meet with public houses in their way.
Wh
579. Beyond this, the hills change their nature;
they are no longer either of granite or of gneiss;
but the Bober continues to wind, for some way,
between eminences composed of argillaceous schistus
and of sand-stone. According to the note which
M. Frederici had given me, I was to observe, be-
1
:
yond
L
!
123
1
yond Mauer, some very singular quarries of mill-
stones. On leaving that place, I crossed a hill, and
came down on the side of a valley opening near a
village called Walterdorf into that of the Bober,
When I arrived within sight of this valley, my guide
led me to the right, towards the Mählstein-bruch,
(mill-stone quarry,) which is sufficiently remarkable
to be indicated in the maps. We first entered a
wood, where I fancied myself again in the Giant's
mountains, on account of the quantity of rounded.
blocks of immense size, which were so much covered
with lichens, that it was some time before I could
discover their nature. The farther I advanced, the
more I was surprized at the abundance of these
blocks; and at last I came to a spot where there
were no trees, because there was no longer any
space in which they could grow; these masses being
here accumulated in a manner scarcely to be ima-
gined but by those who have seen similar instances;
and this was the place of the mill-stone quarries.
These vast blocks consisted of a hard white sand-
stone with a shining grain, in which I saw impres-
sions of large pectines; they must therefore have
belonged to strata formed in a continuous manner on
the bottom of the sea.
580. The cause of the production of these blocks
very evidently shews itself. The valley was formed by
a great subsidence of the strata of this stone, which,
at the same time, were shattered; and abundance of the
fragments having remained on the slope, their angles
have been gradually worn off by decomposition;
since
194
since that period, as surfaces of greater extent are
not attacked by atmospherical causes with equal ad-
vantage, they have been overspread with lichens,
which is commoaly also the case with granite: the
sections of these strata are seen at the top of this
side of the valley, under a very thick loose soil.
In following this side, I came to a projecting rock,
which, being of the same nature, is likewise worked
for mill-stones, and is besides used for hewn stones.
Here, though, from the marine bodies contained in
this stone, no doubt can be entertained that it must
have been deposited in strata, on the bed of the
ancient sea, I found its strata as difficult to be dis-
tinguished in the rock, as those of some kinds of
primordial stones, of which the stratification has been
questioned; for I saw lines nearly horizontal, in-
tersected by others almost vertical, those in each
direction being parallel with each other. I endea-
voured to find some pectines in the front of this
rock, because the direction of their plane would
have indicated that of the strata; but I could not
perceive any.
581. These strata of sand-stone were formed at
a level much higher than that at which they are
found at present; and the masses now constituting
the hills did themselves subside in part, at the time
of the rupture, and of that greater subsidence
whence the valley resulted. This may easily be
judged by the side of the latter opposite to the quar-
ries, where, on a summit nearly of the same height
with
125
with that on which I stood, a pyramid rises, and
presents to the valley the section of its strata; they
are of the same stone, except that their colour is
reddish, and they contain the same pectines; but
there are among them strata of breccia, in which
the imbedded masses are of granite. M. Frederici
had shewn me fragments of the stones on both sides
of the valley, thus differing in colour, but contain-
ing the same shells, and had described to me the
spots in which he had found them; I could not go
to these spots, because a shower came on before I
quitted the quarries, and soon became very heavy.;
however I went down to the bottom of the valley of
Walterdorf, to see the Bober, issuing from its own
valley; at this point, it was flowing calmly on a bed
composed merely of granitic sand, and very small
gravel of the same nature; but, a little below, it
was bordered by hills of different kinds. I conti-
nued for some time to follow its right bank along the
foot of the eminences composed of the strata of
reddish sand-stone; I often saw the sections of these
strata, which were very much inclined, and conse-
quently passed beneath the soil of the valley. I
then returned, over a bridge, to the left bank, where
I found myself on a hill of argillaceous schistus,
abrupt on the side towards the Bober. Of this part
of the valley, therefore, the opposite sides are again
very dissimilar; so that it manifestly cannot have
been cut by the river.
582, The
126
582. The summit of these schistose hills is cul-
tivated along the sides of the fields, I saw blocks
of granite, which had been taken out of them,
and which here it is impossible to ascribe to any
cause but the same that has occasioned the disse-
mination of blocks on hills and plains very remote
from all mountains; and we may now be very sure
that these masses have not been transported hither
by running waters, since we have seen that none
are brought by those agents from the mountains.
As I passed over this hill, I saw the Bober flowing
for a long way through meadows; on this side, the
hills became gradually lower; and I saw no moun-
tains but at a great distance to the right. On the
road, I observed some basalts, and I remarked, on
my left, a small mount covered with firs, which I
guessed to be their source; but the rain hindered
me from going to examine it.
+
583. Having descnded to Bober-Mertzdorf, a
village situated in a vale, I crossed the hill beyond
it, leaving on my left Lahn and Ober-Mois, and
went down towards a spot where a rivulet passes
through a great intersection of the strata. This was
one of the places which M. Meierotto had particu-
larly mentioned in his itinerary as shewing that
rocks had been cut through by running waters: and
but for the rain, I should have gone to view it
nearly; but after all my preceding observations, this
was by no means necessary: and besides, the course
of
3
127
of the rivulet itself was alone sufficient to obviate
such an idea. As I descended the slope the hill to-
wards Nieder-Mois, I saw on it blocks of gneiss and
of sand-stone; and blocks of both these kinds are
also on the bed of the rivulet, which flows at the
bottom of this slope; but this does not appear sur-
prizing, when the state of the neighbouring hills is
observed. The opposite hill has on its summit
several eminences, which, on a small scale, resemble
the Königstein and the Lilienstein on the banks of
the Elbe, as they bear the same character, and
consist of the same kind of sand-stone; their upper
part exhibits sections of strata, with projections
and recesses, which, from a distance, resemble the
walls of ancient castles; and below these rocks are
slopes of sand descending to the foot of the emi-
nences. I passed between two of them, rising in
fields, not far from each other; it cannot be sup-
posed that any stream can ever have flowed on the
highest ground in the country to separate these
rocks. On this ridge of hills, I saw the commence-
ment of that kind of sand which forms the soil of
the vast heaths of the north of Germany, where it
has buried beneath it the ruins of stony strata of va-
rious species: I shall soon have occasion to speak
of it more particularly.
584. On arriving at Löwenberg at six in the even-
ing, I had the agreeable surprize of finding there
Baron Von Gersdorf, who had so exactly calcu-
lated the time which I should employ in my jour-
ney,
·
Gi
E
128
1
}
ney, that he had arrived at this place only a few
hours before me: he had been desirous to see me
after the completion of my excursion in the moun-
tains, and especially because he had feared that
the heavy rains must have prevented me from
observing all the objects which I had wished to ex-
amine. The weather, however, had been less un-
favourable to me than he had supposed from its ap-
pearance at Mäffersdorf, on the exterior side of
the mountains; and I had the satisfaction of com-
municating to him all my observations, describing
the places which I had visited in the same manner
as I have done above: he perfectly recollected them,
and agreed to the exactness of my descriptions, as
well as to all the consequences which I deduced from
them in opposition to the opinions of M. Meierotto;
and I am hence the more fully assured that my ac-
count of this part of my journey is entirely accu-
rate. As the Baron meant to return the next day
to Mäffendorf, he rose in the morning as early as I
did; and it was with very great regret that I took
Icave of him, when we quitted Löwenberg by our
different roads.
June 24th. Having again taken my chaise at this
place, I set-out at 5 o'clock for Buntzlau, two miles
distant, and arrived there at eight. As I quitted
Löwenberg, I saw the Bober flowing calmly on a
bed of granitic sand and small gravel; these there-
fore are all the materials which this river has brought
down from the mountains, and they will be found,
to.
129
to disappear gradually on the lower part of its
course. Beyond this the hills were covered with
strata of the heath-sand; but some of them shewed
very evidently by exterior signs that they consisted
within of ruins of stony strata, which lay at a
greater or less depth below the surface, the form of
their outline being even determined by masses of
strata of the same sand-stone whereof the hills at
so small a distance are externally composed; for the
fields are on terraces, one above another, and their
soil, consisting of sand, is supported at various
levels by long rocks of the sand-stone, which form a
kind of walls.
585. I set out from Buntzlau at a quarter past
nine for Sprottau, five miles distant; and I arrived
at the latter place at three quarters after four. I
had now entered those sandy countries where firs
are succeeded by pines, and fertility gives place to
barrenness. Here I saw blocks in some places, to-
gether with abundance of those particles of white
quartz which I have frequently mentioned as be-
longing to this sand; but as yet there were no flints ;
and the stony strata, wherever they rose in sinall
rocks above the sand, consisted of a yellowish sund-
stone, little indurated. Having passed through the
village of Baudendorf, I crossed a forest of pines,
where I perceived no blocks in the sandy soil; it
was, however, apparent that there must be some in
the neighbourhood; for, in crossing the bridge at
Sprottau, I saw many large blocks laid on the planks
VOL. II.
K
on
+
130
on both sides, in order to render it more solid by
their weight. At this place, while I was waiting for
the horses, I went down to the Bober, and found
that almost the whole stream was here led by a
canal to supply some mills: that part of its bed
which was thus left dry consisted entirely, to a great
depth, of granitic sand and small gravel; this was
taken out to gravel the roads, and for other uses;
and I saw large heaps of it on the bank, out of the
reach of the river when most swelled. I mention
this circumstance here, on account of what will
be seen lower down on the course of the same
stream.
586. At six, I set out from Sprottau for Sagan,
at the distance of two miles, and arrived there at
a quarter after eight. Having crossed the bridge
above-mentioned, and ascended the hill on the left
side of the river, I discovered the source of the
blocks which I had seen on the bridge: for though,
on the other side, I had perceived none in any part
of a wide space extending from the top of the hill
down to the bank of the river, yet here I found
the whole summit strewed with a great abundance
of very large ones; the fields were enclosed with
those which had been taken up in ploughing, and
which, in some places, were set up in double rows.
Great numbers of these blocks had been of too large
a size to be removed without first splitting them
with gunpowder; and in the above enclosures, I saw
many of the larger fraginents, with their sides re-
cently
}
1
131
cently fractured turned outwards; now among these
I observed several fine species of granite and of
gneiss, of which I had perceived no vestiges in the
strata of the neighbouring mountains.
587. On my arrival at Sagan, I went down to
view the Bober, which flows at the bottom of the
town, and having been joined by the Queis, is here
increased to a considerable size; but though this
place is only ten English miles from Sprottau,
where, as I have said, there is on its bed a great
thickness of the detritus of granite, both in sand
and in fine gravel, I saw scarcely any thing in this
part except the common sand of the hills, with its
usual laminæ of white quartz. Thus all transpor-
tation of the small quantity of materials which the
river has been able to put in motion, in its course
from the mountains, is here nearly at an end, and
its waters no longer carry with them any but such
as it detaches from these lower parts of its banks,
which it still attacks in some places, when it hap-
pens to be swelled. It was half past nine in the
evening when I set out from Sagan to Naumberg,
at the distance of three miles: I lost nothing by
travelling this stage at night, for no particular ob-
ject of attention had been noted in it by M. Meie-
rotto; and I had foreseen what I found to be the
case, that the road lay the whole way over sandy
hills: I reached the latter place at two in the
morning.
+
t
K 2
1
June
132
**
T
June 25th. I set out from Naumberg at 4 o'clock
for Crossen, distant three miles; and I arrived there
at a quarter past ten. The first part of my road
lay through a forest of pines in loose sand, in which,
and some way beyond it, I perceived scarcely any
blocks, and very few smaller masses. But within
a league of Crossen, where there is a slight in-
flexion of the ground, in which a village is situated,
I began to see some; and I afterwards observed a
great many of very large size, throughout the rest
of the stage. Thus the grand circumstances of the
phenomenon of the scattered blocks, namely, their
abundance in certain spaces, betwixt which there
are intervals where none are to be found; and
the difference, in this respect, between the oppo-
site sides of the same vallies; (evident proofs that
they have not migrated from any quarter, but have
been thrown out from beneath in the very spots
where we now see them ;) these circumstances, I say,
together with the other, not less important, which
I have shewn above, I mean the specific differences
between the blocks and the strata of the neighbour-
ing eminences, may be observed immediately from
the foot of the mountains; and this deprives the
hypothesis, that these scattered masses have pro-
ceeded from the latter, of even the most distant ap.
pearance of probability.
588. It is at Crossen that the Bober unites with
the Oder, the largest of the rivers which issue from
these mountains; and here M. Meierotto had de-
sired
133
sired me, in his itinerary, to observe, that the
gravel of the Bober was mingled with pulverized
granite. He had expected that I should find in
this circumstance a confirmation of the opinion
which he held in common with other geologists, that
the immense quantity of sand spread over vast tracts
of country, beyond the precincts of these mountains,
proceeded from the trituration of granitic masses
by their streams. That this is an illusion. may have
been already comprehended; but I did not the less
attentively examine the phenomena which were in
any manner connected with the subject.
589. The Bober, as it straitens and enlarges its
bed between the slopes of mountains covered with
granitic sand mingled with blocks and smaller frag-
ments, propels along its course a considerable quan-
tity of this sand, which it grinds to powder as it vi-
olently beats against the blocks, in parts where they
obstruct its channel. In these parts, I saw on the
banks, wherever the river had retreated from them
to a lower level, a white powder, as fine as the most
minute sand of these countries; and knowing this
to be one of the points which were in question, I
took up some of the powder, in order to examine
it more at my leisure. At Sugan especially, where
this pulverized granite cannot be distinguished from
the sand of the country, with which it is mixed,
except by its superior whiteness, I took up some of
the mixed sand; and afterwards, observing certain
of the sandy strata in the hills that were no less
white
134
;
white than the granitic powder, I took likewise a
little sand from thence. On my return to Berlin,
I examined all these sands with one of my friends
who had an excellent compound microscope; and
we were both struck with the proof which they
afforded of the accuracy of M. de Saussure's re-
mark on this subject. That naturalist had also com-
pared, in the microscope, the white powder found
on the banks of the torrents which descend from the
Alps, near the coast of Nice, with the sand of the
sea on that coast; and, in his account of this com-
parison, he declares that it fully confirmed the sys-
tem which I had founded on other phenomena, in my
Lettres sur l'Histoire de la Terre & de l'Homme
namely, that the sand covering such vast tracts of
country, and similar to that on the bed of the sea,
is the latest of the chemical precipitations which
took place in the primordial liquid. With the mi-
croscope it is impossible to mistake the difference
between the sand of the sea or of sandy countries,
and the finest quartzeous powder propelled by tor-
rents; we observed, like M. de Saussure, that the
most minute grains of the latter were in general
angular, and that the surface of such as were the
most rounded was ground, which rendered them
opaque, and shewed them to be the product of a
detritus; while the grains of the true sand, very
irregular in their form, were transparent, and po-
lished even in their cavities; characters which evi-
dently belong to natural bodies.
1
Wat
590. Thus
135
590. Thus then it is only with a small quantity
of pulverized granite, added to the sand, of the
country, that the Bober arrives to join the Oder,
which itself brings down hither nothing but this
sand, having already wound for some way between
hills of the same nature, The former of these
streams, before it reaches the point of their junction,
flows in a very wide vale, where, during its inunda-
tions, it has formed islands of sand, which, as no
grass yet grows on them, it must evidently still cover
when greatly swelled; and it then spreads itself also
over the pasturages occupying the rest of the bottom
of the vale. The two rivers, when united under
the name of the Oder, flow together at the foot of
the hills on the right bank, which are planted with
vines; and on the left bank there are extensive pas-
turages, inundated, like those above, whenever the
river overflows.
591. At 1 o'clock I quitted Crossen for Zibrigen,
at the distance of 3 miles, and arrived there at a
quarter after 5. At first setting out, I crossed the
Oder, as I was now to travel over the bills on its
right bank.
Here likewise the bridge is loaded with
blocks on the side on which the river arrives, that,
by this additional weight, it may oppose more re-
sistance to the current; some of these were only
splinters of very large blocks; and I again observed,
in their recent fractures, several fine species of
granite, none of which I had seen in the mountains.
5
592. As
/
136
592. As I travelled over these hills, a great ex-
tent of the course of the Oder lay within my sight;
and on its left bank, I had a complete view of one
of those chronometers which are found along all
rivers flowing between sandy hills on the sides of
rivers in mountainous regions there are likewise
chronometers of various kinds, as I have already
shewn; but this class is more simple, and more
strongly marked; I have already pointed it out on
the course of the Elbe; but I shall here describe it
with farther particulars.
593. The Oder, towards which the eminences
on its right bank slope gradually down, is in this
part bordered at their foot with a great breadth of
meadows; its current having here borne against
the opposite bank, which rises in abrupt hills. I
could here see a great extent of these hills; at both
the extremities of the tract within my view, their
rapid slopes were covered with wood, and descended
to the edge of the river, which did not there attack
them; the higher extremity, being on the side
whence the stream arrives, was above the point
where it comes up to the foot of the hills; and it
bends its course before it reaches the lower. Several
promontories however in the interval, composed en-
tirely of sandy strata, have been attacked by the
Oder, which, by sapping their foot, has occasioned
them to crumble down; and they are now, conse.
quently, reduced into cliffs. I could easily trace
all the stages of this operation. Some cliffs of the
most
1
137
most projecting promontories were still crumbling
down from top to bottom; some continued to crum-
ble only in the upper part; while others were con-
verted into smooth slopes covered with grass: at the
foot of the latter, the river was kept off by a beach
composed of the stones which had fallen from above.
All the sand thus falling from the hills sapped at
their foot by the Oder is carried down its course
when it overflows, and forined into alluvial soils,
wherever its waters find space to spread. Such is
the origin of the wide and extensive alluvial soil at
the bottom of the hills, opposite to the cliffs, over
which I was now travelling.
594. As I proceeded along the top of these hills,
I remarked another chronometer of a kind that has
always attracted my attention in travelling through
countries naturally barren, as is the case with these
of sand, of which the only spontaneous product is
heath, and with respect to which I have entered
into many details in my Lettres sur l'Histoire de la
Terre et de l'Homme; this is the progress of cultiva-
tion, in situations where so little profit can be gained
by it, that much labour is required to oblige the
earth to yield to the husbandman even a scanty
subsistence. In these countries may be observed
certain central spots, which are those where the first
settlers fixed their habitations, and whence cultiva-
tion extended itself, as their families increased.
But where the land was very unproductive, and there
were no means of procuring manure, if the numbers
of
c
!
138
1
of the settlers greatly multiplied, and their villages
became too large, they found themselves obliged to
go to an inconvenient distance to till lands which
yielded so small a return: hence they were led to
form new settlements, some way off, for such of their
children as were of an age to work; building cot-
tages for them, assisting them to clear the ground,
and furnishing them with the first requisites for
labour, horses or oxen, and instruments of agricul-
ture. These were at first hamlets; but by degrecs
they became villages like the former, and were con-
sequently new centres of cultivation. As I passed
along the borders of a forest on these hills, I saw
some new settlements, which, from the small size of
the trees in the orchards, and of those planted in
the inclosures, did not appear to me to have been
formed above seven or eight years; but there were
already around them crowds of children, keeping
cows on the skirts of the forest, and geese or hogs on
the heath. I afterwards saw the probable source of
this new population, in a village which the growth of
its trees shewed to have been inhabited not less than
from five and thirty to forty years; and here the
surrounding soil was much improved in fertility. In
this manner I have traced the progress of cultivation
on heaths, in all my numerous journeys, during a
period of 35 years, through different parts of the
north of Germany.
1
595. I set out from Zibrigen, at three quarters
after 6, for Frankfort, where I arrived at 10 o'clock,
the
139
A
the distance being 3 miles. The road continued
over these barren sands interspersed with forests of
pines, where, for a long time, I perceived no blocks;
but after having passed a slight inflexion in which a
a rivulet flows, I saw a great many on the opposite
slope; they did not, however, extend far on the
summit of the hill; and after I had again entered
some pine-woods, I observed no more.
596. Around the spot where Frankfort is situated,
the Oder, which is subject to great inundations, has
found a large space to spread; this space, having
been levelled by its sediments, is now covered with
meadows, but is still overflowed when the river is
greatly swelled; so that it has been found necessary
to make here a raised causeway, with many arches,
at various distances, which serve to carry off the
waters during floods across this whole space, extend-
ing from the foot of the hills to the high ground
whereon the city is built. The causeway is termi-
nated, on the side nearest to the town, by a bridge
over the common course of the river; this bridge is
likewise loaded, along both its sides with large
blocks, that it may resist the effort of the stream
against its piles. From this place, the Oder flows
on very slowly to the sea between large islands
which are composed of its sediments, and divide its
stream into several branches; while sometimes it
passes through lakes forined in the cavities originally
lying on its course, which it is tending to fill up.
These new soils have diminished the extent of an
original
{
140
17
original gulph, described in the first volume of my
Travels lately published.
597. As I had now quitted the region of the
mountains, and as my road back to Berlin was to
lead me away from the course of the rivers which
proceed from them, I determined to pursue my
journey during the night. I therefore set out from
Frankfort, at a quarter after 11, for Egersdorf, at
the distance of 4 miles, and arrived there at half
past 6 in the morning, having travelled the whole
way through a country consisting of sandy plains
and hills, like those of which I had already, in ail
directions, passed over such extensive tracts.
June 26th. I set out from Egersdorf at 7 in
the morning, and arrived at Vogelsdorf, distant 3
miles, a little after mid-day. In the first part of
this stage, I saw no blocks, either on the uncultivated
grounds, in the woods, or along the sides of the ara-
ble fields; but having passed an inflexion of the
ground, and crossed a rivulet which flows at the bot-
tom of it by a bridge built of large masses of the
finest granites, I a:terwards observed blocks all the
way to Vogelsdorf; many of them were angular,
being of specics not liable to decomposition; and
there were quantities of smaller fragments of beau-
tiful granites and other kinds of primordial stones
of which I had scen none in the Giant's mountains,
598. As I was passing over the hills, nearly a
mile from Egersdorf, I came to one of those takes
e.
which
141
A
which occur on the course of the streams in this
country, where the waters flow with so little decli-
vity; this first lake was small; but towards the end
of the stage I saw one on the right, which extended
as far as Tasdorf. The streams passing through these
lakes fall into the Spree; and in my Travels already
published, I have described the lakes on the course
of that river, as well as those formed by the Havel.
599. At 1 o'clock, I set out from Vogelsdorf for
Berlin; the distance was 2 miles and three quarters,
and I arrived at the latter place at 4 o'clock, thus
terminating a very interesting excursion, in which I
had employed 26 days. In this last part of my
road, I met with nothing worthy of mention; the
soil of the country consisting entirely of sand, min-
gled with its usual particles of white quartz, and
various kinds of flint; and there were also blocks of
granite and other primordial stones, which abounded
greatly in some places, and were very thinly scattered
in others.
JOURNEY
142
}
JOURNEY from BERLIN to the country of Bar-
'REUTH, and return through BOHEMIA.
SEPT. 8th. 1799.
The preceding year, I had
followed, from Berlin, the trace of the blocks of
primordial stones, with the phenomena attendant on
them to the Giant's mountains, which are composed
of these stones. In my present journey, one of my
objects was to follow this trace, so essentially cha-
racterizing the nature of the revolutions undergone
by our globe, from the same place, but through
-different countries, to the mountains of the Fichtel-
berg, which are in the territory of Bayreuth, and
form in a part of their length the boundary between
Saxony and Bohemia; it being my intention to re-
turn afterwards, through the latter country, into
Saxony.
T
BRA
600. On this day, I set out from Berlin, and went.
first to Potsdam, at the distance of 4 German miles.
I again observed, on this road, the great abundance
of large blocks which I have elsewhere mentioned
as very remarkable, since they consist of hornblende
mixed
143
mixed with feld-spar of a bright red, and are pecu-
liar to this part of Brandeburg. Near Potsdam I
crossed the Havel, that river which has on its course
so great a number of lakes, and which, for this reason,
became, a few years after, one of my objects in the
Travels that have been lately published.
}
601. From Potsdam I set out for Belitz, which
is the next stage on this road, and is at the distance
of 2 miles. I here entered on arid sands, every-
where agitated by the winds, except in the parts
where they are covered with pine-woods, or with a
thin turf. Having again crossed the Havel, I saw
on its banks a cliff which was crumbling down, being
the foot of a sandy hill still exposed to the attacks
of the river during floods. I could plainly discern
that the very regular sandy strata of this cliff had
participated in the catastrophes of the stony strata
upon which they had been formed; for they were
strongly inclined, turning their planes towards the
higher part of the course of the river. In this road,
I coasted a small lake, not yet filled up by the sand
which the waters bring down into it after inundations.
There were blocks by the way-side, but not of the
species so abundant on the hills between Potsdam
and Berlin; these were of granite; and I saw a
great quantity of them collected together at Belitz.
602. The following stage was to Treuenbrietzen,
distant 2 miles. Belitz is situated in a vale con-
sisting of meadows formed on the sediments of a
brook
144
3
brook flowing this way to join the Havel. My road
at first led me up a hill, the slope of which was
cultivated, as being in the neighbourhood of this
small town; but the upper part consists of nothing
but loose sand, interspersed with woods of pines.
Hence I descended into a very fertile vale, part of
which was in tillage, part in hay-fields, and the rest
in pasturage. Beyond this vale, where the soil had
been enriched by the sediments of the waters, I
crossed another hill, and again saw nothing but pines
and loose sands, till I went down towards Treun-
brietzen. For some way, I saw blocks along my
road; but afterwards these disappeared, as did even
their smallest fragments, and I saw no more till I
approached the town. My last stage this day was
to Wittenberg, which was at the distance of 4 miles,
and night overtook me before I arrived there: the
country consisted of hills and plains; there were
still loose sands and heath, but a great deal of the
land had been brought into cultivation. Blocks of
granite, and other stones of the same class, lay here
in great abundance, and I had nowhere else seen
any so large on this side of the country of Bremen.
Sept. 9th. From Wittenberg, which is on the
right bank of the Elbe, I crossed that river, and pro-
ceeded to Düben, at the distance of 4 miles. In
relating my return from this journey, I shall describe
the Elbe on the Wittenberg side; but at present I
shall confine myself to its opposite bank, which pre-
sents an example of the principal effects of such rivers
as
7
;
145
they
as frequently flow between sandy hills. I have al-
ready described these effects in several parts of the
course of the Elbe, and likewise, towards the end of
the preceding journey, on that of the Oder; but
as this is one of the grand features of the history
of our continents, I shall here repeat its chief cha-
racters, before I proceed to give a new example of
tl.cm.
603. These rivers having at first invariably fol-
lowed the line of the lowest grounds which lay on
their course, passed, in some places, between sandy
hills; whence resulted three classes of effects:-1st.
They attacked such of the promontories of these
hills as opposed their free passage, and sapping their
foot, occasioned the crumbling down, not only of the
strata of sand, but of those of marl and clay which
happened to be interposed between the former; and
these materials, falling on the beds of the streams,
were carried along by their current.-2dly. These
rivers in some places, met with low soils of the same
nature, over which, during their inundations, they
had room to spread: they levelled these soils, cspe-
cially when their waters were raised up in waves by
the wind, beating down all the small eminences, and
depósiting new materials between them.-Sdly. and
lastly, wherever their current was much slackened
on entering any wider space, these rivers deposited
on their shores the sand and other minute materials,
which cannot float in water, unless it possesses a cer-
tain rapidity.
VOL. II.
604. At
-
L
}
P
146
604. At the time when these rivers commenced
the two last operations, the declivity of their beds
was not uniform; certain horizontal spaces were
succeeded by others which were rapid; and the cur-
rent carrying down the sand from the higher parts,
the general level of the bed was thus gradually
lowered. There were also some bars of sand, which,
by keeping the water above them at a greater height,
caused it to encroach the more on the low soils on
its borders, and consequently to level them to a
farther distance; but these bars having by degrees
been carried away, the water of the whole river has
a little sunk, and wide tracts of levelled ground have
been left above the reach of its inundations, except
in very extraordinary cases.
605. The rivers of these countries would have
everywhere raised, by their sediments, the soils over
which they had sufficient space to spread; and in
consequence of the gradual lowering of their level,
their banks would have assumed such a declivity,
as in time would have been overspread with grass,
while the water was low, and thus guarded against
the attacks of the current; but these operations have
been impeded by the labour of men: the alluvial
soils which are formed along these borders being too
fertile to be left only as meadows more or less ex-
posed to inundations, the owners of the land have
in most places enclosed them, in order to convert
some parts into hay-fields, and to bring into tillage
those
1
147
those tracts where the sand bears a sufficient pro-
portion to the rest of the sediments to render them
fit for the plough. Wherever any settlements there-
fore have been formed, these soils have been enclosed
with dikes; and the rivers have consequently been
prevented from making permanent banks, with grassy
slopes, over which the water would only have risen
to a greater or less height, without attacking them;
in some places however, where the alluvial soils are
not so broad as to be worth the expense of enclosure,
banks of this kind have been formed.
606. Thus, wherever there happen to be low
grounds of a certain extent, towards which the hills
descend with a gentle slope, soils of three distinct
kinds succeed each other on the banks of these
rivers: on the immediate borders of the stream are
the alluvial soils, that is to say, those composed of
the sediments which it has deposited on its own ori-
ginal bed, whereof, consequently, the breadth is
contracted next to these are the soils above its
common height, but covered by its waters during
foods, and gradually levelled by its sediments; and
beyond these again is the original land, which,
though low, is above the reach of inundations.
Soils of the first description are very fertile, because
in them the sand is mixed with the marly and ar-
gillaceous particles contained in the sediments of the
river: the levelled soils have likewise acquired more
or less fertility, because the most minute of these
L 2
particles
148
1
particles remain a long time suspended in the water,
and are carried on both sides towards its borders:
but, in these sandy countries, the original soil, over
which the river has never risen, continues barren.
607. This is one of the classes of monuments
which chronometrically trace the history of rivers in
sandy countries; and an example of it is afforded by
the Elbe near Wittenberg. This town is situated
at the foot of a hill near the right bank of the river;
I shall speak of it more in detail on my return from
this journey; at present, I shall only say that its
lower part is guarded against inundations by a dike;
but that the sandy soil formed along the Elbe below
the town has not been thought worth the expense of
enclosure: when the river is low, this soil furnishes
a scanty pasturage for cattle; during floods, it is
passed over on a high causeway, terminating at a
wooden bridge over the river, which is here of great
breadth, but not very rapid; and this bridge meets
the dike of the alluvial soil on the opposite side. After
having crossed this dike, I proceeded on another
high causeway over the soil within it, which is very
wide, and may be distinguished, as well by its perfect
horizontality, as by the many ditches that intersect
it for the purpose of carrying the rain-waters into
The
the river, through the sluices of the dike.
height of the water in these ditches, and in the prin-
cipal canals, is always the same as that of the river,
except when the latter rises above the level of the soil;
when
149
when that is the case, the sluices are closed. This
alluvial soil extends as far as the village of Prata,
at which begins the tract merely levelled by the
stream while its waters were still unrestrained by
dikes this is less fertile than the alluvial, but much
more so than the original land; and it extends the
whole way to the small town of Kemberg built on
the border of the latter, along which are small cliffs,
marking the line attained by the waves during inun-
dations, antecedently to the construction of the dikes.
In very extraordinary floods, the Elbe rises over
these dikes, and expanding itself over the two former
kinds of soil, converts them into a lake, two leagues
in breadth. This had happened in 1773, and again.
to a still greater extent, at the beginning of the year
in which I made this journey: my postillion sheweđ
me a monument of the last inundation, against the
church of a village called Eutsch, a considerable
way within the levelled soils; and the line marking the
height to which the river had then risen was about
four feet above their surface. For this reason, the
causeway that crosses the alluvial soils is prolonged a
considerable way over those which are only levelled;
it is paved; and I observed that the waves of the
temporary lake, formed during the recent inunda-
tion, had in many places attacked it, and carried
away the pavement, which was not yet repaired.
These are vexatious accidents to persons who in-
habit houses near the river; but they are very ad-
vantageous to the lands, for I was told that the
harvest had this year proved particularly abundant.
608. From
Juleka
12%
150
608. From Kemberg, where I entered on the
lands over which the Elbe has never risen, I ascend-
ed a hill with a soil very full of stones, and by no
means fertile. This hill continued to rise, though
with many inflexions, till having reached its summit,
I came to the edge of a chasm, deep, abrupt, and
very tortuous, of which the bottom was covered with
wood, as were likewise the sides, forming rapid
slopes. In order to render the effects of the catas-
trophes of the strata fully intelligible, without ascri-
bing them to causes which have been in action only
since our continents have existed, it is absolutely
necessary in geology to assign a peculiar name to
this particular class of cavities; and for this reason,
from the beginning of my Travels last published, I
have called them combcs; an appellation by which,
in several countries, they are distinguished from
callies and vales, wherein rivers flow; while of
combes it is the distinctive character that they rise
up to the highest grounds, and that consequently
they cannot afford a passage to any streams.
609. The combe, of which I am now speaking, is
in fact a kind of forest below the level of the summit
of the hills: I descended one of the sides, at first
very rapid; but at its foot I came into a small plain,
where stands the house of a forester, beyond which,
for an hour and a half, I passed through successive
defiles, where I sometimes went over the projections
of the sides, and sometimes proceeded along the bot-
tom, where nothing flows but a rivulet composed of
the
151
7
the waters of springs. On the road which continued
to lead me down the combe, I saw a vast quantity of
blocks of granite, some of them nearly 8 feet in
length. The ground is here entirely concealed;
for in this deep cavity, the shade continually preserves
such a degree of moisture, as renders vegetation
particularly luxuriant; the sides, therefore, do not
crumble down. There is a pool on the course of the
rivulet, which, consequently, has carried nothing
with it out of this combe; and when, at last, I issued
forth into a plain, I saw the water of the little stream
very clear, and flowing on a bed of the same gravel,
which, mingled with sand, forms, in this space, the
poor superficial soil. This, in short, is a chasm of
the same nature as those that I described, in one of
my preceding journeys, on the borders of the Elbe;
with only the difference, that this, instead of termi-
nating at the side of a river, opens into a plain. I
was still at some distance from Düben; but I saw
scarcely any more blocks in my road; and though
the ground continued low, it had little appearance
of fertility.
610. I proceeded this day but one stage farther,
which was to Leipzig, at the distance of 4 miles.
In my way thither I crossed the Mulde, a river
passing through Düben, and uniting with the Elbe at
Dessau; I saw it flowing very slowly, because its
bed has but a small declivity; and it is so little
above the level of the Elbe, that the latter, when
greatly swelled, overflows the lower part of the vale
of
152
of the former, which is on both sides bordered with
low: soils levelled by the river during floods; these
are easily distinguished by their fertility, which is
greatly superior to that of the succeeding soils,
though at a level very little higher the latter are
subject, however, to occasional inundations; and the
postillion told me that they had been under water
the beginning of this same year. A causeway, which
crosses all these soils, extends beyond Düben to a
village where the ground rises, and is at first very
barren, being partly covered with heath, and partly
with woods of pines and birches; but afterwards I
found a great change in the scene; for I came to a
vast arable plain, extending as far as Leipzig. I
had never passed over such a plain as this; for as I
was travelling on it, I saw it, for a long time, meet
the horizon all around; nor did I perceive a single
tree, hedge, or bush, except immediately round the
villages, which rose like islands in the ocean. Before
I came within view of these villages, I could distin-
guish, on the horizon, the spires of their steeples, re-
sembling the masts of large vessels when they are
first descried at sca; by degrees, I gained sight of
the steeples themselves, and at last of the villages
more or less distant from me; and in the same gra-
dual manner the objects which I left behind me dis-
appeared. The perfect uniformity of this whole
tract of arable land has obliged the different owners.
of it to raise small mounts, of different forms, and
covered with grass, that they may be able from a
distance to distinguish their own possessions.
611. Here
អ
153
611. Here appears a strong instance of the ef-
fect of manure and cultivation in ameliorating the
most sandy soils. To judge of the soil of this plain
from that of the roads, which was of the most barren
white sand, it could not be expected to yield such
harvests as are really produced here; but the vicinity
of Leipzig, a large commercial town with meadows
near it, has supplied every thing necessary for the
fertilization of this scil: in the fields it has become
grey, by the mixture of manure, and of the stubble
ploughed into it; so that even the parts left as fal-
lows yield pasturage to fine herds of cattle. When
I saw this immense extent of corn-land, I was not
surprized that Leipzig is so fainous for its larks,
which in winter are sent to a great distance, being
first plucked, and very closely packed in boxes.
612. One circumstance which may have favoured
the cultivation of so extensive a tract of ground is,
that there are here no stones, and I saw scarcely
any blocks; but the case is different on the other
side of Leipzig, where there is again a great change
in the appearance of the country. This town is
built partly in a vale, in which the small river Elster,
augmented by the waters of the surrounding hills,
flows to join the Elbe at a considerable distance.
The soil of the vale, having been levelled and en-
riched to a great breadth by the sediments of the
stream, is partly converted into meadows and rich
corn-fields, and the rest is occupied by fine woods.
Many of the intersections of the hills open into this
vale;
1
154
T
vale; and here I again found abundance of blocks
and smaller masses belonging to the primordial strata:
I saw a number of these blocks along the houses at
Leipzig, and they are broken and used, together
with gravel, for mending the roads. These blocks
are of a brown quartzeous stone which is very hard.
Sept. 10th. I set out in the morning from Leipzig
by the road leading to Gera, and my first stage was
to Pegau, 3 miles distant from the former place.
At Leipzig begins a causeway which is a league in
length, extending across meadows to a village,
whence the ground descends to the level of the
Elster, that river here dividing its stream, and wind-
ing through large vales, which it converts into the
richest bay-fields and pastures; and this has contri-
buted to fertilize the whole of the surrounding lands
to such a degree, that I never saw, in any country,
a greater luxuriance of vegetation. Here neither
blocks, nor large stones of any kind, are suffered to
remain in the fields; they are laid along the sides of
the road, especially in the villages, which have been
greatly multiplied, on account of the number of hands
required to cultivate these lands, where the products
of the different seasons follow each other in the most
rapid succession. Among the blocks, I still saw
some of granite; but the greater part are of the
above hard homogeneous stone, which is conchoidal
in its fracture, and of which the surface is of a yel-
lowish brown: these masses have retained their
angles; but those of granite have the rounded form
of
1
Į
155
of most of the granitic blocks scattered over the
countries lately described. The causeway which
crosses these meadows is very good; it is rendered
firm by large gravel of the same stones, mixed with
a fine gravel of white quartz which is found in the
soil; the whole being covered with a yellowish sand
taken out of a particular stratum, at some depth
below the surface: for this purpose some large exca-
vations had been made, where I saw the section of the
stratum; and the sand resembles that which is found
in the southern part of England, mixed with abund-
ance of siliceous gravel.
613. My second stage was to Zeitz, a small town
at the distance of 2 miles. I still continued to travel
over very fertile lands, along one of the wide vales
covered with meadows, through which the Elster
flows. This small river rises at the foot of the
granitic eminences of the chain of the Fichtelberg;
yet the blocks of granite, so abundantly scattered in
the countries lower down on its course, here entirely
disappear, though other blocks are found in the loose
soil those which impeded the ploughing of the fields
have been taken up, and laid along the sides of the
road, or in the villages; but they are all of the brown
stone just mentioned: a great deal of gravel of
white quartz is also found in some particular strata
of the loose soil; and the causeway is here covered
with it. At Zeitz, the Elster, which flows along the
slope of a hill whereon that town is built, is crossed on
a bridge; its bed (like that of all rivers in horizontal
5
vallies
1
156
1
vallies and plains) is not covered with any other
stones than such as are contained in the loose soil
of the hill at the foot of which it-flows.
}
614. My last stage this day was to Gera, at the
distance of 2 miles. In setting out from Zeitz, I
passed through the upper part of that town, from
which I soon came down to lower ground; but after-
wards I ascended a higher hill. The first slope of
the latter is so rapid, that, in order to carry the road
up it, a long excavation has been made, in the lower
part of which are seen, in the steep sides, sections of
the interior strata of the soil, filled with large blocks
of the brown stone with conchoidal fractures, and
with blocks of white quarts, besides a quantity of
smaller masses of both kinds; the latter only are
rounded, and with them Zeits is paved.
F
а
615. There are several ridges of these hills; and
from the summit of the second ridge, I had a view of
a country very different from that over which I had
just passed; it was covered, indeed, with sand, but
the outlines were much less softened; for it was
deeply intersected with vallies and combes, and their
very abrupt sides were cloathed with forests. The
mass of these hills consists entirely of loose strate,
which are principally of sand, intermixed with some
of clay, and present their sections on the sides. All
these strata are parallel with each other, and in those
parts where their sections follow the direction of
their planes, their lines appear nearly horizontal;
but
{
2
157
but in the projections, where they are seen sideways,
I perceived that they inclined towards the interior
part of the hill. This is a proof that these rallies
and combes were produced by fractures accompa-
nied with the angular motion of the separated parts,
and extending down to the stony strata beneath, the
fragments of which, during the catastrophe, were
ejected, through those fractures, over the loose
strata that covered them. The soil of these hills is
much less fortile than that of the preceding; it is in
great part covered with heath interspersed with
woods of pines and birches, which are always an in-
dication of barren sands. All the blocks scattered
on the surface are of the hard stone with conchoidal
fractures; and in the cultivated parts I saw a
great many small masses of white quartz and grey
wacke.
616. I continued to travel over the same soil,
across which I found some large inflexions, till I
came to the top of the last of these eminences,
commanding a view of Gera. This town is situ-
ated in a valley towards which the hills on this side
are cut down very abruptly; but I descended thither
by a combe, beginning at a great distance on the
top of the hills. In the rapid sides of this combe,
covered with forests, like those of one lately de-
scribed, I saw stony strata, of which I had not ob-
served any in the preceding part of this road; they
consisted of a grey foliated sand-stone, containing a
great deal of calcareous matter: these strata, which
were
*
158
were here and there exposed to view along a road
cut on one side of the combe, had different incli-
nations in different parts of the same side. This
combe is of great extent, and very wide in some
places; but the lower part is so much contracted,
and terminates in a defile so narrow, that formerly
it was closed by a gate, of which the posts are still
standing at the point of its opening into the large
valley, where à village is situated. When this de-
file, whence no stream issues but a mere rill com-
posed of the waters of the springs on its sides, is
compared with the vast cavity above, the sides of
which every where exhibit sections of stony strata,
it is impossible to consider it any otherwise than
as another large fracture, in some parts double,
and attended by the subsidence of the intermediate
masses.
617. Marks of similar catastrophes appear in
every part of the large valley of Gera, which may
almost be considered as a cul-de-sac; for not far
above the town, it is closed by an amphitheatre of
hills it is only through a cleft in these hills that the
Elster finds a passage into the valley; the spacious
bottom of which, having been levelled by the inun-
dations of the stream, is thus converted into mea-
dows, on both sides extending to the foot of the
hills, which form the amphitheatre, and, are inter-
sected with deep clefts in every direction. These
ineadows begin at the point where Gera is situated
on one of the projections of the hills; thus the town
and
159
and its castle have a very picturesque appearance.
I had taken care to arrive here at an early hour,
that I might have leisure to examine the spot.
1
618. The castle of Gera stands on the summit
of a rock, on the left bank of the river, advancing
in the front of a promontory, from which it is se-
parated by a deep cleft. In order to reach the foot
of this rock, I crossed a garden, chiefly on the ho-
rizontal soil of the bottom of the valley, and I then
ascended the rock itself, by a steep and winding
path, paved with white quarts, and leading up to
the terrace of the castle, round which I walked.
I went down afterwards into the cleft, extending as
far as to a small lateral valley. Here, on the slope
of the hill, I observed the section of shattered
strata of argillaceous schistus, of which I had seen
none on the opposite side of the great valley. Both
the sides of the cleft are covered with beeches and
firs, growing between projecting rocks; and the
greater part of its very rugged bottom is overspread
with moss; a constant humidity being preserved
there by the shade of the trees, and by some small
springs which issue from between the strata of the
hill. The latter being of considerable height, its
summit afforded me a view of all the country lying
on this side of the granitic chain of the Fichtel-
berg, which I saw rising on my left. This country
is interspersed with hills, some with abrupt sides,'
and covered with wood, others of a more softened
form, and cultivated.
619. That
160
619. That I might the better understand the
nature of the castle-rock, I descended towards the
great valley, following, through the brushwood on
its side, the very steep tracks formed by the rain-
waters, which, carrying down with them the schis-
tose rubbish, had here luid open the strata: these
strata dip, and their sections form a kind of steps;
but sometimes so distant, that I could not have de-
scended from one to another, unless I had caught
hold of the bushes on the sides. I thus reached
the horizontal soil of the valley, in a part where it
meets the abrupt side of the rock. The surface of
this soil, which is very fertile, consists of the latest
sediments of the river; but before the latter had
ceased to deposit any thing more than inere powder,
or sand, it had brought down the gravel contained
in the loose soil on the sides of the hills, which is
seen on the bed that it occupies during the scasons
of ordinary rains. But this bed is bordered, at
some distance, by dikes, in order to prevent the
river, when swelled, from spreading, and attacking
the cultivated lands, of which the soil has been
formed by its sediments. I was told, however, that,
at the beginning of this same year, when, as I have
already mentioned, all the rivers of this country had
been swelled to a very unusual height, on account
of the great quantity of snow which, during the
winter, had accumulated on the mountains, the
Elster had risen above these dikes, and had reduced
into a lake the whole of the large valley of Gera:
but the valley being horizontal, a the water, in
conse-
161
consequence, having scarcely any current, it only
covered the springing corn with fresh sediments,
and the harvest proved afterwards more than usually
abundant.
620. I have already said that, during common
rains, this river preserves a permanent bed: it bends
its course below Gera, and in one part flows at the
foot of the castle-rock; when I was there, how-
ever, it did not come quite up to this rock, under
which I passed on the gravel. But during very
rainy seasons, the Elster rises up to the bottom of
the slope of rubbish, causes it to crumble down,
and disperses its materials, not suffering them to
accumulate here in the same manner as in other
parts. When I observed this spot, I saw, beneath
the section of the rubbish, that of the schistose
strata, which pass under the soil, with a strong in-
clination towards a great cleft in the hills above.
It is thus that the sections of these strata form the
surface of the slope that I had descended from the
castle; and hence it is evident that the large valley,
beginning from the cul-de-sac, must have been pro-
duced by a subsidence, accompanied with the an-
gular motions of the masses at present forming its
sides; a catastrophe which happened antecedently
to the birth of the continents. For it may plainly
be seen that, since the river has flowed here, its
only operation has been to level and raise the bot-
tom by its sediments.
VOL. II.
M
Sept.
162
Sept. 11th. My first stage this day was to Auma,
at the distance of three miles. On coming out of
Gera, I ascended, for some way, the left bank of
the Elster; and I then entered a combe, very irre-
gular, and at first very deep, it being of the same
nature as that by which I had descended to the right
bank of the rivér; and of this combe also the steep
sides are covered with firs. When I had proceeded
some way up a road on the right side, I looked
down on the valley, which lay at a great depth
below me. The road being, in many parts, cut in
the schistose strata, I saw them at first inclining in-
wards, and turning their sections towards the cul-
de-sac, which had been the point of the greatest
subsidence; but, as I continued to ascend, I ob-
served frequent changes both in the inclination and
in the direction of these strata.
621. I thus arrived on the summit of a ridge of
hills, which continued to rise on the left, and which
I followed in that direction. It has been seen in the
combe below that the inferior mass of these hills is
of schistus; yet on the summit I found nothing but
strata of loose soil, superficially mixed with blocks
and gravel of white quarts and of grey wacke.
After having continued to ascend for three quarters
of an hour through woods of firs, I came to the
highest part of this ridge of hills, which is, indeed,
the most elevated spot within a great distance all
around; for when I had proceeded on it some time,
my eye passed over all the neighbouring eminences,
and
·
163
and the horizon was in every part bounded by the
sky. Hence I began to descend a slope, extending
a great way, but with deep intersections, the abrupt
sides of which are covered with fir-woods; and this,
as I have already had occasion to observe, is always
an indication of sections of the strata, because the
roots of the trees easily penetrate between them.
Farther on, I saw ridges of hills, one behind
another, which were all much intersected, and their
abrupt sides were likewise covered with firs. These
ridges continued rising to the view the whole way
to the granitic chain of the Fichtelberg. Near the
top of the slope, I saw, here and there, some rocks
of schistus rising above the sand, which, lower down,
is very deep. The heath and the pine-woods then
appeared again, and the cultivated spaces shewed
great marks of sterility; I did not here observe
either blocks or gravel of any kind; and this was
the case till I reached the village of Grosse-Ebers-
dorf, where was the half-way house. These thick
loose soils on the highest hills of a country, where
they cover the ruins of stony strata, to the nature
of which they are altogether extraneous, cannot
certainly have been produced on our continents since
they have existed, but are to be ascribed to the
last operations of the sea, before it retreated into
its present bed.
K
622. From Grosse-Ebersdorf to Auma, the soil
is low, and bears all the characters of a great sub-
sidence of strata formerly continuous with those
which
M 2
164
which compose the surrounding eminences, and of
which rocks, in many places, rise above the sur-
face; within this tract, the parts at a certain height
are cultivated and fertile; such as are higher are
covered with sand, and produce nothing except
pines and heath; but the lower spaces are grassy,
being under water in rainy seasons; and here also
springs issue from the sections of the strata, and
form permanent rivulets uniting in a brook which
passes by Auma to join the Elster. Several rocks
of schistus here rise above the sand; and I found
their number increase as I crossed a wood where I
saw on the surface, not only a great deal of gracel
of white quartz, but likewise blocks of the same
nature; some very large ones lay near Auma, which
is a small town built at the foot of a new ridge of
hills.
623. My second stage was to Schleits, at the dis-
tance of two miles. In some deep clefts of the
hills which I first crossed, I saw the schistus be-
neath the loose soil, but in so shattered a state, that
I found much difficulty in distinguishing its strata;
however, I could perceive them to be differently
inclined in different places. This situation of the
strata renders it very unpleasant to travel on these
hills, in parts where their section forms the surface,
while their direction obliquely crosses that of the
road; because, when one wheel of the carriage
rises, another suddenly sinks, in passing over the
edge of a stratum more broken than those between
1
which
165
which it lies. I have already described this symp-
tom of subsidences and angular motions, on sum-
mits composed of strata of lime-stone, sand-stone,
and granite, as well as on those of schistus: it is a
very frequent phenomenon, and I shall again have
occafion to mention it. I crossed several ridges of
these hills, of which the very stony parts are covered
with fir-woods; but those where the loose soil hap-
pens to be deep have been brought into cultivation.
The intervals of these hills are occupied by mca-
dows, where, in several places, the rain-waters are
retained by dikes, in order to form ponds, the water
of which is led to supply some mills.
624. From the brow of the last of these hills, I
had a view of Schleits, which is built around the
extremity of a promontory advancing into the valley
from an opposite ridge, and of which a large castle
forms the highest part. Into this valley likewise,
I descended by a combe, which on both sides pre-
sents sections of the schistose strata; and as they
incline obliquely towards the interior part of the
hill, their sections are also seen on the side of the
valley opposite to Schleits. On arriving at this
town, I found the promontory, as well as the ridge
from which it projects, and which borders this side
of the valley, to consist of schistus with nearly ver-
tical strata. Thus, when the whole assemblage of
these objects is considered, no doubt can be enter-
tained that the valley has been produced by a great
subsidence between two fractures; that the sides have
under-
166
¿
1
undergone angular movements; and that the pro-
montory of Schleitz is only a part of the sunken
mass, which has happened to remain at a higher
level than the rest.
625. My last stage this day was to Gefeli. In
setting out from Schleitz, I passed through the
upper part of the town, which extends along the
promontory, and continued my road over some hills
much intersected: the low parts are here still occu-
pied by meadows on alluvial soil; the summits are
cultivated, wherever the loose soil has happened to
be sufficiently thick and unobstructed; but some
parts, where the surface is broken by many frac-
tures near each other, and where it is likewise in-
cumbered with vast quantities of stones, are entirely
abandoned to fir trees.
626. For some years, however, great ravages
have been committed in the fir-forests of these
countries by a small species of caterpillar; an ani-
mal particularly destructive to trees of this kind,
which not only die when their leaves are devoured,
but also become useless as timber, their fibres de-
caying, and losing all tenacity; so that they are cut
down only for fuel; and even for that purpose they
are very unprofitable, as they consume rapidly, and
emit but little heat. The forests killed by this insect
have a very melancholy appearance; from a dis-
tance they look as if lime had been thrown over
them, being entirely covered with the white webs of
J
the
#
167
the caterpillars; and as soon as the trees are dead,
all their branches are overspread with a grey lichen.
These insects had not spared the young firs, still
near the ground, which, had the forests been
merely felled, would have been left to ensure their
renewal; but the birches growing among the firs
had not been touched.
627. There were some large spaces in which the
trees thus killed had been already cut down; and
it was there that I observed the nature of the soil
to be such as I have aboye described it, with abrupt
clefts at little distance from each other, which are
studded with rocks, and shew that the strata have
undergone astonishing convulsions. It is in soils
of this nature that forests are preserved, because,
as the plough cannot here be used, the husbandman
has no inducement to attack them; and firs being
the trees which thrive the best in these countries,
great rewards have been offered by the neighbour-
ing governments to those who should find means of
putting an end to the ravages of this caterpillar;
but I have never learnt whether any such means
have been discovered. All these hills are of
schistus; yet in the loose soil of the surface are
found great quantities of gravel and of large blocks,
both of white quartz and of grey wacke; though
neither of these stones appears externally.
628. The small town of Gefell is in a valley;
and as I wished to examine the adjacent country,
I would
168
1
I would not this day proceed any farther. I walked
up the valley by the side of a brook flowing through
pasture-grounds, where I saw a great many blocks of
white quartz; one which I measured was eight feet
in its greatest length. I ascended to the top of the
hill by a road very deeply cut in one side of the
valley. This road, on both its sides, exhibited the
section of a very thick loose soil, the upper strata of
which were full of gravel and blocks of white quartz.
In my return, I followed the brook for a certain
way through pasturages formed on the soils upon.
which it had deposited its sediments; but the same
blocks of white quarts were everywhere scattered over
them; and some of these masses had obliged the
stream to bend its course, as it had not been able
to move them while it was forming its present bed.
This bed, which was about two feet below the level
of the grass, was covered with the gravel of white
quartz belonging to the soil, the sand only having
been washed away by the brook. Here then we
may observe an immediate proof that this valley has
been produced by subsidence; since on its bottom
are found the same stones which prevail on the sum-
mit of the bordering hills, and are contained only
to a certain depth in the loose strata,
629. From hence I might have gone directly to
the Fichtelberg; but had I attempted to visit that
chain without very intelligent guides, I might have
thrown away much time and fatigue to very little
purpose. As I had foreseen this before my depar-
ture
}
L
169
ture from Berlin, I had addressed myself to Baron
VON HARDENBERG, Minister of state, with whom I
had long had the honour of being acquainted; he had
given me a letter of recommendation to the Baron
his brother, Grand Ranger of the country of Bay-
reuth; and as this nobleman resided in the castle
of Bayreuth, I went first to that place, in order to
obtain his instructions and assistance.
Sept. 12th. Setting out therefore from Gefell for
Bayreuth, (where I arrived in the evening,) my first
stage was to Hof, a town at the distance of two
miles, belonging to the Margraviat. The road con-
tinued to lie across successive ridges of hills; and
as I approached the chain of the granitic eminences,
its intersections appeared to increase in depth. The
hills over which I was travelling were all of schistus,
and their strata were in great disorder. I descended
to the village of Teben by a deep and narrow combe,
evidently seen to be a great fracture, both from its
appearance, and because on both sides of it there
are several others of a similar nature, and in the
same direction. The whole of its slope on the left
side, which is very rapid, is studded with rocks;
and the fracture having taken a winding course, some
lateral sections enabled me to see that the strata
incline towards a neighbouring combe; but subsi-
dences having taken place in that which I was now
descending, its opposite side, less rapid, and with-
out any projecting rocks, is formed by the plane of
the strata.
630. I
170
↓
630. I continued to see blocks of white quartz
all the way to Teben, and likewise on the slope of a
hill which I ascended beyond it; on the hill itself,
however, there were no blocks but of grey wacke.
The summits and slopes of these hills are either
in tillage, or covered with woods, according to
their form, or the nature of their soil. All the
low spaces are grassy; brooks or small rivers
flow in them; and it is here that the villages
are situated. Hof, with its gardens, occupies the
whole of an almost insulated eminence which rises
in one of these vales, and is covered with a thick
loose soil; but, as I entered this small town, I saw
strata of schistus at the base of the hill. The
Saale, which rises among the granitic summits,
passes near this mount, and flows through meadows
planted with trees. I ascended this eminence within
the town, and descended in the saine manner on the
opposite side.
631. My second stage was to Münchberg, at the
distance of two miles. From the entrance of the
Margraviat, the causeways are excellent, and the
slopes have been softened as much as possible by
cutting deeply into the eminences, and employing the
materials taken out in raising the low parts. Where-
ever these deep cuts have been made in the sum-
mits, the stony strata have been laid open.
open. In part
of the road to Münchberg, I saw for some time the
argillaceous schisti, which were succeeded by mica-
ceous schisti, and afterwards, in the ridges nearest
to
J
171
to the granitic eminences, by gneiss. The disorder
of the strata in these ridges, and the successive
approaches of their nature to that of granite, be-
sides an intermixture of strata of sand-stone, which
I shall mention in the sequel; the loose soils cover-
ing all these strata, and containing blocks and gra-
vels of stones extraneous to them; and lastly, the
much intersected ridge of granite, which is bor-
dered by these various species of strata, and towers
above the whole; all these are circumstances most
clearly characteristic of an original state of the con-
tinents at their birth: for none of the causes in
action on them since that period can possibly have
thrown strata, which were manifestly formed one on
another, into these distinct and neighbouring ridges.
Thus then it is that rallies have been produced; and
it would be a contradiction to obvious facts to per-
severe in maintaining the hypothesis of their exca-
vation by running waters; since, besides that the
true cause of their formation may here so plainly be
seen, I have everywhere shewn that these waters
have raised the bottom of the rallies by their sedi-
ments. Nor would it be less in opposition to the
evidence of facts, to suppose that the loose soil which
covers the stony strata is the product of the decom-
position of the latter by atmospherical actions; for
besides its prodigious thickness in many places, and
its arrangement in strata of various natures differing
from those of the stony strata beneath them, no ex-
isting cause can have brought to the surface frag-
ments,
K
179
ments, sometimes so immense, of stony strata,
which do not themselves externally appear.
632. I had not, for some time, seen any masses
of white quartz; but I again found them in great
quantities on such of these hills as had gneiss for
their base. Here also the low spaces are covered
with meadows; but the eminences are so much in-
tersected, that only very small rills are formed in
their intervals, where ponds have been made to
collect the rain-water, and lead it to some mills,
during the wet season of the year; but none was
flowing at present out of these reservoirs. How
then could any blocks have been here propelled by
running waters?
633. My third stage was to Berneck, at the dis-
tance of three miles. In the first part of this road,
there were some descents, but more considerable
rises; and I at last arrived on ground so high, that
it was commanded only by the broken chain of the
Fischtelberg, which, beginning at some distance on
my left, continued to rise before me; but all the
country on my right was much lower. This high
ground was however cultivated, its soil being very
good; but the effect of the elevation of its level in
diminishing the heat was strongly manifested by the
state of the harvest; at this height, the reaping was
but just begun, while in the plain, the crops had
long since been carried in. The loose soil was here
very thick; and it was mingled with blocks of quarts
and
1
5
173
and other hard stones, though there was no mountain
in the neighbourhood which rose above it. From
the summit of this high ridge begin several deep
combes, with abrupt sides covered with firs; and
I descended by one of them to Berneck. This
combe is wide above; but towards the lower part it
is so much contracted, that it affords room only for
the causeway, between the foot of the right side, and
a rivulet flowing at the bottom; the rivulet was at
present very clear, and was sometimes lost under
the grass which bordered its margin. Wherever the
rocks of schistus on the brow of the sides of this
combe have ceased to crumble down, the slopes of
their rubbish are overspread with grass; but this
was not yet everywhere the case; for there were
some parts where the slopes were too frequently
covered by fresh falls of rubbish, to have allowed
vegetation to extend itself over them.
This is one
of the classes of chronometers which I have fre-
quently described in mountainous regions, and which
may everywhere be found there.
634. Berneck lies at the bottom of this combe,
and at the opening also of a narrow valley, from
which issues a branch of the Mayn called Weisse-
Mayn, (or White Mayn,) proceeding from the gra-
nitic eminences, and crossing the schistose ridges by
their vallies. These two intersections of the hills,
by one of which arrives only a small rivulet, and
by the other a river, converge so much, that, in
their lower part, they are separated only by a ledge
of
174
of rock, very high and rapid, and terminating above
in an acute angle. The ruins of an ancient castle
stand on the summit of this promontory, and some
of the towers follow its descent. Under these ruins,
the rocks were still crumbling down; so that many
parts of the slope formed by their rubbish were not
yet covered with grass.
635. On quitting Berneck, (whence I set out for
Bayreuth, distant two miles,) I soon came to the
opening of a third intersection of the strata, which
converges with the two former, and from which
issues only a rivulet; and not far beyond this, I saw
a fourth, larger than the others, but also converging
with them, whence no water proceeds, undoubtedly
because the latter (which is another combe, and of
which the abrupt sides are likewise covered with firs)
extends but a little way in the hill; however I per-
ceived, from a bed of gravel at present dry, that,
during great rains, or thaws of snow, a small tor-
rent is formed in it.
636. Were it not for these four clefts in the hill,
the valley of Berneck would here terminate in a cul
de sac, of which, indeed, I soon saw it assume the
appearance; for, after I had passed these openings,
I could distinguish them only by lines of firs. Above
them, the right side of the valley is continuous, the
upper part being formed by steep rocks still crumb-
ling down; so that on the slopes, which rise to a
great height, there were as yet only a few scattered
tufts
175
tufts of grass. These slopes have been hitherto
prevented from arriving at a fixed state, by the
widening and levelling of the high road at their foot.
For this road, the slopes have furnished materials
in abundance, their mass consisting entirely of frag-
ments; but their base being sapped by the removal
of these from their foot, their surface, not yet
bound by vegetation, has slipped downwards from
a great height; and before it can be secured, by the
growth of plants, froin farther accidents of the same
kind, it must acquire, at a point more remote, the
degree of inclination which is necessary for the
stability of loose materials.
637. The waters uniting together in the valley of
Berneck pass under a bridge: when I crossed it,
the whole stream was received into a canal cut in
the foot of the hills on the left, and led to supply
some mills. The natural bed of the river, in which
part of it flows during very rainy seasons and thaws
of snow, was then dry; immediately below the
bridge, it was narrow, and covered with stones; but
afterwards it became wider; and I saw it con-
tinue to pass across meadows formed on a soil le-
velled by the sand which the river has brought down
in its inundations.
638. If the above description of this valley and
its branches has not sufficiently proved them to have
resulted from catastrophes of the strata anterior to
the birth of the continents, and if the idea of their
excava-
176
excavation by running waters can still be considered
as entitled to any credit, yet farther objections to
that hypothesis will be found in the number of ho-
rizontal spaces lying on the course of these waters
below this point, in which, losing all their rapidity,
they have deposited even sand, as is the case in
lakes, and where, perhaps, they actually formed a
kind of lakes, when they began to flow. At the
issue of the stream from the first of these spaces,
of which I have just spoken, another, of much larger
size, and surrounded with hills, opens on the right,
having its bottom covered with meadows on a soil
levelled by the sand and small gravel brought down
by the river when swelled.
639. The road out of this basin crossed a cul-
tivated hill, beyond which I came again into a low
space occupied by horizontal meadows, whence I
ascended another hill of greater height, and likewise
cultivated, though its slope is very rapid. When,
on reaching the summit of the latter, I turned back
to view the country over which I had passed, few of
its intersections were any longer distinguishable; and
the whole appeared to me merely a continuous
mountain, cultivated to the height of the fir-woods,
which seemed to cover its summit, but which really
grew on that of the Fichtelberg. But I had before
seen that a deep valley separated this chain from the
cultivated hills; and on trying to retrace my road,
the causeway above-mentioned, which passes over
the highest part of the cultivated grounds, enabled
G
1
1
me
177
1
}
me to distinguish where I had entered that tract,
and likewise where lay the combe that had led me
down to Berneck. When I had once determined
these points in the indistinct landscape before my
eyes, I could also perceive, by a difference of tints,
and some slight inflexions marked by lines of firs,
the other clefts of which I had observed the open-
ings; and from similar indications, I could easily
judge that the rest of this amphitheatre was every-
where intersected in the same manner.
640. The chain of hills over which I was at pre-
sent passing being much lower than the grounds
where I had seen the reapers at work, the harvest
was here finished. This chain is of some breadth,
but so unequal in height, that I was continually
either mounting or descending: when I reached its
opposite brow, I looked down into another large
basin, rising up to the mountains on every side ex-
cept that next the town of Bayreuth, which lay be-
fore me, surrounded with many villages. I found
the descent towards it very rapid; but besides that
there is an excellent causeway, particular attention
has here been paid to the comfort of foot-travellers,
and of those who carry burdens. Instead of common
mile-stones, there is placed, at every quarter of a
German mile, a stone bench, neatly made, and
very solid; its front forms an obtuse angle; on each
side of which the distances of the principal places
lying in those directions are deeply and distinctly
engraven. It is a great relief for persons who
VOL. II.
N
travel
178
A
travel with burdens along this road, which is all the
way up and down hill, to be able, when they come
to these benches, to lay down their loads and rest
themselves; and foot-passengers, who are very nu-
merous in this part of the country, are also glad
to see what progress they have made. The last
chain of hills on the Bayreuth side is of lime-stone;'
and in this large basin, there are many small hills
of the same nature, intermixed with others of sand-
stone; nor can it be doubted, from the fractures,
the disorder, and the various inclinations of these
strata, as well as from the blocks scattered on the
surface of the soil, that this low space has been pro-
duced by a great subsidence, attended with angular
motions of the sunken masses.
641. I reached Bayreuth at seven in the evening,
and went immediately to call on Baron Von Hai-
denberg, who gave me a very obliging reception,
and offered to direct and assist me in whatever ex-
cursions I might wish to make. The general view
which I had taken of the country had suggested to
me, in addition to my principal plan of observing
the Fichtelberg, that of examining some part of this
tract of hills consisting of strata of lime-stone and
of sand-stone, which, as I have said, commences at
the foot of the amphitheatre rising towards those
mountains. It had also formed a part of my ori-
ginal design to visit some caverns of the calcareous
hills of this country, much celebrated on account
of the many bones of quadrupeds which had been
found
179
found there, and respecting which various conjec-
tures had been formed.
642. Having mentioned to the Baron my wish to
observe these different objects, he first shewed me,
in a topographical map, the course of both the
branches of the Mayn, distinguished by the names
of White and Red. It was the former stream which
I had crossed at Berneck; and I saw in the map
that, after issuing from the mountains of granite, it
flows along lower vallies, where there are several
lakes on its course. The Red Mayn, which passes
through Bayreuth, has its source at the foot of the
Schneeberg, the highest of the granitic summits,
where it issues from a space which was formerly a
pool, and is still called See, in German signifying a
lake; this is now filled up; not however with ma-
terials brought down by the waters from the heights,
but with peat. Neither of these two branches of
the Mayn, therefore, can be supposed to have ex-
cavated its valley; for in that case it would be im-
possible that any lakes should be found on its course.
Now both these streams, on arriving in the plain,
have their beds, like those of all other rivers,
covered only with the stones which are disseminated
in the loose soil of the country, nor have they brought
down
any others from the mountains.
643. In this part of the country, the names of
places as commonly terminate in reuth, as they do
in rode on one side of the Harts, and in leben on
the
N 2
5
1
}
180
the opposite side; and in ancient dialects, all these
terminations equally indicate lands cleared for culti-
vation: thus Bayreuth, or Beyreuth, signifies near
the cleared land; the first ground here brought into
tillage having probably been in its immediate neigh-
bourhood: but the whole of this country must have
been cleared in very early times, as it is known to
have been cultivated by the Vandals; and there are
even villages in which some traces of the manners
of those people may be observed.
644. Baron Von Hardenberg, having considered
the bearings of the places which I wished to ob-
serve, saw that, as they lay on opposite sides of
Bayreuth, it would be necessary for me to make two
separate excursions for this purpose. It was there-
fore settled that my first journey should be to the
above-mentioned caverns; and while I was on that
side of the country, the Baron advised me to visit a
spot called Sans-pareil, which I should find very
worthy of observation; afterwards, returning from
the caverns to Bayreuth, I was to proceed to the
Fichtelberg, whence he proposed that I should go
back to Berlin by another road, through Bohemia
and a different part of Saxony. My plan being thus
arranged, I hired a carriage for the first of these
excursions.
Sept. 14th. I set out from Bayreuth at 5 in the
morning, intending to go first to Sans-parcil, which
was at the distance of 4 or 5 leagues. Not far from
the
181
w
the town, I began to ascend hills composed of strata
of sand-stone. After having passed through vil-
lage, I suddenly saw below me, on the left, a wide
and deep cleft, the steep sides of which were co-
vered with pines, and the bottom with meadows.
This is a complete cul-de-sac, its upper extremity
being absolutely precipitous; and the road passing
immediately above it is crossed by a brook, which
rushes down into the chasm. I saw several quarries
in my way, where the strata of the sand-stone, very
much shattered, inclined in different places towards
various points. This shews the interior state of these
hills, in which great external signs of catastrophes
will soon appear.
645. After many alternate ascents and descents, I
at last attained the highest point of these eminences.
From this spot, the whole country on the left has the
appearance of an agitated sea, on account of the
abundance of the hills, most of which rise in sharp
ridges, with one side abrupt; and wherever their di-
rection was such as enabled me, from the point where
I stood, to catch a view of their intervals, I saw
that here likewise all the low spaces were covered
with meadows but there is no regularity, either in
the direction of these intervals, or in their breadth;
the ridges of hills which border them soinctimes re-
tire, then advance very near cach other, and then
again retreat. All these circumstances agree with
the idea of catastrophes, but in no respect with that of
the excavation of vallies by running waters; for the
-
meadows
3
182
meadows which have been formed here very evidently
shew that those waters have raised and levelled the
bottom of the intervals with their sediments.
646. To the right of this elevated spot lies Sans-
pareil, to which I descended by several inflexions of
the hills. All these soils are cultivated, and their
surface shews the nature of the strata which they
cover, and in which there is a marked transition,
with scarcely any difference of level. The soil of
the fields was sandy, so long as I continued on the
strata of sand-stone; but I afterwards came to some
other fields where the soil consisted of the rubbish of
lime-stone; and I soon found that this part of the
hills was composed of strata of that nature. Some
large blocks having here lain on the surface, it had
been necessary to remove them when the ground
was cleared, and they are accordingly laid along the
sides of the fields; but though, in the beginning of
this journey, we have seen such vast tracts scattered
with blocks of granite, notwithstanding their distance
from any granitic mountain, yet here, in the imme-
diate vicinity of the granitic eminences of the Fich-
telberg, none of the blocks are of granite, all being
either of sund-stone or of lime-stone. The most trou-
blesome task, however, to the first cultivators of
these grounds was to clear the soil of the smaller
masses of stone, every where so greatly abounding
in it; and they heaped them up in little mounts,
which still remain, being now overgrown with trees.
or bushes. In this part of the hills composed of
calcareous
1
183
calcareous strata, there are also deep clefts, the ab-
rupt sides of which are studded with rocks and co-
vered with firs, and in which flow rivulets formed by
the springs oozing from their sides; one of these
little streams, after having wound along the grassy
bottom of the cleft, enters the village of Allersdorf,
through the whole length of which it passes.
647. I was now near Sans-pareil, which is a park
belonging to the castle of Zwernitz, and symptoms
of the remarkable nature of this place appear in the
approach to it; for the surface of the ground is
studded with large calcareous rocks, and is even in·
tersected in every part with ledges of their strata ;
but the most remarkable ruins of these strata are
within the park, which is planted with beeches on a
very rapid slope, and along the top of which is a
row of insulated rocks, some of them from 50 to 80
feet in height; many others are also dispersed on the
slope among the trees. I left my chaise at the en-
trance of the park, and one of the keepers attended
me through it.
648. The characters above described are common
to many places among mountains; but this spot has
obtained the name of Sans-pareil on account of a
particular circumstance. The lime-stone which forms
the obelisks being mixed with a great deal of sand,
its surface is easily decomposed by the air; the winds
accordingly attack it; and I immediately perceived
the effect of their action, having been accustomed to
observe
3
184
observe the same in other countries. The wind pro-
duces small cavities in the softest parts of the stone;
as soon as these have acquired a certain depth, the
air forms eddies within, and greatly enlarges them;
if the rocks are not of a great thickness, they are
entirely perforated in this manner; and the winds.
then entering the apertures in various directions, and
whirling round in them, hollow out within them la-
teral cavities, like a kind of grottoes. Wherever,
likewise, there were originally any fissures in the
rocks, they have been widened and indented by the
winds; as I have already shewn in the rocks of gra-
nite belonging to the Giant's mountains, and those of
sand-stone on the borders of the Elbe.
649. But in the account of my journey to the
Giant's mountains, I forgot to mention one of the
most remarkable examples of the effects of the
winds on the sand-stone, which might indeed like-
wise be called Sans-pareil in its kind, and which I
saw at Adersbach in Silesia, whither, in the course
of that journey, I had gone from Schmeideberg, and
where, in the subsidence producing a large vale,
there was left, in that vale, a rock of sand-stone di-
vided by vertical fissures; the winds, entering these
passages, have so much widened them as to reduce
the rock into a group of pillars, which, from the un-
equal induration of the stone, have assumed various
singular forms, and, from a certain distance, re-
semble large human figures enwrapt in vcils. These
pillars have continued bare, because the sand of the
decomposed
{
1
185
}
decomposed stone, as it is constantly accumulating
round them, prevents vegetation from spreading
over them; so that when this extraordinary group
happens to be overshadowed by a passing cloud,
while all the surrounding objects are in sunshine,
(which was frequently the case on the day when I
visited the spot,) the spectator might fancy himself
transported to the region of departed spirits. This
operation is rapidly continuing; I saw a few blades
of grass which had sprung up in the sand, and were
already nearly buried by fresh falls. Thus we have
here a new chronometer; for this rock existed at the
birth of the continents, and it is since that epoch
that the winds have reduced it to its present state,
by a progress easily calculable from that of the ac-
cumulation of the sand which they have detached
from it. If then the continents were at present very
ancient, all rocks of this kind would already have
been destroyed, as in time they certainly will be.
649. a. I return, however, to Sans-pareil, where,
before the rocks were surrounded with trees, the
effect of the winds had merely been to perforate
them in different manners. These rocks are masses
of strata that happened to be left at a higher level
than the rest during a great subsidence, which not
only produced the rapid slope now covered with
wood, and the lower space contained also within the
park, but extended considerably farther in the same
direction. Now along the top of the slope, which
was the line of the principal fracture, large pieces.
of
186
of the strata, as they inclined towards the point of
the greatest subsidence, were stopped in their de-
scent by those below them, and thus remained, with
the extremity which had been broken off from the
chief mass of the strata rising to a considerable
height above the level of that mass; and these pieces
now forin a long row of obelisks on the brow of the
slope. Other fragments were stopped at a lower
level; but having likewise assumed an upright posi-
tion, they form similar rocks in the part now covered
with wood. The ancient castle, which commands
the village of Zwernitz, stands on the largest and
highest of the upper rocks. Since these masses
of strata have been surrounded by a wood, their
surface has been overgrown with moss and lichens,
which have impeded their farther destruction, except
in the cavities, where the winds still circulate, and
produce sufficient erosion to prevent the moss from
spreading into them.
650. In the embellishment of this park, great ad
vantage has been made of these very picturesque ca-
vities; and with the assistance of art, not only se-
veral grottoes have been formed in separate rocks,
but, in some places, groups of them have been con-
verted into saloons for various rural purposes, each
distinguished by some name appropriate to relative
circumstances: on the summit of one of the most
lofty of these rocks, which rises above the trees, has
been constructed a Chinese pavillion, commanding a
view of a very extensive range of hills. Here I
made
187
made my guide point out to me in what direction I
was to proceed to Muggendorf, the principal place
in the neighbourhood of the caverns which I intended
to observe; the ground rose on that side, but was
every where equally interspersed with the same mul-
tifarious ridges of hills, resembling, from a distance,
the waves of a much agitated sea.
651. After having staid nearly three hours at
Sans-pareil, I set out, at half past 11, for Wisten-
stein, where I arrived at 3 o'clock. The castle of
this town is built on a rock that projects in front of
a rapid slope, forming one of the sides of a valley
through which the road sometimes passes, and which
is the great channel of the waters of all the sur-
rounding hills, here uniting in a small river; though
there had been rain the preceding days, the water of
this river was already clear, for it proceeds chiefly
from the springs issuing out of the sides of the combes.
The bottom of the valley, wide in some places, and
narrow in others, is covered with meadows, through
which the river winds, and in several parts, the
grass rises up the gradual slopes on the sides, be-
cause the water of the springs is retained for a long
time in the crevices of the strata, and the rubbish
that covers them, before it reaches the meadows
below.
1
659. So far as this, my road had lain across the
hills which I had seen from the pavillion at Sans-
pareil; their state within was externally indicated by
the
i
188
1
the numerous rocks projecting from their rapid
slopes, and by the great abundance of large blocks,
and of smaller masses, every where scattered over
the surface. I again passed from the lime-stone hills
to those of sand-stone, without perceiving the tran-
sition any otherwise than by the change in the ap-
pearance of the soil. These strata, then, are cer-
tainly not in their original situation; since, wherever
that situation is preserved, the sand-stone is found to
cover the lime-stone. I remarked another external
sign of the difference of these soils, by which, in-
deed, I was enabled to distinguish them from a dis-
tance; namely, that the woods on the sand-stone
strata, where the soil is sandy, are of pincs, and
those on the calcareous pars, of firs.
!
653. I set out from Vistenstein, at three quarters
after 3, for Streitberg, at which place I was to ob-
tain directions to the caverns; and I arrived there
at 5 o'clock. As I proceeded in this direction, I
found the ground rise, and the hills assumed very
different forms: here were no longer any rounded
summits, but obtuse pyramids, again, of lime-stone,
studded with rocks, and overspread for the most part
either with firs or with low bushes, according to the
thickness of the loose soil; their intervals were in
tillage, in the parts where the summits were covered
with this soil; but where the rocks were naked, the
only product of the intervals was a thin turf.
last line of these pyramids rose, with the appearance
of battlements, above a precipice which forms one
The
of
189
of the sides of the valley wherein the small river
Wiesent flows to join the Rednitz, both together fall-
ing afterwards into the Mayn below Bamberg. On
arriving between two of these pyramids, the view of
this very extraordinary valley suddenly opened to
me; it has a resemblance to many vallies in the
Alps, and likewise to that of the Rhine between
Coblentz and Mentz; its sides being abrupt, with
projecting rocks, on some of which are ancient
castles. The upper part of the slopes is beset with
rocks, similar to those of Sans-pareil; and both the
sides are adorned with firs, wherever these trees have
found room to grow, either on the rocks, or in their
intervals. The most decided partizans of the hypo-
thesis that vallies have been excavated by running
waters, even those to whose geological systems this
hypothesis is indispensable, as is the case with the
whole of the Huttonian theory, would find it im-
possible to persist in their error, if they would at-
tentively observe such vallies as this. From the part
of its brow on which I arrived, I saw the small river
issue from a very narrow defile; the valley, gradu-
ally expanding below this point, had meadows on its
bottom; and though its sides still preserved the
same marks of catastrophes, there were beneath
their abrupt rocks some slopes of rubbish, which
extended as far as the borders of the meadows, and
were in no place attacked by the stream: these
slopes were cultivated, and their lower part was co-
vered with orchards. The whole of this valley of
the IViesent, so far as I observed it, bears the cha-
racters,
1
190
7
racters, which are common to all vallies, of frac-
tures attended with the subsidence of large interme-
diary masses as I progressively describe it, there-
fore, I shall take it as a new example of this great
fact.
654. At Streitberg, which is an Amt, or baili-
wick, situated at the bottom of this valley, Baron
Von Hardenberg had recommended me to M.
VOELKEL, the Amtmann. As there were indica-
tions of approaching rain, I was desirous to pro-
ceed, this same evening, to Muggendorf, at about a
league's distance, that I might be nearer the caverns
the next morning; and my driver refusing to go on
to that place, because his horses were already tired,
I had determined to walk thither; but M. Voelkel
would by no means allow of this; and having
caused his own carriage to be got ready, he was so
good as to take me to Muggendorf himself, with
the particular view, as he told me, of recommending
me to the Inspector of the Caverns.
655. The appearance of the sides of this part of
the valley greatly contributes to explain in what
manner vacancies have been produced here; for
very large fragments of the broken strata having
fallen one over another, must naturally have left be-
tween them vast interstices in every direction. These
caverns were discovered accidentally; for their en-
trances, being very narrow, had been obstructed by
other masses, over which slopes of rubbish had been
formed,
191
formed, and the whole had been covered with bushes.
But, in the course of time, this soil of rubbish
being deeply penetrated with water after a long con-·
tinuance of heavy rains, it slipped downwards on
some of the declivities, leaving uncovered the rocks
against which it had rested; and in consequence of
this accident, the men employed in cutting wood on
these slopes discovered ten successive caverns, seven
on the right bank of the Wiesent, (the side belong-
ing to Bayreuth,) and three on the left bank, (the
Bamberg side).
656. I had not as yet perceived any marine body
in the lime-stone of the country; that which, on the
hills, appears on both sides of the sand-stone, is of
the same nature as that of Sans-pareil, and liable to
corrosion by the air, whence it has the appearance
of being worm-eaten; thus, seeing it only as I
passed along the road, I had not been able to dis-
cern in it any marine bodies, perhaps because they
were so small as to be mistaken, at some distance,
for the forms produced by erosion. But, on the
sides of the valley of Muggendorf, the strata are,
in some places, of a different nature; and as, where
they crumble down, they shew fresh fractures, I here
perceived cornua ammonis and other shells. On
my arrival at Muggendorf, where I went to lodge at
an inn, M. Voelkel sent for the Inspector of the
Caverns, and particularly recommended me to his
attention, having explained to him what were the ob-
jects which I wished to observe.
657. I had
5
192
+
657. I had a particular view with respect to my
observations here. M. ESPER of Erlang, in his ac-
count of these caverns, which I have cited in my
Letters to Professor Blumenbach, speaks of the
bones that are found here imbedded in stalactite.
These bones have been discovered to be those of the
white bear, an animal belonging to the northern re-
gions; and I had seen a great quantity of them, all
of the same kind, in the mineralogical cabinet belong-
ing to the arsenal at Berlin. Now in M. Esper's
description, there was one circumstance which had
particularly struck me; naniely, that, in certain deep
hollows in these caverns, sea-sund was found under
the stalactites. This had reminded me of a fact
which had been related to me respecting the nor-
thern coast of Scotland; that, on some parts of it,
there are caterns in the rocks bordering the strand,
into which the quadrupeds coming from the sea
very often retire, for the purpose either of devour-
ing their prey, or of bringing forth their
young, and
likewise when they are sick and dying; so that these
caverns become at last their cemeteries. Hence I
had conjectured, with regard to the caverns near
Muggendorf, that while the sea still occupied its
ancient bed, and its level was progressively sinking,
in consequence of the infiltration of its liquid into
the interior part of the globe, (the cause of which has
been explained in my elementary works, where, I
have pointed out several important effects resulting
from this infiltration,) there was a certain period,
when, the level of these caverns having corresponded
i
1
with
193
with that of the sea, they had served as a retreat to
the white bears during sickness or old age. There
were many circumstances which might tend either
to contradict or to verify this conjecture; and hence
chiefly I had been induced to come to examine
every particular on the spot, where, as will be seen,
I met with a very precise fact in confirmation of my
idea.
Sept. 15th. I had requested the Inspector of the
caverns to call on me very early, that we might have
time for our projected excursion; but the prospect
of rain inducing me to wish to shorten it, if this could
be done without missing the sight of any essential
object, I requested him to give me more exact infor-
mation with respect to the particulars observed in
each of the caverns. He then told me, that, of the
ten which had been discovered in this district, only
two contained any bones; that these were the two
highest, and were both on the left side of the river;
but that in all of them there were stalactites, under
which, in some parts, sea-sand was found.
658. This is the circumstance which confirms my
conjecture, while it also indicates what was the latest
level of the sea on its ancient bed, before it suddenly
retired into the bed now occupied by it; this level
corresponding with that of the highest of these
caverns, they thus afforded to the white bears a con-
venient retreat: the lower caverns likewise existed
at that time, having been formed by the same ca-
O
VOL. II.
tastrophes
4
194
tastrophes of the strata; but being below the level
of the water, these animals, if sick, could not retire
into them for air; and when the sea suddenly sank
from this point to its present level, the caverns were
left in the centre of the new continent, and the white
bears, who find their prey on the sea-coast, and even
travel in quest of it over the masses of ice floating
on the sea, followed its retreat towards the north.
Having obtained this important information, and
perceiving, from the appearance of the spot, what
must have been the nature of the catastrophes whence
these caverns had resulted, I determined, as the
weather was so unfavourable, to visit only one of
each kind; and I went first to one of those which
contained the bones, or rather, which had contained
them; for such quantities have been carried away,
that it is difficult now to find even a few remaining
fragments; this was the nearest of the caverns, which
is called Gillingreuth-höhle, from Gilling, a neigh-
bouring village, reuth, a land cleared for cultivation,
and höhle, a cavern: it is on the left bank of the
river, and Muggendorf, is on the right.
659. I set out on foot with the Inspector, at 5 in
the morning, though the rain had already begun ;
he took with him a man who carried a ladder and
some lights. We first ascended the IFiesent about
half a league on the Muggendorf side, and then
crossed it at the mills of Bamfort. We found the
valley very narrow along part of this road; yet the
river never approaches the foot of the rocks on either
side,
La
ļ
195
side, but occupies the middle of the interval, where
it is bordered with meadows. After this, the upper
parts of both sides retreat; but there is below them
a kind of terrace, extending nearly to the river, and
formed by masses which have sunk to a certain depth.
These sides have everywhere the appearance of ruins;
and they again advance towards each other at the
point where the mills are placed. We here crossed
over to the left bank, and came, a little above, to the
opening of a combe, up which lay our way to the
cavern, where we arrived after an ascent of about
half an hour.
660. The entrance of this cavern, at first narrow,
is under a large rock; but the passage soon opens
into a wide space, divided into several cells, appa-
rently produced in part by the decomposition of the
lime-stone, which is here mixed with a great deal of
sand, and is liable to the action of the exterior air;
beyond this, everything is incrusted with stalactites,
below, above, and on the sides. Here it may easily
be judged that these caverns have originated in the
cause to which I have ascribed all cavities of this
kind; namely, a more considerable subsidence of
the inferior strata than of the superior; for, in the
interval thus produced between them, some large
masses detached from the latter are found in a nearly
vertical position. A crevice opening at the foot of
one of these masses, we descended, by a ladder
about 20 feet long, into one of the lower caves, being
that where the bones had been accumulated in the
0 2
greatest
•
196
greatest abundance. This crevice had formerly been
almost wholly obstructed by stalactites, which it had
been necessary to cut away in order to widen the
passage; and it is evident, from certain signs, that
there are some fissures of this kind which have been
completely closed up in the same manner. The
Inspector informed me, that, when this cave was
first entered, the bones were not all covered with
stalactites; so that it had been possible, without
much difficulty, to obtain a great quantity of them
very well preserved, among which were entire heads,
and many other bones characteristic of the species of
animal but that the increase of the stalactites since
that time had now rendered it very difficult to take
out any bones without breaking them. It is beyond
a doubt that these bones belong to the white bear of
the north, though they differ in some respects from
those of the same animal now living; and similar
differences are found in almost every species of quad-
ruped, when the fossil specimens are compared with
the living; as has been shewn, with much detail, by
M. Cuvier. The case is the same with respect to
marine organized bodies; but notwithstanding this,
the corresponding species may easily be known.
661. Another cave has been discovered here at a
still lower level, by widening an aperture which the
stalactites had nearly closed. To reach this cave,
we were obliged to creep backwards, about 20 feet,
beneath a large mass of strata. This brought us into
another space covered with stalactites; and it was
here
獎
​197
here that the search for bones was at present carried
on: I saw fragments of them on the surface, and
the Inspector offered to have some taken up for me,
which might easily have been done, as the stalactites
were not yet become very hard; but it would have
detained me too long, since I had already seen as
much as I desired, and I had still a great journey to
make, considering the lateness of the season. It is
in spaces of this kind that the stalactites, when dug
through, are found, in many places, to have been
formed on sea-sand. Having heard that these
caverns contained also other kinds of bones, I in-
quired of the Inspector whether any were found
here. He told me that, in the highest of the caves,
there were some, though very few, belonging to car-
nivorous animals; a circumstance by no means in-
consistent with my idea; for these animals might
have entered the cavern subsequently to the great
revolution which gave birth to our present continents;
while the bears followed the sea, as it suddenly re-
treated towards the north, in consequence of its
subsidence to its present level.
661, a. The bones, which are thus discovered in
caverns, must not be confounded with those imbedded
in strata in various parts of the continents, as well
as in their large islands, such as Great Britain.
The animals to which the latter belonged, like the
vegetables whereof our coal-beds have been formed,
were originally on islands in the ancient sea, which,
having sunk during some of the earlier catastrophes
were
}
198
were covered with new strata by its waters; for the
terrestrial organic bodies contained in strata are
found to be mingled with others of marine origin.
These operations took place at a period preceding
that at which, by the gradual infiltration of the sea
into the interior part of the globe, the caverns just
described were left above its level. Now during
this earlier period, the changes undergone, as well by
the liquid of the sea, as by the atmosphere, produced
very great corresponding effects on organized beings,
both marine and terrestrial; many species became
extinct, others experienced various changes, and
others could no longer live in our northern climates,
where, from the cause explained in my Vth. Letter
to Prof. Blumenbach, §. 12, the temperature was
very much altered. Such are the reasons of the
great differences which M. Cuvier has discovered, in
comparing the fossil bones found in the strata with
those of the quadrupeds that now exist; differences
of which an account may be seen in Mr. Parkinson's
valuable work, entitled Organic Remains of a former
World. In this work, Mr. Parkinson describes great
numbers of marine bodies, which have been found in
different strata, and many terrestrial vegetables,
which are contained in those covering beds of coal,
and have no analogues among the existing species;
while, at the same time, the strata beneath the
coal-beds contain the remains of marine animals.
The latter, as well as the terrestrial animals, con-
tinued to suffer changes, till the epoch of that revo-
lution on the globe which gave birth to our conti-
nents;
199
nents; and in my Lettres sur l'Histoire de la Terre
et de l'Homme, I gave a particular instance of this
in a sea-shell found in the cliffs at Harwich on the
coast of Esser. In these cliffs, there is a stratum
containing a vast abundance of marine shells, and
among the rest, one which, in that work, I called a
buccinum, as it has been termed by some concholo-
gists; but LINNEUS has placed it among the murices,
giving it the name of murex contrarius, because its
volutions are in a contrary direction to those of all
the other shells of the same genus, and even of a
murex, now living in the neighbouring sea, which
perfectly resembles in form this fossil species, the
above circumstance only excepted. Now this re-
markable shell, which is very well preserved among
the others contained in the same stratum, is no longer
known to exist in any sea.
661, b. This is one of the proofs which I have
given in my former works of the changes that con-
tinued to take place in the organized beings on our
globe, till the very moment of the birth of our con-
tinents; now as it was towards the latter end of the
period of these changes that the caverns, which I
have here described, afforded a retreat to the white
bears, whose bones are now accumulated in the in
such abundance, these bones, as I have said above,
differ, in some respects, from those of the living
species; while the bones of the carnivorous animals,
who did not enter these subterranean abodes, until
after the great revolution that reduced our globe to
the
200
1
the state in which it has ever since remained, have
been found by M. Cuvier to agree with those of
animals still existing in warmer climates; and it is
therefore probable that it may have been the change
of temperature which induced the latter quadrupeds
to descend from the higher grounds inhabited by
them antecedently to this epoch, and seek shelter,
from the cold of the first succeeding winters, in these
caverns, wherein they afterwards perished. It is,
however, manifest, from the rapid progress of the
stalactites, that the bones here covered with them
could not have been accumulated at a period so re-
mote as that at which other fossil bones were imbed-
ded in strata; for all the strata having certainly
been formed beneath the waters of the sea, a great
length of time must have been required for their pro-
duction subsequently to the submersion of the islands
which those terrestrial animals inhabited while
alive. But it is now time to return to my journey,
662. The rain had ceased, when we came out of
the cavern, and the clouds being dissipated, the sun
illuminated the basin of which this spot commands a
view: its circumference has a most dreary appear-
ance, for the sides rise precipitously, and the firs can
scarcely find any space to grow on them amidst the
projecting rocks the river winds through the rich
meadows covering its bottom, and is seen to turn two
wheels, one of which raises the water, by buckets,
into a canal that leads it to a village, and the other
works a mill. Before I quitted this spot, the Inspeç-
tor
+
}
{
201
tor shewed me the situation of the other cavern in
which bones had been found; it is at some distance
from the former, but on the same side of the river,
and at the same height; it is called Mockas-höhle:
there is also a third on this side, which is named
Leitzdorf-höhle; but it is at a lower level, and con-
tains no bones.
663. Having returned to the Muggendorf side of
the river, I observed on its bed a phenomenon which
I had not stopped to examine before, on account of
the rain; but it had attracted my attention the pre-
ceding evening, in my way from Streitberg: this is
a soil of tofus, sufficiently thick and hard to serve
for building stone: it has been cut away on the
bed of some of the brooks, but it extends over the
whole of that of the river. This is, in the first
place, an evident proof that these streams are not
employed in deepening their beds; but besides, it
is one of the facts which I have adduced against the
supposed peremptory argument in the Huttonian
theory, in favour of one of its distinctive hypotheses,
that our strata have been indurated by an internal
heat; this argument consists in the assertion that
no materials falling disunited to the bottom of the
water, can be consolidated there any otherwise than
by a great heat. Here, in the waters of the brooks
which flow down these calcareous slopes, and diffuse
themselves in the river, calcareous particles are held
in dissolution by certain other ingredients; and the
latter being dissipated under the form of an expansible.
fluid,
20%
fluid, the calcareous particles, which are thus precipi
tated, are consolidated in a stratum on the bed of the
stream. In the same general manner have been made
successively the precipitations of every separate kind
of substance observable in our strata; and whether
these have been calcareous, quartzeous, argillaceous,
or compound, their formation into soft or stony stra-
ta has been determined by particular circumstances.
664. The seven caverns on the right bank are all
at a lower level than that which I first visited, and
consequently they contain no boncs: they lie in
various parts of the skirts of the hills between
Streitberg and Muggendorf. The nearest of these,
called Rosenmullers-höhle, was that which the In-
spector advised me to go to see; for had it been the
most distant, it would well have merited the prefer-
ence, on account of the peculiar beauty of its stalac
tites. We ascended to it by a deep cleft leading to
a point at which some large projecting rocks rise
above their slopes of rubbish. We followed a rapid
path up to the foot of one of these rocks, and de-
scended behind it to another, which was surrounded
with a rail; a very necessary precaution, its summit
being narrow, and its sides precipitous. Here, a
small opening having appeared between two masses
of rock which leaned against each other, it had been
widened, in order to see what lay beyond it; but
when the beauty of the cavern within had been dis-
covered, it was thought to deserve every precaution
which could be taken to secure it against the attacks
of
203
of indiscreet visitors. This entrance was therefore
closed by a door with a lock, and the Inspector only
is trusted with a key.
665. Immediately within this entrance, we de-
scended a ladder with 36 steps, which is fixed in a
large fissure in the rock. A man had gone down
before us to illuminate the cavern; and when I
reached the bottom of the ladder, I was greatly
struck with the scene which suddenly presented itself,
and of which I cannot give a more correct general
idea, than by comparing it to the inside of a gothic
cathedral in ruins. It was illuminated chiefly by a
high pole, on which were fixed many hoops one above
another, each bearing lights, and which was placed in
an open space between the stalactites, but besides this,
great numbers of candles were placed on small sta-
lactitical columns, which, from their situation, looked
like the high candlesticks on altars.
666. This resemblance to a gothic cathedral is
produced, in the first place, by the salient angles of
those pieces of the strata, which, happening to have
been divided, stopped each other in their tall, and
consequently did not entirely follow the subsidence
of the lower part; and the whole bottom of the
cavern was covered with large fragments of differ-
ent forms, detached by the collision of these masses.
Such was the ground on which the stalactites were
formed, not only on the floor of the cavern, but in all
the sinuosities of the sides, and against every part of
the
204
the roof. I have seen an engraving of this cavern,
which may serve to recall it to the recollection of
those who have visited it; but, as will soon appear,
no true idea of it can possibly be given by any draw-
ing; to convey such an idea by a simple description
is equally impossible; hut I will at least explain
the principal causes of these astonishing phenomena.
J
667. In the wider spaces of the vault, the water,
trickling over the projecting parts of the pieces thus
resting against each other, and dropping from their
edges, has covered them with stalactites, which have
been so much prolonged as to form draperies, follow-
ing the outlines of each piece. The water, falling
only in drops at equal distances, produces first a
fringe of stalactites, continuing to increase in length,
while its interstices are gradually filled up above:
from this operation result the draperies, which ac-
quire the greatest length in the parts where most
water arrives, and thus appear as if regularly fes-
tooned, and fastened up by strings in the intervals.
The drops which form the fringes are not, in general,
large enough to fall, but, as their water evaporates,
a tube is produced by the adhesion of the calcareous
matter wherewith it had been impregnated. Drops
however fall in some places, where the water arrives
in greater abundance; and there, besides the sta-
lactite which descends from the point whence these
drops distil, an ascending one is formed immediately
below it in many parts, these two stalactites have
met, and appear to support the arches of the vault ;
which
205
*
which increases the resemblance to a gothic church.
Those who have seen chapels belonging to orders of
knighthood, adorned with the banners of the knights,
may figure to themselves one of the beauties of the
roof of this cavern; where, from some parts of the
vault, depend undulated stalactites which are through-
out of the same thickness, but, their formation having
begun from an edge with many flexures, their lower
part hangs in large folds: these also are bordered
with fringes, and several of them, at their inferior
angles, have a kind of tufts, formed by several drops
which have met at these points, after trickling down
the edges. Lastly, some stalactites, having been at
first prolonged in many united tubes, have separated
at the bottom, and the drops accumulating and eva-
porating all around them, various kinds of associa-
tions, have thus been produced, some of which re-
semble church lamps suspended from the roof, and
others are like the work bags of some ladies who
carry such appendages only for form's sake, the
emptiness of the bags being shewn by their deep
folds.
668. But the circumstance which chiefly contri-
butes to the beauty of all these various objects is
that the stalactites are here semi-transparent. In
the sides of the cavern are recesses adorned in the
most elegant manner with fringed curtains hanging.
from above, which are intersected so regularly as to
have the appearance of being festooned with cords;
and by the drops distilling from them is formed on
the
206
the lower part of these openings a kind of tissue,
fringed also, and resembling the usual decorations
of seats of honour at public places. The Inspector
carried a candle at the end of a pole, by which, when
it was introduced into one of these niches, the semi-
transparent curtain, with its various folds, was
shewn to great advantage; the whole of the interior
´part of the niche being adorned with small columns
which terminate above in arches, as in the chapels of
cathedrals. When the curtains are thus viewed with
the light behind them, it plainly appears that the
fringes are the rudiments of the draperies; they are
at first disposed like the quills in a bird's wing, close
to each other, and nearly of the same length, each
having a drop of water at its extremity; but a lamina
of water flows over their surface, and the calcareous
matter left by its evaporation serves, as I may say,
to solder together the upper part of these small
tubes, which continue to increase in length below,
while, at the same time the stalactitical lamina be-
comes thicker. I have mentioned that the bottom of
the cavern is covered with large fragments of rock
heaped on each other, in some places to such a
height, that, by ascending on them, it is very nearly
possible to reach the rocf; but all these masses are
incrusted with stalactites, and their original forms
are concealed under others which are very pictur-
esque. There are some projections in the roof
whence the water drops on others at the bottom im-
mediately under them; and on several of the latter
the
207
the stalactites have formed a kind of fringed
cushions, which are really very extraordinary.
These stalactites have likewise the property of
being sonorous when either their lamina or their
tubes are struck: the Inspector went up to a spot
which was surrounded with them; he knew the
tones of the different parts, and striking them with
sticks, like a staccato, he produced a kind of
music, which, in that cavity, where the sounds
were reverberated, had a very singular effect.
670. I have not found it possible to give more
than a very imperfect idea of the singular beauty of
this cavern; but my principal aim has been to de-
scribe the progress of the operations which are here
visibly carried on; because this progress affords a
more exact determination of the chronometer fur-
nished by the different kinds of stalactites. Here
we see, as it were, a weaver at his loom, where he
is still continuing to weave the hangings with which
so many parts of this cavern are already decorated:
he could not have begun his task until after the
retreat of the sea from his work-shop; neither can
he have been thus employed during any very great
number of ages, since he has not yet been able to
extend his web over the whole of the cavity in which
he is at work.
671. Having returned from hence to Muggendorf,
where I found my carriage, I set out from that
place
10
208
place at a quarter past 11; and as I wished to reach
Bayreuth in the evening, I took the shortest road,
which is by Veischenfelh and Truppach. Part of
this road is very pleasant, as it abounds in picturesque
beauties; at the same time it is capable of afford-
ing much instruction to those who may wish to form
some acquaintance with the monuments which en-
able us to carry back to remote periods our re-
searches into the physical events that have happened
on our globe for this tract exhibits a great variety
of these monuments of different classes; and since
it is only by the repetition of details, in many va-
rious places, that general phenomena can with any
certainty be determined, 1 shall not omit the de-
scription of those which I observed along this road.
672. The Wiesent, in its way to Muggendorf,
makes a great bend in its course round a mountain,
over which I passed, ascending it by the cleft
whence I had just returned; the path leading to
Rosenmullers-höhle being on the left of the road.
Proceeding now along the side of the cleft, I saw at
its bottom a line of bare gravel, shewing the track
of the rain water when very abundant; no water
was as yet collected here, though there had been
rain this morning and the preceding days. The
borders of this track, as well as the slopes on the
sides, were covered with grass, which had spread
even over the scattered blocks; thus this cleft could
not be supposed to have been the work of the
waters, even if the cavern within had not shewn that
the
1
209
the catastrophes of the strata might furnish a full
explanation of the exterior forms of the mountain.
673. This cleft, towards the higher extremity, is
divided into three branches, in each of which the
distance between the sides is so small, that the
slopes of their rubbish meet at the bottom. Here I
saw an operation going on, whereof the effects are
more considerable in the large chains of mountains
particularly described in my first Travels; but as
these effects are here of the same nature, as they
are general in all similar situations, and as they are
among those which are most commonly seen in
simple hills, I shall repeat the description of them
in this place. During abundant rains or thaws of
snow, the streams formed in the three branches of
the cleft, which unite at this point, attack the slopes
of rubbish, and carry down the gravel along their
course; hence it is that, as I have said above, their
track may be followed in dry seasons. The base
of these slopes being sapped in this manner, they
cannot be fixed by vegetation, because their whole
surface slides downward, whenever it is penetrated
with water. Yet it is evident what must at last be
the termination of these effects, which indeed, in
nany places, are already terminated': they can only
continue until the higher rocks, whence all this rub-
bish falls, shall have retreated so far back, in con-
sequence of their continual degradation, as that the
slopes, no longer meeting at bottom, shall leave be-
tween them an open space of a certain breadth;
P
then,
VOL. H.
་
}
210
then, when a torrent shall be formed, it will have:
room to pass without attacking the slopes, and they
will soon be overspread with vegetation.
be seen.
674. On arriving at the top of this promontory
around which the Wiesent bends, the nature of the
catastrophes that have here taken place may easily
The whole of this branch of the hill sub-
sided in great disorder, at the epoch of the greater
subsidence which produced the winding valley of the
river. The middle part of the promontory, ex-
hibiting a mere chaos of disunited masses, is lower
than its edges, on which rise pyramidal rocks, in-
teriningled with firs, I descended from it by a large
combe, uniting, in the lower part, with two others,
whence issue streams that fall into the Wiesent.
After having crossed these streains, I followed the
direction of the valley, ascending the course of the
river on its left bank.
675. At this point begins the picturesque scenery
which I mentioned above, and which is continually
changing all the way to Weischenfeld; its beauty
arising from the openings, contractions, and various
windings of the valley, from its sides studded with
rocks and adorned with firs, and from the meanders
of the river through the meadows covering its bot-
tom. I must here anticipate a circumstance which
I observed above Weischenfeld: the scenery there is
more monotonous, because the valley is widened
by the retreat of its sides to a considerable distance.
Now
+
211
Now this is exactly the contrary of what would be
the case if the valley had been excavated by the
river; for in this wide part, the stream is much
less considerable than it becomes lower down be-
tween Streitberg and Muggendorf, where, however,
the valley is much narrower. Thus every thing in-
dicates that this valley is an original channel, pro-
duced by the catastrophes of the strata before the
river began to flow, that is to say, before the birth
of the continents; which will appear more and
more evidently, and in the first place from the fol-
lowing circumstance.
676. No doubt can be entertained respecting the
origin of the strata of these hills, since they con-
tain marine bodies, and must therefore have been
formed in a continuous manner on the bed of the
ancient sea, which must have remained nearly ho-
rizontal during their accumulation; however at pre-
sent they are all broken and partially sunken, their
separated parts having undergone angular move-
ments. This may be judged from the surface, as it
is every where interspersed with rocks rising above
the loose soil; but more especially from the state of
the sides of the valley, which is manifestly the re-
sult of the most considerable fractures, attended
with the greatest subsidence. It is here easy to
perceive, from the exterior appearance of the strata,
that caverns, like those which have been discovered
at Muggendorf, may probably exist within; it is
even to cave as of this nature that we must ascribe
P 2
several
*
·
212.
several sudden subsidences of some parts of the sur
face, which have taken place in our continents since
their birth, especially in countries consisting of lime-
stone and sand-stone; as I shewed, in my first
Travels, by many examples in the countries of Han-
over and Pyrmont.
677. The interior state of the hills is manifested
by another phenomenon; namely, that no springs
appear here: wells have ever been sunk in the hope
of finding some, for the use of villages, and of
houses scattered on the slopes of the hills; but none
have been found; for the whole mass of the hills is
completely shattered with vertical fissures, through
which, as through a sieve, the rain-waters pass di-
rectly down to the level of the river or one of its
branches, instead of flowing between the strata, tilk
some section on the side of a valley affords them
an issue; that being the manner in which springs
are manifested on the slopes. For this reason, all
along the Wiesent there are wheels with buckets, for
the purpose of supplying the villages with water:
these buckets pour the water into a high wooden
trough, which leads it into a canal cut along the
slope of the hills.
**
Į
678. In the valley itself, and on its sides, there
are phenomena still farther characteristic of its pro-
duction by subsidence. In some of the upper parts
of the sides I observed cavities of the same nature
as those which are called Les Foûtes in the Petit
Saleve
213
Salève near Geneve, where M. de Saussure consi-
dered them as furrows formed by the débacle, or
current of the sea when retreating from our conti-
nents, as it flowed along the side of the mountain;
an idea which never could have occurred to him, if
he had but attended to the circumstance that these
pretended furrows rise considerably in the very di-
rection in which the current must have descended.
But this is only a particular effect of the catastrophes
of the strata observable in the upper part of the
sides of many vallies, and evidently resulting, in
this of the Wiesent, from the same cause, which, as
I have already explained, has produced the caverns
within; namely, fissures, not passing directly through
all the strata; whence it has happened, that, during
the general subsidence of the mass, some of the
upper parts, being supported laterally, have not en-
tirely followed the lower in their descent, and the
vacancies now constituting caverns have been left
between them. It is where this has taken place on
the sides of vallies or of plains that the phenomenon
now under our consideration has been produced;
for when, during the subsidences by which these
vallies and plains have been formed in the front of
large fractures, a solid mass of strata has hap-
pened to lie immediately above another that has been
divided by a vertical fissure, one of the separated
pieces of the latter having totally subsided, has, in
some places, left the upper mass projccting like the
roof of a shed, in a line either horizontal or in-
clined, according to the position which the catas-
C
trophe
S
214
trophe has occasioned it to assume. The direction
of Les Voûtes in the Petit Salère is very much
inclined; but this is less the case in these cavities
on the sides of the valley of the Wiesent. To the
above phenomena is very frequently added another,
affording an additional proof of the nature of this
catastrophe: I mean masses of strata which have
fallen forwards, but which having been retained at
a certain height by obstacles below, have remained,
nearly in a vertical position, along the abrupt side.
I had seen this on the Petit Salève, and I again
observed it in the valley which I am now de-
scribing.
}
679. I have said that the whole bottom of this
valley is covered with meadows, it having been
levelled with the first materials which the rain-
waters brought down from the hills; but the river
has not now for a long time deposited here any-
thing more than sand. Some vestiges of the ori-
ginal unevenness of this bottom are still to be found
in the small ponds and marshy spaces which here
and there occur in it, and which, in all the vallies
where they are seen, afford the same immediate
proof as lakes that these vallies have not been ex-
cavated by the waters that flow in them; for waters
cannot form any hollows on their bed, but on the
contrary, are continually bringing down materials to
fill them up; and hence these same phenomena
likewise concur in proving the small antiquity of
our continents; for, in the course of a very great
7
number
215
number of ages, all cavities of this nature must ne-
cessarily have been filled up. My readers must
have patience with these repetitions; for it is only
by multiplied examples of chronometers of every
kind, under different circumstances, that this whole
class of phenomena can be demonstrated to dépend,
not on local circumstances, but on the cause which
has been assigned, and is common to all the cases.
680. After many windings in this valley, where
one cheerful landscape was continually succeeding
another, I came to a point which at first appeared
a cul-de-sac, the last of these landscapes being
closed by an object in itself extremely picturesque,
this was a large rock, advancing from the left bank,
and crowned with an ancient castle, which, as I was
told, is called Rameck, and belongs to Count VoN
SCHONEBERG. The road turns round this rock, and
beyond it, the valley assumes a very different ap-
pearance: the upper part of its sides is still beset
with rocks, and there are also many on the slopes;
but the slopes themselves are more gradual, and are
everywhere grassy: the rocks, indeed, are still
crumbling down, but their rubbish lies on the slopes,
and is soon overspread with grass. As I proceeded,
I saw a slope at some distance to the left, a part
of which appeared as if covered with mushrooms of
an extraordinary size; and knowing, that this must
necessarily be a deception, I quitted my chaise, and
walked up to the spot, where I was much surprized
at discovering the real nature of these mushrooms.
▼
There
Late
216
1
There had been here too different strata adhering
one to the other, which had been broken in a sin-
gular manner, leaving great numbers of small rocks,
nearly at equal distances, rising above the inferior
strata, which were covered with sand. Each of these
small rocks was composed of both the kinds of su-
perior strata; the action of the air had worn away
their angles, producing however inuch the greatest
effect on the lowermost stratum, which had thus
acquired the appearance of a stálk to the other;
this stalk was whitish, as it was still probably suf-
fering decomposition; but the uppermost mass, after
being rounded, had been overspread with a blackish
moss, which secured it from farther erosion; and
thus each of these little rocks had the form of a
mushroom, a foot or two, or even more, in dia-
meter.
681. The valley, after several other inflexions, is
at last terminated by two large clefts; and here the
cheerful beauties which had hitherto adorned it
gave place to scenery of the wildest kind. These
clefts being simple fractures through the whole mass
of the hills, the height of the hills is consequently
that of their sides, which, as I passed along, I saw
to be studded with rocks and covered with firs as
far as my eye could reach. The Wiesent enters the
valley through one of these clefts, and is joined by
a brook which issues from the other.
682. Here
·
217
682. Here I quitted this river, and crossed a hill,
which led me to another valley of a very different
appearance; for the hills that border it have no
rocks except on their suminits, and on both sides
they descend in a gentle slope to its bottom, which
is very wide and covered with meadows, wherein
winds a river called, as I was told, the Bruckbach.
This river is composed of the united waters of the
various branches of the valley, which likewise have
meadows on their bottom. Here begins a causeway;
and I was surprized to see it covered with fragments
of lime-stone, though, on the heights, the trees be-
tween the rocks were pines, which in this country,
as I have said, indicate strata of sand-stone; and
in fact I saw those strata in some deep clefts. On
inquiry, I found that this lime-stone had been
brought from a neighbouring eminence; a farther
example of the subversion of the whole mass of
these hills, by which strata, originally situated one
on another, have been brought to the same level.
*
683. I arrived at Truppach at three quarters
after two; and when the horses were rested, I re-
sumed my journey towards Bayreuth. A large
tract of meadows winds between hills from the
former of these towns to the basin wherein the latter
is situated; but, instead of following this tract, I
crossed the ridge of hills composed of strata of
sand-stone, over which I had passed in a contrary
direction in my way to Sanspareil; and proceeding
along the same road whence I had turned off to go
to
218
I
to that place, which now lay on my left, I arrived
at Bayreuth at three quarters after five.
#
684. I was glad to have it in my power, this same
evening, to pay my respects to Baron Von Har-
denberg, from whom, and from M. VON AINITZ,
nephew to the Minifter at Berlin, I obtained all the
directions and recommendations for which I might
have occasion in the remainder of my journey.
The Baron had even the kindness to give me a small
topographical map drawn by M. HUMBOLDT, who
was then engaged in the great voyage which has
afforded the world so much information respecting
the southern parts of America; this map proved
extremely useful to me. It was settled that I should
send on my chaise, by the usual road, to Alex-
anders-bade, a bathing place situated in that part of
Fichtelberg which borders on Bohemia; and that I
should hire a horse for my excursion in the moun-
tains, with a guide, to shew me the road, and take
care of my horse in those parts where I might be
obliged to walk, until I should obtain the assistance
of some persons well acquainted with these moun-
tains, to whom M. TORNESI, Director of the Office
of Revenue, had written the day before, requesting
them to direct me.
Sept. 16th. I had intended to set out very early
this morning; but it had rained the whole night,
and was still raining. However, as it held up about
10 o'clock, I determined to begin my journey, though,
there
·
219
there was little appearance that the weather would
be fine.
685. When from the hills between Hof and Ber-
neck I had viewed on my left the chain of the Fich-
telberg, it had appeared as if the cultivated grounds
rose up to the fir-woods which covered the summits
of those mountains; but this was an illusion, as I
more evidently saw, now that I was going directly
towards to the latter, the former being separated from
them by several longitudinal vallies. On setting out
at present from Bayreuth, the valley of Berneck
remained on my left, and the first part of my road
lay over strata of sand-stone, with pines on the sum-
mit of the hills. I then came to a cultivated soil,
consisting of rubbish of lime-stone, the strata of
which, wherever they could be seen, inclined in-
wards, presenting their sections at the surface; in
these, among other shells, I saw some cornua am-
monis. The same strata, with various inflexions,
prevailed as far as the highest part of this ridge of
hills, where it is abruptly cut down towards a val-
ley, on the rapid slope of which I saw some rocks
of sand-stone in great disorder. This is a confirma-
tion of the cause that I have already assigned to the
alternations of these two classes of strata at the
same level: the lime-stone was originally covered by
the sand stone; but, during the subsidences which
produced this valley and that of Berneck, the an-
gular motions of the masses of the former, in those
parts where they now are found at the highest level,
caused
220
caused the strata of the sand-stone to slide down-
wards on both their sides. A new effect of these
motions will appear in the sequel.
686. My road lay through Weydenberg, a place
situated in this valley, which separates the hills
from the chain of the Fichtelberg, and affords a pas-
sage to the Rothe Mayn, or Red Mayn; so called,
because, when it overflows, it attacks the foot of
some hills, the loose soil of which, being mixed with
red clay, imparts that colour to its water. This
river, proceeding from the high grounds of the
Fichtelberg, and here, inconsiderable in size, has
formed in this valley, where the bottom and the
slopes on the sides consist entirely of stony rubbish,
the chronometer common to all similar situations; for
having cleared its bed through this rubbish along the
foot of a hill on which Weydenberg stands, and find-
ing an open space on its right bank, it has spread
over the latter a great quantity of these materials,
having reduced into a cliff the side of the hill of
which it has attacked the foot. I ascended the course
of the river as far as the beginning of the cliff, in
order to observe the progress of the operation.
From this spot, prolonging with my eye the rapid
slope of the hill to the point where this imaginary
line met the horizontal ground on the opposite bank,
I saw exactly how much of this slope must have
been washed away, to form the cliff; but the river,
having thus straitened its course, has for some time
ceased to beat against the point first attacked, which
-
+
1
was
22
was the lowest, and which, being softened into a
slope, I now saw covered with grass. The rest of
the cliff was approaching to the same state in its
lower parts; but in the higher, more time must be
required to produce a similar effect; because the
materials detached from them are carried away by
the river when it overflows. Here, therefore, the
cliff must retire, in consequence of its continual
abrasion, that its own largest materials may form
at its foot a beach, which may keep the river at a
distance from it. I observed the beginning of this
beach, consisting of the rubbish of the stony strata
of the hill intermixed with that of the soft; the sec
tions of both appear in the cliff, and shew the ca-
tastrophes which they have all undergone: on look-
ing towards the cliff, I saw these strata descend
from left to right; and they also incline inwards.
I
687. This beach is already of sufficient height to
be walked on when the river is not too full; I fol-
lowed it down the course of the stream, till I came
to a deep cleft wherein flows a brook arriving to join
the Mayn, above the part of the cliff behind which'
lies the slope whereon Weydenberg is situated. On
entering this cleft, I found that its sides, originally
abrupt, were now reduced into regular slopes and
covered with grass; so that they no longer suffered
any demolition. The Mayn, being met at right
angles by the stream flowing in the cleft, has been
so far repelled by it as to pass now at some distance
from the foot of the remaining part of the exterior
4
cliff,
220
1
cliff, which is consequently softened into a slope,
and overspread with grass; and as the church stands
at the top of the hill, a flight of stone steps has
been made to it up the slope; it is difficult to ascend
these steps, for they are very narrow. Higher up,
the water of the river is received in a canal, and
led to supply some mills near the opening of the
cleft; and between the canal and the foot of the
slope there is a road, along which I saw entrances
to some cellars hollowed out by the inhabitants in
the mass of the hill.
688. On viewing here this branch of the Mayn
below its issue from the vallies of the great moun-
tains, it cannot possibly be supposed to have brought
with it any stones from thence; for all the stones
which are found on this part of its bed are of the
same nature with those that form, as well the slopes
descending towards the valley, as the soil of the
valley itself; the river, in clearing its course, has
spread these stones, in some places, over the bot-
tom of the valley, in others, along its slopes; and
now, its bed being nearly fixed, it carries with it
nothing, during its inundations, in addition to the
sand, except the minute gravel which, at such times,
it still detaches from some parts of the foot of the
hills.
689. Returning to IVeydenberg at about two
o'clock, I found there M. KILLINGUER, Inspector
of the Mines, who, in consequence of a letter from
M. TOR-
223
M. Tornesi, had been so good as to come thus far
to meet me, in order to conduct me himself to
Goldcronach, the place of his residence, from which
we were to set out the next day on our excursion to
the interior part of the mountains. The first part
of our road was down the course of the Mayn,
along the side of the hills whence I had descended
into this valley; and we came to a space where the
bed of the river was covered with blocks of quartz
and of grey wacke, between which it foamed: it had
certainly not brought these blocks down to this spot,
for I had seen none in the upper part of its course;
neither had they fallen from the sides of the valley,
because there the strata are of lime-stone or sand-
stone; they could only, therefore, have been thrown
out from within, during the subsidence which pro-
duced the valley; and it may soon be judged that
this could not have been the operation of a single
catastrophe.
690. We crossed the Mayn in the part where
these blocks lay; for M. Killinguer did not take me
to Goldcronach by the direct road, because he
wished to shew me a singular phenomenon. We
followed for some time the left bank of the river,
and then, crossing back to its right bank, we as-
cended the side of the valley opposite to that on
which I had at first descended into it.
it. Here
nothing but rubbish appeared on the surface of the
slope; but it having been judged from some exter-
nal indications that gypsum lay beneath, the rub-
bish
224
!
bish had been dug through, and strata of gypsum
being discovered, they had been worked for some
time, after clearing it away. But the farther these
strata were followed towards the hill, the more did
the rubbish increase in thickness; and the expense
of removing it becoming at last too great, the ex-
pedient had been adopted of working them in the
manner of mines. For this purpose, a shaft had
been sunk here, and a canal opened to carry off the
the water accumulating below the level of the sur-
face. This mass of gypseous strata is of great
thickness, and is found to lie on strata of sand-
stone.
691. Hence then may be determined by what suċ-
cession of catastrophes the valley and the hills which
border it acquired their present state while still on
the bottom of the sea; for gravity, running waters,
and atmospherical actions, the causes acting on the
continent since its birth, have not produced on it
any other effects than such as I have already
ascribed to them. The strata of gypsum were
formed on those of sand-stone, after the latter,
which had covered the lime-stone, had slidden down
to a lower level, in consequence of a first subsi-
dence and subversion of the strata; but the whole
assemblage of these strata being afterwards broken
by a new subsidence, a part of those of gypsum and
of sand-stone passed below the level of the valley,
leaving their sections on the slope, where they have
been discovered; and the violent shocks which were
occasioned
1
225
occasioned by this last catastrophe covered the whole
surface with a vast abundance of the rubbish of the
lime-stone strata. Not one of the strata, down to
the very lowest, is now remaining at the level at
which it was originally formed; all of them have
more or less subsided, as I have shewed before on
various occasions; and it was during the last great
subsidence, which formed the valley, that the masses
of quartz and of grey wacke, scattered over a cer-
tain space on the bed of the river, were expelled
by the expansible fluids: from the interior part of
the globe. I ascended, the hill, and walked some
way on its summit; it is rounded, and cultivated on
a soil consisting of the rubbish of the same lime-
stone which composes the opposite hill, and contains
marine bodies, especially cornua ammonis.
折
​692. Hence we proceeded to Goldcronach, where
we arrived at three quarters after seven, and M.
Killinguer was so good as to lodge me at his house:
he informed me, amongst other particulars relative
to this place, that some veins of quartz containing
grains of gold had been followed here for a very long
period. He told me that, in the part worked at
present, these veins were very thin, and scarcely
yielded sufficient profit to defray the expense; but
that, notwithstanding this, they were still followed,
because, from documents carried back 600 years,
they were known to have been at one time much
thicker and richer, and it was therefore hoped that
they might again improve. These veins, or small
VOL. II.
Q
louds,
226
loads, are very numerous; they increase and di-
minish in size, and as they are followed farther in
the mountain, they are found to be variously rami-
fied in some parts, and to reunite in others.
1
Sept. 17th. At half past seven in the morning,
I set out with M. Killinguer for the Ochsen-kopf,
(or Ox's head,) the second in height of the granitic
summits of this chain, the most lofty of which, as.
I have already said, is the Schnee-berg, or Snow-
mountain. We preferred the former eminence be-
cause it was the nearest; for it had rained all night,
and was still raining: and the clouds had a very
threatening appearance.
693. Our road towards this summit lay over
several ridges of schistose hills, the first of which,
as I was told by M. Killinguer, is crossed by a vein
of antimony, inclining so much as to form an angle
of about 60° with the horizon. These schistose
ridges rise one above another, and we passed over
that which contains the auriferous veins. In fol-
lowing these hills, I observed the schisti change
from argillaceous to micaceous, till at last they were
succeeded by gneiss; and it is manifest that the
ridges must have been produced by the angular mo-
tions which have taken place in these strata ori-
ginally formed one upon another, because wherever
the strata are seen, on the summits, above the loose
soil, they present their upper section, and its aspect
shews that they incline considerably inwards. This
loose
227
loose soil is mixed with abundance of blocks, some
of which belong to the inferior strata, but others
have no connexion with them; among the latter are
some of a stone called in this country grün-stein,
and porphyric grün-stein, of which I shall have oc-
casion to speak in the sequel. A rivulet, issuing
very clear from a high peat-ground, crosses the road,
and precipitates itself into a deep cleft; I followed
it to the point of its fall, and saw it rush down
foaming amidst blocks: that it has not propelled
them hither is very certain, since it issues from a
small lake of peat; and at the bottom of the cleft,
I saw it flowing calmly in meadows: on the slope
therefore, where it flows rapidly, its only ope-
ration has been to wash away the loose soil from
between the blocks with which the whole surface of
these hills is overspread.
694. As we were passing over these heights, M.
Killinguer shewed me the Ochsen-kopf, on our left;
and it seemed as if we might have gone directly
thither, though we still had to cross several vallies,
which separate the ridges of schistus and gneiss
from the granitic chain. We first descended con-
siderably towards the valley of Warmen-steinbach,
which is very rich and in tillage, and in which flows
the Red Mayn; but before we arrived at its level,
we entered a large cleft with its sides abrupt, though
there is only a rivulet at its bottom: in the lower
part of this cleft another opens, whence issues a
larger stream; and the two, uniting, flow together
Q 2
on
228
on a bed covered with blocks of various species;
which is not surprizing, since they are disseminated
over all these hills, as well on their summits as on
heir slopes. We here entered the valley of Warmen-
steinbach, where these waters, with those of a third
stream, fall into this branch of the Mayn; a large
space, which is in meadows, has been levelled by
them, below the point of their junction; but they
have not filled up all the cavities in it, for I saw
some marshy parts covered with rushes. The Red
Mayn is here very near the granitic chain in which
it rises; yet there are no blocks of granite on its
bed, but only the same stones that are found in the
neighbouring soils; as is likewise the case on the
beds of the other streams which arrive here to
join it.
695. Having passed over this horizontal space,
we ascended a ridge of hills which borders the
Mayn: these hills still belong to the schistose ridges,
and are very favourable for showing the state of the
strata: the sections of the latter are every where
open to view on the road; for these strata incline
considerably inwards, and are covered with only
a very small quantity of loose soil; and as their
direction obliquely cuts that of the ridge, their suc-
cession appears on this summit, as distinctly as it is
elsewhere observed in different ridges: so that, as
we walked on, we passed over masses of strata, (in
German, lagen,) successively of different species:
the progression of all these species to gneiss was
here
1
229
here seen horizontally; because, in consequence of
their angular motions, their relative level has been
changed. There are also blocks on the surface,
which change as well as the strata; and this ex-
plains the transition in those disseminated over the
preceding ridges, and covered with a loose soil, of
such thickness, that the blocks contained in it can
rarely be compared with the strata, also inclined,
which lie beneath. It farther appears, from the
thinness of the loose soil of the present ridge, com-
paratively with that of the others preceding it, that
this soil has not been produced on the continent
since the retreat of the sea; for all these ridges have
been exposed to the action of the same exterior
causes; this soil, therefore, must have resulted in
greater or less abundance from the trituration of the
masses of strata which took place during the catas-
trophes.
PAGE
696. On reaching the summit of this ridge of
hills, we found it cultivated around a hamlet called
Keyersberg, belonging to the Upper Palatinate. In
tilling the surface, where the loose soil is so thin, it
has been necessary to clear away the blocks, which
are laid along the sides of the fields; they are of
granite, while the strata beneath are of schistus and
gneiss: the Ochsen-kopf is here in view, but it can-
not have been the source of these blocks; being se-
parated from this ridge by a vale covered with
meadows, through which no water passes but in
rainy seasons. In this vale, there are great quanti-
ties
230
ties of blocks, consisting of quartz intersected with
veins of black iron ore; these masses must undoubt-
edly have belonged to a load, but M. Killinguer told
me that none such is externally known; it probably
sunk under the soil of the vale, during the subsi-
dence which produced this cavity, and of which one
of the effects was the expulsion of its fragments
from within by the compressed expansible fluids.
There is here another village called Keyersberg, be-
longing to the country of Bayreuth.
697. Being now at the foot of the Ochsen-kopf,
we hired two men from the village, one to take care
of our horses, and lead them round to the opposite
side of the mountain, when we should be obliged to
proceed on foot, and the other to be our guide to
the summit, which, from this side, was concealed
by woods. The whole surface of the mountain, in
the part where we ascended it, was covered with
coarse sand, the product of decomposed granite, very
similar in appearance to what I have described in
Devonshire and Cornwall, in my Travels already
published, under the name of growan; but in the
latter there are grains of tin-ore, which are not
found in the granite of those counties, nor are there
any either in the sand or in the granite of the
Ochsen-kopf; on the slope of this mountain, we
found the sand covered below with grass, higher up
with beech-woods, and towards the summit with
firs.
1
1
698. When
231
:
698. When we had arrived above the woods, we
found that the rest of the mountain was merely a con-
geries of large blocks of granite, buried under a kind
of cushion of thick moss, the growth of which is fa-
voured by the moisture of the clouds often covering
the summits of the chain, this moisture being here
retained by the granitic sand scattered among the
blocks: on this moss were growing in great abund-
ance the Vaccinium myrtillus, and the Vaccinium
vitis Idaa, the berries of both which plants are very
refreshing in excursions among mountains; at this
height they were at present ripe, and I was glad to
eat some; but I paid for them very dearly. There
is no ground on which it is more dangerous to walk,
than blucks so much covered with moss as to be
nearly hidden by it, and this was the case here; the
moss being so thick, as not only to conceal the
blocks, but itself to assume their form, and to serve
as a soil to other plants. We were now on an as-
cent, where, as we advanced, we were obliged to
sound the ground before us with a stick, in order to
be sure of setting our feet on blocks. Unluckily,
our guide, perceiving that I greatly relished the bil-
berries on this mountain, brought me a branch on
which they were so large and so closely arranged,
that it might have been taken for a bunch of grapes;
I forgot for a moment on what kind of soil I was
walking, and holding this branch in one hand, I was
pulling off the berries with the other, when, having
set my foot on a high tuft of the moss, which I took
for a part of a block, my leg suddenly sunk in a
deep
232
deep interval; I fell, and my left knee striking
against a real block, I thought for a moment that I
had broken the knee-pan; the pain was so acute,
that I had nearly fainted; but when it had a little
subsided, and I found that I was able to move my
knee, I called the guide, who assisted me to rise,
and I walked on, throwing away my bilberries how-
ever, and sounding with my stick at every step.
Finding that the pain was all I had to suffer, and
being extremely anxious not to lose this opportunity
for very interesting observations, I determined to con-
tinue my walk, with the assistance of M. Killinguer
and the guide.
699. When we had reached a certain height, I
saw, between the eminences, a large horizontal space,
which M. Killinguer told me had formerly been a
pool, and still bore the name of Fichtel-see, though
now filled up with peat. This space is the reservoir
of the waters descending from this side of the
Ochsen-kopf, and from all the other summits around :
two streams issue from its opposite extremities, onc
of which is the White Mayn; a name first given to
a small stream that flows down into the Fichtel-see,
from a granitic summit called the Furnleiten, and
afterwards continued to the river itself, which, taking
a northern course after its issue from the peat-ground,
arrives at Berneck, where I have already described
it. The other stream proceeds from the same space
in a southerly direction; and assuming immediately
the name of Naab, it flows in the Upper Palatinate.
This
233
This is one of the spots of which so many are to be
found in these mountains, and which, had they been
observed by those who have supposed the streams
descending from mountains to have excavated the
rallies, must have effectually prevented the rise of
such an opinion. It is through vallies between the
neighbouring eminences, that the waters, which issue
from this space in the form of two rivers, first arrive
in it; and during all the time that has elapsed since
they began to flow, they have not brought hither a
sufficient quantity of materials to obliterate this ca-
vity, which is filled up with peat, and from which
they issue in a state of limpidity.
700. The slope by which we ascended consisted
totally of blocks, the granite no where appearing in
its original situation, but lying in distinct masses,
some of them not inferior in size to houses. It
cannot be supposed that these masses have been de-
tached from higher ground, for this eminence is not
commanded by any other. This then is a pheno-
menon similar to those which I have described in
the Hartz, in Silesia, and in Saxony, and from which
it is evident that the strata of granite were originally
formed at a more elevated level; and that, during
the general subsidence of their whole mass, some
greater partial subsidences produced the vallies, and
covered many of the summits, which then became
such, with these large fragments. I do not hesitate
to speak of granite as stratified, for though there
are some mineralogists who do not admit this fact,
their
234
"
#
their denial of it must necessarily have resulted from
very imperfect and partial observations.
I have
shewn that there are distinct strata in all the granite
of the Giant's mountains; and the same will like-
wise be found in every part of the Fichtelberg. To-
wards the top of the Ochsen-kopf there is scarcely
any moss, and the blocks lie open to view; in many
of them I distinguished the strata, not only by the
lines of their separation, but by the difference of the
crystals on the opposite sides of these lines. There
were, it is true, some very large blocks wherein no
strata could be perceived; a circumstance which
has elsewhere deceived those who deny the stratifi-.
cation of this stone; but it has been already re-.
marked by M. de Saussure, that such an opinion
could never have occurred except to persons who
had happened to observe only some strata of very
great thickness, without carrying their researches any
farther.
701. This congeries of blocks on the Ochsen-kopf
forms two eminences, on one of which somebody has
decorated the mountain with a coat of arms symbo-
lical of its name, a large or's head having been
traced with some sharp instrument on the face of a
block in a very elevated situation. The kind of tree
which grows at the greatest height among these rocks,
where, however, it does not attain to any conside-
rable size, is the mountain-ash; its red berries, hang-
ing in large bunches, were now ripe, and attracted
vast flights of thrushes. It was about half past 12
when
235
when we arrived at this spot, where we made a halt,
of which my knee stood greatly in need, and during
which the weather fortunately cleared up, so that we
were able to see the fine prospect commanded by
this summit: M. Killinguer took the trouble to point
to me the several eminences here lying below us;
and he likewise turned my attention to the country
over which I had passed between Hof and Berneck ;
I had found every part of this tract intersected with
large vallies; but hence it appeared only a plain,
and I could not distinguish whether the woods with
which it was interspersed indicated stony summits,
or abrupt slopes. On one side we saw the Schnee-
berg; its summit, formed likewise by a heap of
blocks, rose a little above us: we were separated from
it by a large vale, in which, on our left, was si-
tuated a village called Bischoffs grün, whither our
horses had been sent to wait for us.
702. We descended from the first of the emi-
nences of blocks on the Ochsen-kopf in order to as-
cend the other, which we found to terminate in a
precipice on the side next the slope. Being told by
the guide that there was something curious to be seen
below these rocks, we determined to go to view it;
but for this purpose we were obliged to descend the
precipice, which I could not do without great diffi-
culty, on account of my knee: on arriving at the
bottom, he led us to a deep cavity, like a well,
where I saw in the sides only blocks piled on each
other in a disordered manner; the guide told us
that
936
M
that it was practicable to descend from block to block
to a great depth, and that, at the bottom, under im-
mense stones, there was an opening into a cavern.
Hence may be judged what convulsions these strata
must have undergone throughout their whole mass.
703. From this point, we descended the mountain
on the side opposite to that of our ascent, and very
different from it; the lower part of that side being
covered, as I have said, with grass on granitic sand,
up to the woods that occupy the slope composed of
blocks imbedded in moss. But the side on which
we descended was entirely overspread with peat
under a thick moss, and the firs growing in the
upper part were small and stunted: there were no
projecting rocks, and the blocks scattered on the
surface were very small. I suspect that, in the ca-
tastrophe which reduced to their present level the
low spaces around this eminence, the principal
fracture, and the most immediate subsidence, took
place on the side next the valley where the pool is
situated; that the strata present their section on that
side, and their inclined planes on the opposite one
by which we descended; and that the formation of
the peat is owing to the water retained by these
planes. In the woods, the slope is very rapid; it
has less declivity below them, where the peat still
continues; but there being here less moisture than
under the trees, it is covered in this part with good
herbage, and forms meadows which extend down to
the borders of the IV'hite Mayn, after its issue from
the
7
237
the pool: This slope, towards its foot, is covered
with immense blocks of grey granite, different from
that of the mountain itself, and containing large
crystals of feldspar.
+
704. At half past three we reached the forges at
Bischoffs-grün, where M. Miller, the director,
having had previous notice of our arrival, received
s with great civility; and we staid there the re-
mainder of the day. This rest was very necessary
for me, for I suffered much pain from my knee.
Mad. Miller was so kind as to cause it to be im-
mediately wrapped in cloths dipped in brandy with
soap dissolved in it; and this greatly relieved me.
I continued the same application throughout my
whole journey, which I could not suspend, on ac-
count of the lateness of the season; so that I was
glad to be thus enabled to proceed, though with dif-
ficulty. But I was still very lame at my return to
Berlin; for an extravasation of lymph had taken
place in the tunic of the patella, which it required
almost three months to dissipate.
J
705. This same day, however, after dinner, my
knee having had some rest, I went out again to ob-
serve the vale. A large promontory, which branches
off from the Ochsen-kopf, extends horizontally into
the vale, and terminates just opposite to the forges;
its whole surface is covered with large blocks of gra-
nite. In the vale, I saw likewise abundance of
blocks of the same quartz.intersected by veins of black
iron
338
iron ore, which I had seen in the vale on the opposite
side of the mountain; and this leads me to believe
that the gneiss, as well as the schistus, originally lay
on the granite over all this part of the bottom of
he ancient´sea, and that, during the catastrophes of
the strata, they both slid down towards the side
where the greatest subsidence took place, leaving the
granite uncovered; but that all the strata having
been broken in the latest catastrophe, among other
fragments, those of a vein which had been contained in
the gneiss were thrown out by the expansible fluids into
the two opposite vallies. Many other phenomena will
successively appear, to prove the above to have been
the effects of the catastrophes in this region; and I
have already shewn that, on the outer side of this
chain of mountains, the strata of lime-stone were in
the same manner left uncovered by the sliding down
of those of sand-stone towards the points of subsi-
dence.
706. I must now mention another phenomenon
of this vale, to shew that, at the moment of its pro-
duction, the strata were subverted, and that such as
were here swallowed up were reduced into fragments,
which were afterwards ejected from within. In this
vale, as far as to the foot of the Ochsen-kopf, are
found blocks of the stone here called grün-stein,
which I have already mentioned as being also scat-
tered in the vale on the other side of the mountain;
but they are the most valued in the vale of Bischoff's-
grün, where they form an object of manufacture.
8
Now
239
Now M. Miller informed me, that neither of this
kind of stone nor of the former was any rock or
stratum known to exist throughout the whole coun-
try.
707. The grün-stein (or green-stone,) is easily
melted with potash into a black glass which is used
for making buttons, and large beads for necklaces;
I shall speak only of the manufacture of buttons,
where great diligence is requisite, the article being
sold at a very low price. Pieces of iron wire are
first prepared, which are bent in a circle, with their
ends turned back in hooks: the workman takes up
one of these pieces by the middle, with a pair of
iron pincers, near three feet long, which form the ex-
tremity of a small iron bar, on which there is a run-
ring ring to fix their hold of the wire: he then dips
the hooks of the wire into the crucible of melted
glass, of which they take out a certain quantity; and
immediately rolling the bar on a proper support with
que hand, he forms the button with an instrument
held in the other. The workman is paid two kreut-
zers for 20 dozen of these buttons, and he makes in
the day eight times that quantity. These 20 dozen,
strung on a thread, are sold at the place of manu-
facture for eight kreutzers, which amount only to half
a French sol. The furnace has 12 mouths, six on
each side, so that 12 workmen may be employed at
a time; they relieve each other every six hours, be-
cause, when the glass is in a proper state, the work
must go on day and night, without intermission.
Sept.
I
240
5
Sept. 14th. I could not spare time to remain at
Bischoffs-grün, though I experienced so much kind-
ness from M. and Mad. Miller, that it would have
been of great advantage to iny knee to have staid ·
here a little longer; but M. Killinguer was obliged
to return to Goldcronach, and was to put me into
the hands of another guide for the rest of my ·
journey.
708. We set out on horseback at half past six in
the morning, and first ascended the grounds on the
right bank of the White Mayn, in order to reach a
pass in the line of mountains descending from the
Schnee-berg. This pass is a large cleft, which has
steep sides covered with firs, and in which are col-
lected the waters here flowing towards the Mayn;
but at the upper end it opens into a high tract called
Die Höl, gradually sloping in an opposite direction;
and on this side, all the waters flow down to the
Eger, which takes its course through Bohemia.
Though this pass is in the granitic chain, its soil is
entirely covered with rubbish of gneiss.
•
سے
F
709. From the highest part of this pass, we had a
view of a vast circular chain of cones covered with
wood, which, from their form, might be supposed
volcanic; but M. Killinguer informed me that those
beginning this circle on the left are of granite, and
rise from a common base; most of these have a
high rock on their summit, and their slopes are co-
vered with blocks. It is on account of these rocky
summits,
F
241
suinmits, a rock being in German called stein, that
the names of the mountains of this kind are termi-
nated with that word: thus, on the left of the spot
where we stood, there are the Wald-stein, and the
Eprecht-stein, on which stand ancient castles. The
other eminences in this circle, without any visible
rocks on their summits, are called simply berg,
(mountain ;), as the Korn-berg, and the Heid-berg.
These mountains resemble a string of beads, in
which the Schnee-berg rises above all the rest.
There are some other granitic cones detached from
the chain, and dispersed in various parts of the am-
phitheatre below; of these, the nearest to us was
the Rollen-stein.
710. I have said that, on this side of the chain,
the waters flow down to join the Eger; and in fact
the first brook to which we came here bears the name
of that river; it rises in a marshy soil, and the stones
found in the higher part of its course are fragments
of gneiss. As soon as we had issued from the woods
by which this pass is chiefly occupied, we saw, in
the nearest part of the large basin here opening to
the view, the lake of Weissenstadt, with the small
town of that name at its extremity. This lake is
surrounded with morasses; for it is the lowest part
of a peat-moor, which is continually incroaching on
it, and of which the borders, not yet consisting of
solid peat, are still covered by the water. Another
branch of the Eger, rising also in a marshy soil at
the foot of the Rollen-stein, joins the former before
R
it
VOL. II.
ľ
242
it enters this lake, the reservoir of the waters of the
whole semicircle on the left, which issue from it in
one stream, under the name of the Eger. We have
here then another chain of mountains deeply inter-
sected, with very rapid slopes; and of these moun-
tains also it is impossible to ascribe the forms to run-
ning waters, because all the materials which the
streams have brought down ever since they have
flowed have not yet been sufficient to fill up the ori-
ginal cavity of the lake: this cavity will at last be
filled up by the peat, like those which I have de-
scribed in the country of Mecklenburg, at a very
low level on the continent; and in speaking of the
chronometer afforded by the increase of the peat at
that level, I then referred to the lakes of these
mountains, in order to shew that it was the same at
every degree of elevation. After having descended
a part of the slope towards this basin, we found rub-
bish of granite mixed with that of gneiss; and at
last the former prevailed alone.
711. When we came to the bottom of the hill, we
went first to the forges of Weissenheid, from the
master of which, M. WAECKLER, we had a very
obliging reception. There we found M. SIEVERS,
another Inspector of the Mines, who, having been ap-
prized at what time I was expected, had come hither on
purpose to meet ine, and to accompany me through-
out the rest of my excursion; M. Killinguer, as I
have already said, being obliged to return from hence
to Goldcronach: before the departure of the latter,
it
243
it was agreed, that, as all the conical eminences
following each other on the base of the Schnee-berg
are of the same nature, it would be sufficient for
me to observe the Rollen-stein, which was the
nearest of them, and from which I might form a
precise idea of them all; and accordingly I imme-
diately set out for it accompanied by M. Sievers
and M. Waeckler.
712. In our way to this eminence, we first as-
cended to a tract of ground, which is above the level
of the lake, and forms a kind of terrace along the
foot of the mountains. Those parts of the terrace,
where originally there were but few blocks, have been
cleared of them, the higher for the purpose of cul-
tivation, the lower for that of extending the mea-
dows which cover the bottom of the basin; but at
all levels there are some parts where the blocks lie
in such prodigious abundance, that the acquisition
of ground would not compensate the expense of re-
moving them for agricultural purposes; there is,
however, another use for which they are taken up;
and this I shall now explain. It is here distinctly
seen, in the several masses, as well by the difference
in their crystals, as by that in their thickness, that
they have belonged to different strata: I saw some
which were 20 or 30 feet long, and very broad, yet
not more than two or three feet thick; but some
were considerably thicker: in the former, the
crystals were very small; in the latter, they were
generally larger. The great size of these thinner
flakes,
R 2
244
!
flakes, and the smallness of their crystals, renders
them very proper to be used as hewn stone; they
are accordingly cut into very long pieces for the pi-
lasters of doors; for window-frames, benches, and
every other purpose, and even formed into arches,
in a single piece, for gate-ways; they are hewn in
the following manner. The flake being always flat,
as having made part of a stratum, the line in which
it is intended to be divided, is first deeply traced in
it; along this line, holes are made with a chisel, at
the distance of two or three inches from each other,
and of a proper form and depth to allow steel wedges
to stand upright in them; each of these wedges is
then driven deeper in its respective hole with a ham-
mer of a moderate size, till it is felt to be firmly
fixed there; after this, all the wedges, in succession,
are struck very forcibly with a heavy hammer, pass-
ing and repassing along the whole line; and the
piece being thus detached in the form which had
been traced, it is afterwards finished with hammers
and chisels of different kinds.
713. On viewing this spot, and every thing around
it, no supposition can possibly be entertained that
the blocks which cover it, and are successively re-
moved for the purpose above described, can have
fallen into it from a higher spot, or indeed that they
have been transported hither from any quarter
whatever. The whole bottom of the large basin
was at first covered with similar blocks, which, in
the lowest parts, are now buried under the rubbish
and
245
and sand brought down by the waters from the sur-
rounding heights during seasons of long rains, or
the melting of the snows; and the ground thus
levelled is now converted into meadows. It inay
be
judged that such is the case, because, throughout
this space, and even in the centre of it, there are,
above the level of the meadows, certain spots which
are covered with blocks, and look, as I was told,
like islands, when the rest is flooded. This then
must have been a great focus of explosion for the
interior expansible fluids, during the formation of the
mountains by the subsidence from which their vallies,
and particularly this large basin, have resulted.
714. The Rollen-stein, whither we were going,
rises in a cone from the above terrace; its slope is
covered with firs, and very rapid; there are on it
many rocks; but I shall speak only of those which
crown its summit, and are very singular. They
form several large angular columns, 40 or 50 feet
in height, being masses of nearly vertical strata:
the stratification is distinguishable, not only because
the crystals are dissimilar in contiguous strata, Lut
because the joints have been deepened by erosion : it
is remarkable that, as I was informed by both the
gentlemen who accompanied ine, these rocks consist
of the same granite as those which rise on the
largest eminences belonging to the chain; as is evi-
dently shewn by this particular circumstance, that
these strata contain a mineral substance, which, on
being decomposed by humidity, imparts to their
surface
246
}
surface a reddish tinge. It is therefore probable
that, during the subsidence of the mass originally
filling the cavity of the basin, there were left on
its borders the large fragments now composing these
distinct eminences, the summits of which, at their
different degrees of elevation, were formed by the
same strata, remaining in each at the highest level:
it was then also that the vast quantities of blocks
which cover both the basin and its borders were
thrown out and dispersed by the expansible fluids.
In this great catastrophe of the strata, some of their
masses near the summits happened to be split; and
the action of the air having enlarged the fissures by
decomposing the surface of the granite, these masses
have been thus reduced into insulated pillars. The
granitic sand, here covering the slopes of the moun-
tains, is the product of this operation, and of the
same action of the air and other causes on the
blocks, of which, though they still remain in their
original place, the angles are rounded. I have de-
scribed the same phenomenon on the Giant's moun+
tains.
}
715. From the top of one of the granitic columns
of the Rollen-stein, to which I found great difficulty
in ascending on account of my knee, I had a view
of all the intervals between the mounts on the left,
wherein are collected the waters flowing down into
the lake of Weissenstadt, whence issues the Eger:
those proceeding from the northern side of the
mountains here opposite to me form the origin of
the
247
[
the Saale, which passes through Zell, Hof, and
Gera, in Saxony, and of which the first branch
issues likewise, as my two companions informed me,
from a pool in a peat-moss, at the foot of the IVald-
stein, the highest of the eminences belonging to that
part of the Fichtelberg. The latter river, there-
fore, has had no greater share than the Eger in
the excavation of the vallies between these moun-
tains.
716. Hence we returned to the forges of TV'eissen-
heid, where, at four o'clock, M. Sievers and I took
leave of M. Waeckler, and proceeded along the
left bank of the lake on a causeway of granitic
sand, which is kept in very good order across the
peat-moors, and which led us to the small town of
Weissenstadt, built on a terrace in front of the
mountains on this side. It is here that the Eger
issues from the lake; and notwithstanding the late
rains, the water of this river was very clear, having
only the brown tint which is common to the water
of all peat-mosses when viewed at some depth, but
which is not perceived when a little is taken up in
a glass. The causeway is carried on through the
meadows of this basin, where it winds to follow the
firmest parts of the soil, which are those that border
the kind of islands mentioned above: some of the
smallest of these, where the blocks could be easily
collected on the sides, have been brought into cul-
tivation. Here I saw blocks of a granite which
contains
248
contains large crystals of feld-spar, like that of the
Ochsen-kopf, and of which the masses had evidently
belonged to thick strata,
717. We went on towards the small town of
Wunsiedel, the residence of M. Sievers, within half
a league of Alexanders-bade, to which place we pur-
posed to proceed that evening, in order to set out
from thence the next morning on other excursions.
Our road lay over a promontory advancing into the
meadows as into a lake; it is parallel with the chain
of the granitic cones which follow the Schnee-berg,
and from which it is divided only by meadows;
these meadows are indented on their borders by
smaller promontories, projecting from terraces co-
vered with blocks of granite. The great promon-
tory, however, is a mass of gneiss, and the blocks
and other fragments, which I saw on its surface,
were all of that stone. Here then is another very
large mass of gneiss in a low space, surrounded
with granitic eminences; and this confirms my con-
jecture that the granite was covered by the gneiss
antecedently to all the catastrophes which this re-
gion underwent. I observed another remarkable
phenomenon on this promontory; the blocks and
other superficial stony masses were imbedded in a
very thick loose soil; this soil, however, was not
the granitic sand of the surrounding mountains, on
which firs flourish; it was a fine sand like that of
the heaths, where pines only grow: it could not
therefore have been brought down hither from the
5
}
moun-
J
#
249
mountains. This promontory is insulated through-
out the greater part of its extent; but, on the right,
it joins the chain of the mountains, from which
again separating, it takes a different direction; and
this interval is likewise occupied by meadows. In
these two intervals between the ridge of gneiss and
the foot of the mountains, are collected all the waters
which descend from the latter: those on the side,
where the promontory terminates fall into the Eger
below Weissenstadt; and those on the other side form
the commencement of the small river Rösla, which
passes through IWunsiedel, and having joined the
Rosein, arriving from the opposite part of the chain,
their united stream falls into the Eger near Hohen-
berg, not far from the spot where that river issues
from the mountains. These then are all the branches
of the Eger, which afterwards enters Bohemia;
and no one who has observed the real facts can pos-
sibly imagine that it has carried any stones out of
the whole of this vast space; for the last mentioned
branches issue, like the former, from meadows in-
terspersed with pools, which they have not been able
to fill up with all the materials propelled by their
waters since the epoch when they began to flow.
This phenomenon is therefore general on the con-
tinents at all heights; for on the Alps, and on
every other chain of mountains, it is absolutely the
same.
718. When we passed near Wunsiedel, M. Sievers
sent hither to acquaint M. KLINGUER, Counsellor
5
of
250
of Justice, to whom likewise I was recommended,
that we were going to Alexanders-bade, which is a
large bathing house, surrounded only by a few cot-
tages, where this gentleman came to meet us at half
past seven. The mineral spring here is chalybeate,
and contains a great deal of fixed air, which gives
it an acidulous taste; whence this place has also the
name of Sauer-brunnen, (sour springs :) for the
baths, the water is heated. M. Klinguer had mea-
sured by the barometer the height of the Ochsen-
kopf and of the Schnee-berg comparatively with
Leopolds-dorf, a town higher than Wunsiedel on the
course of the Rösla; and he found the former emi-
nence to be 1420 French feet (about 1515 English)
above that place, and the latter, 1485 (1584
English.) With respect to the height of Leopolds-
dorf above the level of the sea, he had no direct
observation of the barometer; but he considered
28 inches as the mean height of that instrument at
the level of the sea, and on comparing this with its
mean height at Leopolds-dorf he had found the level
of the latter to be 2697 feet above the former;
which, when added to the heights of the two moun-
tains, makes them merely granitic hills when com-
pared with the chain of the Alps.
Sept. 19th. I set out in the morning with M.
Sievers and M. Klinguer, to cross a ridge of emi-
nences called the Luchs-berg, which is situated be-
tween Alexanders-bade and IVunsiedel, and by which
the line of the mounts on the base of the chain of the
Schnee-
251
.
Schnee-berg is terminated on the south, as it is by
the Rollen-stein on the north. We first ascended a
long promontory, covered with large blocks on gra-
nitic sand, which is the case with all those that ad-
vance into the meadows of the basin above described,
as well as with its islands; but I could here perceive
that these blocks were not merely superficial; for
there were in the promontory some clefts, in which
I saw that its interior part was entirely composed of
blocks.
719. We ascended among these blocks, through a
fir wood, to the summit of the Luch-berg, where we
found a large rock of granite, with inclined strata
fractured in many places by its subsidence; in conse-
quence of the fractures, some large masses have fallen
down, and form a most picturesque base to this py-
ramid, which, on one side, is from 60 to 80 feet
high. Steps have been cut in the pyramid itself,
and in the blocks of the base, wooden ones being
fixed in the intervals of the latter; and we were thus
enabled to ascend to the summit, where there is a
space which has been surrounded with a rail, and
measures about 5 or 6 feet in each direction.
cannot express my sensations on reaching this spot,
where I could represent to myself, as clearly as if
I had been a witness of it, the catastrophe which
had taken place in the surrounding region, together
with its consequences; especially the prodigious
agitation of the water of the sea, when, while this
part of its bed was undergoing its latest catastrophe,
I
masses
1
252
masses of equal size with the bordering mountains
sunk into the interior caverns, whence they first ex-
pelled the air, and afterwards, when they reached
the lowest depths, the water which with them had
been ingulphed. From the state of these sunken
masses, it may easily be understood why earthquakes,
when their cause is in action, are not stopped by
mountains. This cause, as I shewed in my first
work, is the astonishing quantity of aqueous vapour
produced by the waters, which, as they circulate
through the shattered mass of the strata, happen
suddenly to fall into those interior furnaces wherein
lava is formed: there is no action more powerful
than that of this vapour, when produced in a con-
fined space by a great heat; it immediately diffuses
itself throughout the whole of the cavernous mass of
the sunken strata, under the mountains, as well as
under the plains; and the circumstance by which
this agent is particularly pointed out is, that, after
even the mountains have been shaken, no exterior
explosion ensues; because the vapour, as it passes
through these cavities, is gradually condensed, and
returns into water.
720. From hence there is a better view than
from the Rollen-stein of the mounts which rise suc-
cessively on the base of the Schnee-berg, and of the
others that are scattered in various parts of the basin.
My two companions informed me, that, with respect
to their general characters, these mounts are all
similar to that on which we now stood; most of
them
S
953
them having, on their summits, an insulated rock,
indicative of the manner of their formation. All
these exterior eminences are the result of interior
obstacles, which have impeded the descent of the
strata, and on which the latter have been broken.
The pyramids on the summits rest on the highest
parts of these interior obstacles; and the blocks
forming the mass of the mounts, as well as all the
rest that are scattered on their lower parts, are frag-
ments of the strata which have been expelled from
within by the expansible fluids.
721. The Luchsberg is attended by more remark-
able circumstances than the other eminences of the
same kind, and it is partly on this account that
strangers are taken to see it; but besides, art has
concurred with nature in embellishing it. This
eminence is situated at the extremity of two ridges of
similar mounts; and on the side where the greatest
subsidence has taken place, the ground is lower than
in the part where these ridges unite; but nothing
can be more astonishing than the side of this emi-
nence towards Wunsiedel; masses not inferior in
size to houses seem there to have fallen from the
sky, some being composed of several strata, which
still adhere together, while in others, the strata,
though separated, have remained near each other in
many various positions, forming on the slope very
picturesque associations, especially grottoes; and of
these I shall first describe the largest. In the sub-
sidence whence this chaos resulted, one piece of a
single
1
254
I
1
single stratum, the surface of which M. Klinguer
had found to be about, 1000 square feet, happened
to be left supported by other blocks in a situation
nearly horizontal, its anterior part resting on one of
these masses, which renders it firm. This particular
accident, together with several others of a similar
nature, suggested to the inhabitants of Vunsiedel
the idea of converting this scene of disorder into a
pleasure-ground. With this view, they began by
clearing the space beneath the large block, which
thus forms the roof of a vast circular saloon; they
then filled up with stones the intervals of the masses
that support this roof all around, only leaving pas-
sages on both sides of the block on which it rests in
front, and which is situated so far within, as that
there is all around it a large space sheltered from
the rain. This saloon is furnished with handsome
stone benches; and the pillar near the entrance
forms the centre of a table. To all who make par-
ties of pleasure to the Luchs-berg, and especially to
those who lodge at the baths, this is a very agreeable
place of retreat in hot weather, or when it happens
to rain; but there are around it many others which
are equally pleasant.
722. Fir-trees flourish extremely in this amphi-
theatre; for they not only spring up in the intervals
of the blocks, but many of them, having been favoured
in their first growth by the lichens and the mosses,
which overspread the projecting parts of these vast
fragments, and retain the granitic sand washed down
by
255
by the rains from above, have thrown their roots
around the blocks, and have risen to a great height,
with the appearance of being placed on pedestals.
Several safe ascents have been made, on different
sides, to the top of this ampitheatre, by means of
rails fixed to the trees; steps have been cut in some
of the blocks, and are continued in their intervals by
wooder ones; and in this manner different spots are
rendered accessible, where, under large blocks like
that which I have just described, not only several
grottoes, but even spacious apartments, have been
constructed: one of these is large enough to be used
sometimes as a theatre; and another near it serves
as a dining-room for the companies assembled on
those occasions. Between all these masses, there
are paths of communication, which form, in this sin-
gular labyrinth, a variety of pleasant walks, where
those who resort hither may at any time find rest in
the shade, or shelter from the rain. In one of these
grottoes I saw the first example of a vegetable phe-
nomenon, which I shall describe, because there are
probably many botanists who may not have had an
opportunity of observing it.
723. My two companions, placing me on one side
of the entrance of this grotto, told me to look in
towards its farther end, where I perceived nothing
but a heap of blocks which seemed to be covered
with a grey dust; but what was my surprize, when,
on being led to the other side of the entrance, I saw
these same blocks shining with a green light of sin-
gular
256
gular brilliancy, like that which may sometimes be
caught in viewing a piece of Labrador spar in a
particular direction. I went up to these stones, and
found them covered with what appeared to be a kind
of down; but on taking off some of this, in order to
examine it in the full light, I perceived that it was
composed of small lauinæ, which had serrated edges,
and were as transparent as a pale green glass. But
it is not immediately by this transparence that the
phenomenon is produced; for, as the inner part of
the grotto is dark, no light can proceed thence to
pass perceptibly through these lamine; it is an
effect of refraction, as is the case with respect to the
eyes of a cat in a dark place, when the exterior light
happens to strike on them; and the light which thus
returns from the moss is of a green incomparably more
vivid than is observed immediately by transparence.
In all my excursions among mountains, I have seen
only one other instance of this phenomenon, which
is in a cavity of the Botter rock on Dartmoor in
Devonshire, where I have described it in my Travels
already published; and the latter example shews
that this species of moss does not belong exclusively
to granitic grottoes; for the Botter rock is composed
of a kind of basalt.
724. As, in my journey into Lusatia and Silesia,
I had seen, among the scattered mounts of granite,
schistus, or gneiss, some others of which the summits
were of basalts, I inquired of my two companions
whether the case was the same in this country; they
replied
257
-
replied that it was, and pointed out to me, along the
right bank of the Eger, the mounts of Thier-stien,
Neuhauss, Stein-berg, and Hohenberg, (the last being
near the entrance into Bohemia,) which all had
basalts on their summits. This is a very remarkable
phenomenon; but a full investigation of it would be
attended with great difficulty, because all the slopes.
of these mounts, as well as the circumjacent grounds,
are so much covered with rubbish, that repeated ex-
cursions to them would be necessary, for the pur-
pose of discovering, in some place, the junction of
the different mass; nor even could it always be
supposed, considering the frequent subversions of
the strata, that those, which are now the uppermost,
were originally superior to the others. In the
sequel of this journey, I shall often have occasion to
mention eminences and other soils of basalt, and to
add some farther conjectures on the subject.
725. From the summit of the Luchs-berg, I saw
the Naub flowing in the upper Palatinate, below the
point at which it issues from behind the chain of the
Schnee-berg; and I again observed several pools and
small lakes on its course. Generally speaking, M.
Humboldt's topographical map, given to me by
Baron Von Hardenberg, contains no streams which
do not either proceed from pools, or pass through
such cavities in their course. My readers must not
be surprized at my returning so often to the same
point; because, as this is a phenomenon which
shews how small a quantity of materials has been
S
transported
VOL. II.
}
F
258
t
1
↑
transported by running waters, there is no other
way than by multiplied examples of it at every height,
and in many different countries, to vanquish the
long established prejudice, that the vallies, together
with all other clefts and inequalities of the surface
of our continents, have been produced by streams;
an opinion which, in a greater degree than almost
any other, has diffused obscurity over the whole sci-
ence of geology, and has given birth to errors of
'many different kinds.
726. We had intended to make another excursion
this same day; but the rain, with which we had been
threatened the whole morning, at last came on; we
retired into the large grotto, where we dined on
some provisions that we had brought with us; and
after we had waited there some time without seeing
any probability that the rain would cease, we returned
to Alexanders-bade.
Sept. 20th. This being the place at which I had
appointed my carriage to meet me, I continued my
journey from hence with post-horses, my first stage
being to Egra, a town belonging to Bohemia; and
M. Sievers accompanied me a little way on the road,
in order to point out to me. some interesting phe-
nomena in a schistose ridge which here crosses the
basin, and which, beginning near Wunsiedel, where
all is granite, follows, at some distance, the left
bank of the Rösla, down to the point where that
river falls into the Eger. We first returned towards
Wun-
259
Wunsiedel, in order to cross this schistose ridge, the
direction of which is followed by the villages of
Holenbrunnen, Singenten-grün, Göpfers-grün, and
Thiersheim. The strata of this ridge descend in an
angle of about 45°. towards the course of the Rösla,
and it is attended by the following remarkable circum-
stances. In the first place, within its breadth are
contained two lagen, or masses of strata, of a very
white saline or statuary marble with a shining grain,
which would equal the Carrara, if its strata were
thick; but they are too thin to be used except for
tables, mantle-pieces, and purposes of that kind.
These strata are transversely divided by many frac-
tures, and they have slipped down irregularly be-
tween the schistose strata, where they are conse-
quently found at different levels. But the circum-
stance most singular, and most evidently shewing the
great variety of the operations which took place on
the bottom of the ancient sea, is that the spaces left
vacant between the schisti, by the slipping down of
the marble strata, have been filled with a clay con-
taining concretions rich in iron, which are smelted
on the spot, for the purpose of extracting that metal.
There are but few places where the marble appears
externally; and in those chiefly it is worked. The
clay is in the intervals of the highest masses of the
marble, and rests on the upper sections of such as,
having been separated by fractures from those above
them, have slidden downwards in a greater or less
degree. This clay is worked by shafts, in order that
nothing may be taken out, except the ferruginous
s 2
concre-
GR
260
concretions; and when a lateral mass of marble oc-
curs, it is worked by the same shaft across its
breadth. M. Sievers took the trouble to point out
to my observation all which I have here described,
as we passed several places where the work was
going on; and at Singenten-grün I parted with this
gentleman, by whose assistance I had been enabled
to view, in so short a time and so advantagcous a
manner, a country thus interesting to my views.
727. In proceeding along the road by Bernstein,
and Stemmers-grün, I crossed several of the hills
which resemble islands in the tract of meadows
formed on a soil of granitic sand; and as I descend-
ed the last of these hills to Thiersheim, I again saw
the section of the marble strata appear at the sur-
face. I afterwards passed over hills covered with
loose soils of different kinds: on some of these I ob-
served the same strata of white sand, which I have
already mentioned as absolutely extraneous to the
stony strata of the hills themselves and the sur-
rounding eminences, and which are intermixed with
strata of yellow sand and of clay; they are such, in
short, as are found in many plains; and hence it is
evident that they must have been formed on the bed
of the sea before the birth of the continent. In
several places, I saw abundance of blocks on the
surface of these soils: the first that I observed were
of the saline marble, intermixed with others of quartz;
afterwards, the latter were mingled with some appa-
rently of the grün-stein, of which no strata are seen
externally
261
1
1
externally throughout the whole country; and lastly
I saw amongst them blocks of sienite covered with a
yellowish crust.
728. From the last of these hills, which is above
Schirnding, and still within the basin encompassed
by nountains, we had a view of the course of the
Eger in its way into Bohemia. This is an open
country, the lower part of which is interspersed with
mounts, and cultivated. On the left are the Stein-
berg and the Hohen-berg, both with basaltic sum-
mits. At Schirnding, the Rösla issues, by a cleft
from the valley in which it has for a long way freely
meandered through meadows: after I had here
crossed it by a high bridge with a single arch, I
proceeded along a road cut in the slope of the hills
on the right. Below the bridge, the river enters a
large space, where it formerly held a desultory
course, sometimes beating against one side, and
sometimes against the other. This operation is
shewn by the cliffs which were formed in the parts
attacked by the river; but at present the stream pre-
serves a permanent channel, winding through the
meadows, and the ancient cliffs are reduced into
slopes covered with grass. It is in this space that
the Rösla joins the Eger at Fischerne, and they
afterwards flow united along the same vale, over
which the latter also formerly wandered as I have
above described: on the left bank there is a large
cliff principally composed of loose soil covering ruins
of
262
t
جمہ
of schistus, some rocks of which I saw pro-
jecting from the cliff, now reduced into a grassy
slope.
!
729. The first village to which we came after
we had entered Bohemia, is called Mühlbach, on
account of a brook arriving here from the hills on
the right, and turning a mill at this place. Hence
I proceeded over those hilis, following the direc-
tion of the Eger, which I saw from time to time
continuing its meanders in the meadows. The whole
country here within view on the outer side of the
Fichtelberg consists of cultivated hills, extending
as far as to other mountains at a distance, which
are much intersected, and from which project se-
veral promontories, that descend gradually, and are
lost among these hills. On the road, I observed
blocks of quartz in great abundance, all the way to
Egra, where I arrived at three o'clock. Baron
Von Hardenberg had here recommended me to M.
LIMBECK Von LILIENAW, the burgomaster of
the town, requesting him to furnish me with di-
rections and recommendations for the rest of my
journey through Bohemia; and I was accordingly
obliged to this gentleman for affording me much as-
sistance, as well as for procuring me that of Dr.
KÖHLER, who, being a native of Aussig, a place
through which I intended to pass in my way from
Bohemia into Saxony, was so good as to give me a
letter to his brother residing there.
A
14 *****-
730. I
263
730. I had been desired, when I should be at
Egra, to observe a phenomenon near a spot where
there are baths, of which I received an interesting
account; and on inquiring about it at the Sun inn,
where I was lodged, the innkeeper's son offered to
accompany me thither. We set out from Egra at
five o'clock, and first crossed the river, in a part
where it flows between the town, and a hill which
has a schistose base, but is covered with a loose
soil of such thickness, that the schistus appears only
at the foot, whence it is taken to be used as build-
ing stone, being very hard. When we came to the
highest part of the hill, we had a prospect on the
right of a large plain, where the bathing-house is
situated. The hill is covered with heath, on which
the sheep browze; and I saw on its surface abun-
dance of blocks and other fragments of quartz.
This plain has the name of Cammer; the hill slopes
gradually dawn to it; and a small eminence rising
on it, called Cammer-hügel, was the object of my
present walk.
731. Having ascended the base of this mount on the
side on which I had approached it, I entered a lateral
cavity, at the level of the base, encompassed by the
section of very distinct strata of the soil rising a-
round it with an inclination to the right, where they
follow the slope of the mount. This cavity had
not been produced at any very remote period; I
could not learn the date of it; but no doubt could
be entertained of its having been the effect of an
interior
264
interior fire. These very regular strata were alter-
nately of clay and of basaltic fragments; but they
had evidently undergone the action of fire throughout
their whole thickness; the clay had assumed the
hardness and the colour of brick, and the basaltic
fragments were reduced into scoria; I should have
taken them for volcanic cinders, had they all been
within two or three inches in diameter, because, in
such as did not exceed that size, it was evident
that the action of fire had pervaded their whole
mass; but there were among them some larger frag-
ments, in which this action not having penetrated to
any greater depth, the inner part was simple basalt.
The summit of this mount consists of a rock of
basaltic stone, which has not the form either of
prisms or of balls; and it is from this point that
the strata just mentioned descend to the level of
the plain.
732. It will be asked how far this phenomenon may
be considered as supporting the opinion that the
basalts, which will be found to abound so greatly
in this country, are a volcanic product. I will not
speak decisively on this question, although I incline
to the affirmative. It is known that lavas, which
have descended from Etna, on entering the sea,
have there separated into prisms. On this circum-
stance, combined with several others, I founded the
opinion expressed in my first work, that the basalts
scattered on our continents are the product of lavas
which burst forth at the bottom of the ancient sea;
and
2
265
and I shewed, at the same time, that, on many of
these lavas, strata of lime-stone had been subse-
quently formed. But the action of fire on the su-
perficial strata in the neighbourhood of Egra re-
quires for its solution some additional circumstance.
I have already explained in what manner it is ren-
dered evident by earthquakes that the combustion
and liquefaction of the matter of which lavas are
formed extend under vast tracts of our mineral
strata; I proved also, in my first geological work,
that this matter is beneath all the strata, and is ex-
traneous to them: now may it not have happened
that, in the great catastrophes of the strata occa-
sioned by their subsidences in caverns, the matter,
which undergoes this subterranean combustion, has
been raised in some places, to within a small dis-
tance of the surface, so as to have communicated
its heat to some of the exterior strata, and has thus
become the cause of the effect which I have just de-
scribed? However this may be, the phenomenon
itself is a very remarkble one. A heavy rain came
on, while we were upon the Cammer-hügel, so that
I could not stay there as long as I should have
wished, but was obliged to hasten back to Egra.
(In the country, this town is called Eger, as well
as the river.)
Sept. 21st. I set out from Egra at half past
seven in the morning, and my first stage, in length
three miles, was to Tswoda, where I did not arrive
till half past 12. In passing through the town of
Egra,
266
Egra, I saw that it was paved with white quartz
and basalt. Along this road, I was continually as-
cending and descending hills composed of micaceous
schistus; though this indeed appeared only in some
projecting rocks and deep clefts, these hills being
covered with a very thick loose soil, which is inter-
mixed with gravel and blocks of quartz, though
still in the vicinity of the granitic mountains of the
Fichtelberg. The Eger winds in vales covered
with meadows, where I frequently passed very near
it; and in the intervals I crossed several brooks
which flow through similar vales to join it: at
last I crossed the river itself in a part whence it
makes a wide bend to the right, and I did not see
it again till I was near the end of the stage; but,
in the mean time, I passed over several other vales
of the same nature, with brooks flowing in them,
which fall into the river lower down. Here then we
have a new system of waters forming a river, the
branches whereof cannot be supposed to have hol-
lowed out the vales through which they pass; they
must have found these cavities in their course when
they began to flow, and they have levelled the bot-
toms now covered with meadows.
733. In passing over the tops of these hills, I
saw, at no great distance on the left, the chain of
mountains which separates Bohemia first from the
country of Bayreuth, and then from Sarony, where
it is called the Ertz-gebürge. This chain is very
little calculated to support the idea of that elevated
sea,
5
267
sea, which is supposed by some of the German geo-
logists to have formerly covered Bohemia, being
kept up at that high level by a dike; for the whole
chain is intersected with vallies so deep, that their
bottom is as low as that of the vales between the
hills. In one of these vales, besides the masses of
quarts, I saw some large blocks of granite belong-
ing to strata of no great thickness, which are cut
here, as I have described near Veissenheid, for the
frames of the doors of houses and gardens. In a
vale succeeding this, I found a great many blocks
of a very hard sand-stone, covered with a crust of
a reddish brown: some of these still preserved their
angles, but others were rounded, and the widest of
their surfaces were concave. The hills becoming
very rapid, I walked up the next, on the slope of
which I found no blocks except of white quartz;
but on the summit I again met with those of the
sand-stone.
734. Hence I descended into another vale; and
finding the hill beyond it very high and steep, I
walked up this also. I was here struck with the
variety of the blocks which covered the surface: at
first those of basalt chiefly prevailed; but they gave
place, as I ascended, to others of white quartz,
and granulated quartz, or very hard sand-stone;
and at last I saw a great many masses of a breccia
composed of fragments of white quarts, some an-
gular, and others rounded, imbedded in a hard sub-
stance which was variously shaded from a blackish
to
268
to a reddish colour, or grey. The fragments con-
tained in this breccia were of different sizes, and
were so small in some of the masses as to give them
a resemblance to porphyry. Seeing that the sum-
mit of this hill was clothed with woods, I thought
that there might possibly be on it some basaltic emi-
nence; but I did not find any; it was everywhere
covered with a loose soil, mixed with the different
kinds of stones which I have mentioned, and with
some basalts; and this was the case over the whole
summit, and part of the opposite slope; then by
degrees the basalts disappeared, and there remained
only the other kinds of stones.
735. The size of the vale, or small plain, in
which I again came to the Eger, and that of the
higher vales whence issue the brooks arriving to join
this river, are proofs that nothing either has changed
or can have changed in this country, since streams
were first formed in it by the rain-waters. It was
by successive subsidences on the bottom of the an-
cient sea, that these hills, with their vales, were
placed below the level of the bordering mountains,
which are composed of the same strata, and do
themselves, by the state of those strata, very
clearly shew that they have sunk from a higher
level. The air compressed within, during the sub-
sidences, was the agent which ejected, through va-
rious crevices, these masses of so many kinds of
strata not externally appearing; and the masses of
breccia, indicate anterior convulsions, in consequence
*
of
269
of which the fragments of the shattered strata
having been dispersed over the bed of the sea, they
were here consolidated in stony strata, while in other
places they were disseminated in the loose strata
which form the surface of so many soils.
736. Beyond this hill, I came to the small plain
mentioned above, in which the Eger flows, having
entered it from the right. In this plain is the town
of Falkenau; and when I had passed through it,
I entered a vale, partly cultivated, partly in mea-
dows, through which a brook takes its course to
join the Eger. On the right, the country rises in
rounded hills; the cultivated parts of their rapid
slopes were still filled up with the water of the rains
of the preceding days, which there was turbid, but
became limpid on reaching the grassy parts; be-
cause as its course was impeded and divided by the
blades of grass, it deposited between them the earthy
particles which it had thus far brought along with
it, at the same time raising the soil by this depo-
sition. It is for this reason that, since the emi-
nences have been clothed with vegetation, the rain-
waters have made less impression on them, than
was the case for some time after the birth of our
continents. There are basalts on the summits of
these eminences, but I saw none on their slopes;
the blocks, of which there is a great quantity, are
of a grey granulated quarts, or very hard sand-
slone. The shades of difference among stones of
#
this
270
1
this class are so various, that their nomenclature is
still very arbitrary.
737. Tzwoda lies in the vale which is bordered
by these eminences; I arrived there at half past
12, and set out again at two for Carlsbad: this
latter stage is only two miles in length; but three
are charged at the post-houses, on account of the
badness of the road; and in fact I was four hours
in travelling it. In the way, I continued to pass
over hills separated by vales covered with meadows,
the waters of which discharge themselves into the
Eger. From the first of these hills, I had a distant
view of the river flowing in a valley higher up on
its course, and then entering a deep cleft at the foot
of the mountains: it cannot have formed this cleft,
because it has a sufficient space to spread above;
it must therefore have found this passage open to
receive it, at a lower level, when it began to flow;
which will yet more plainly appear at the point of
its issue.
738. In the interval where the Eger was con-
cealed from me by the depth of this cleft, I crossed
two remarkable hills; unluckily it was raining, so
that I could not quit my carriage, nor see the ob-
jects distinctly except at a small distance. In as-
cending the first of these hills, I went up a very
steep side, which was of great extent, and was co-
vered with blocks in no less abundance than the ter-
races
1
971
races near Wissenheid; these blocks being overspread
with lichens, I took them at first for granite; but
as I proceeded, I sent the postillion occasionally to
strike off fragments of them with a hammer which
I always carried about me when I travelled; and he
brought me first pieces of a very hard white gra-
nulated quartz, and then, after successive inter-
mediate degrees of induration, some of a sand-
stone of which the surface, to the depth of three or
four lines, was of a rusty colour. The following
blocks, though externally they appeared the same
on account of the lichens, were of a breccia con-
taining large fragments of quarts, imbedded on a
very hard substance. Lastly, all these various kinds
of blocks were lying on a coarse sand, which might
have been mistaken for granitic sand; but it was
entirely composed of small crystals of white quartz;
I saw some pits where it was dug: there were among
it some concerted masses which were taken out
whole, but were easily broken with the hammer.
739. The upper part of this hill was of consider-
able extent, and much intersected; I saw on it the
same blocks as on the slope by which I had ascended
to it; but, as I descended on the opposite side, they
soon diminished in number, and at last disappeared.
The whole of this latter side of the hill is culti-
vated, and slopes gradually down to the level of a
vale, along which I travelled for some time; I then
went up the other hill, on a side much broken and
covered in many parts with the same kind of blocks,
<s
lying
272
lying on the same soil of coarse quartzeous sand,
as I had observed on the rapid side of the pre-
ceding bill. This repetition of the same phenomena
in two ridges of hills which have their homologous
faces turned in the same direction, with the same
circumstance, that their steep sides are covered with
blocks, while there are none on those that form
gentle slopes; the vale also, which separates these
hills, and which from its breadth and depth, cannot
have been a channel for the transmission of the
blocks to the rapid slopes; lastly, the blocks them-
selves, which do not belong to any strata exter-
nally appearing; all these phenomena, I say, concur
in determining the catastrophes that must have
taken place in this spot. Throughout the whole
extent of this region, the strata have subs ded; the
cale shews the direction of the principal subsidence;
the abrupt sides mark the lines of the fractures at
the points of direct subsidence; the sides with gentle
slopes have been produced by the angular motions
of the strata; and the blocks have been expelled
from within in the spots where great subsidences
have taken place in the front of fractures.
740. After having crossed the second of these
ridges, I met with blocks and smaller masses of
granite; some of them were grey, with large
crystals of feldspar, and others reddish, with very
smail crystals; blocks of breccia were everywhere
intermingled with them. I afterwards found the
road paved with basalts; but a more wretched
7
pave-
273.
pavement cannot easily be imagined, It had for-
merly been made to improve the road; but it was
in such a state when I passed over it; that my
carriage would have been broken in pieces, if
the postillion had not driven as slowly as pos-
sible. I saw here and there, in some inflexions, an
argillaceous soil, which appeared to have been
produced by a decomposition of schistus, being in-
terspersed with laminæ of that stone.
741. At last I recovered sight of the Eger, at
its issue from the long defile at the foot of the
mountains, into which I have mentioned its entrance
at a higher point; below this, it continues to flow
in the same direction, having here, as well as above
the defile, an open soil covered with, meadows on the
left; it cannot, therefore, have exerted any effort
to cut its way through the foot of the mountains,
but must have found this passage already prepared
for it when it began to flow. After it has issued
forth, it takes its course along an abrupt side, which
is the continuation of the right bank of the defile,
and forms the foot of some granitic eminences;
from the appearance of the ground, I could judge
that the strata passed under the hills which I had
just crossed, and which I had found to consist ex-
ternally only of loose soil, mixed with blocks of
many different kinds, and particularly, on a part of
the last hill, of various species of granite, some of
which do not appear in the exterior strata. The
plain is the result of a great subsidence; but during
VOL. II.
T
this
C
274
1
this catastrophe, the parts remaining at a higher
level must have undergone violent shocks, and must
themselves have subsided, though in a less degree.
Before the latest catastrophe took place, large spaces
of the surface of the stony strata had already been co-
vered with loose strata mixed with fragments. In parts
where these loose strata are of a great thickness, there
are wide and deep clefts, the sides of which are reduced
into slopes, and covered with grass; but wherever
such clefts have been made in the mass of the
granite itself, but with little loose soil on the sur-
face, the sides have remained abrupt, and exhibit
sections of the granitic strata in very great disorder.
Lastly, there are some very large double fractures
so deep that all the intermediary masses of strata
have totally disappeared; and in one of these
Carlsbad is situated.
742. Before I came to this double fracture, which
has formed a valley, I crossed the Eger at a point,
where, after having wound freely through the mea-
-dows at the foot of its steep bank on the right, it
is repelled by a promontory advancing from that
bank; and being thus obliged to bend its course
across the open space, it afterwards flows on the
opposite side. This promontory, like the hills over
which I had travelled before, is composed of loose
strata; the river, having attacked it from the first,
had formed a cliff here; but the large materials
falling from it being accumulated at its foot, the
stream was consequently forced to retreat, and the
•
cliff
275
cliff has since been reduced into a slope, which is
covered with grass, except in one part, where I
could perceive that it was still attacked by the
river during great inundations.
743. On arriving in front of the entrance of the
valley within which Carlsbad stands, a very striking
scene presents itself; this valley is at first narrow,
but afterwards it becomes wider; its abrupt sides
are covered with firs; and among these rise large
pyramids of granite, forming a magnificent frame
to the town, which ascends in an amphitheatre in
the centre of the picture. A small river called the
Töpel issuing from this space, and proceeding to join
the Eger, is crossed by a bridge at the entrance of
this valley.
Sept. 22d. I had a recommendation from M.
VON LILIENAW of Egra to M. MAYER, chief Ma-
gistrate of Carlsbad, whose son was so good as to
accompany me in my first excursion in the neighbour-
hood, an account of which may serve to convey
some idea of the picturesque scenery produced here
by the catastrophes of the granitic strata. We
ascended a pyramid of these strata, which projects
from the slope of the left bank of the Töpel, and
commands the town.
744. This pyramid is called the Hirsch-stein,
(Stag-rock,) and from its summit we overlooked
some of the surrounding hills. When viewed from
T 2
the
276
the heights, this valley presents very much the same
appearance as that of the Wiesent; but there the
rocks consist of strata of lime-stone which contain
marine bodies; and it is interesting to see the same
phenomena in granitic strata. Besides, as Carlsbad
is a place much frequented on account of its baths,
and as the bathers here are required to take a great
deal of exercise, the description of the geological
phenomena which may be observed in the vicinity,
will add new interest to the walks and rides of those
who may happen to read it; by pointing out to them
examples of the various kinds of monuments now
remaking to us of the events that have happened
on our globe, and more particularly by proving,
that all the catastrophes, of which there are visible
traces on the surface of our continents, took place
before these continents were abandoned by the sea,
and consequently before the rivers began to flow on
them.
745. Nothing contributes more to the picturesque
appearance of this place, when approached from the
valley of the Eger, than a church handsomely built,
which rises in the centre of the amphitheatre formed
by the town, and is the first object that meets the
eye between the romantic sides described above:
At first sight it could not be supposed that from
this space there was an opening into any passage by
which it was possible to proceed farther; but, on
ascending the course of the Töpel, this stream is
seen to issue from a defile on the right, and to turn
round
1
277
round a promontory on which the church is built:
it then takes its course between the town, and the
abrupt side on its left bank, flowing among large
masses of stone; on a superficial view, it might
be supposed that these masses had been brought
down hither by the stream; but we soon found a
proof to the contrary; for having ascended the de-
file, we came into a small plain covered with mea-
dows, in which the Töpel flows, after issuing from
another defile above. Now it is evident that in this
plain the river must have deposited whatever it has
been able to bring down from the higher parts of
its course; since this is a wide space, in which it
cannot have any rapidity; and in fact, for a long
time, it has not spread here, during its inundations,
any thing more than sand. The meadows have even
advanced into the defile, on the Carlsbad side; and
a part of the town, which extends along the left
bank of the river, bears the name of Wiese, as
having been formerly meadows. On one side of
this interior basin stands the assembly-room, whence
begins what is called the Alley; this is a plantation
of trees in the lower part of a large combe, which
is itself covered with wood, and through which the
walk is continued up to the top of the hills.
746. From the summit of the Hirsch-stein I
found it easy to comprehend the nature of the ca-
tastrophe which has happened in this spot: two
principal fractures have here taken place, at some
distance
↑
1
278
}
•
distance from each other; and the intermediate mass
has irregularly subsided, inclining from the plain on
the left, towards the valley of Carlsbad on the
right. In this valley, the sides of both the frac-
tures are abrupt, and are interspersed with pyra-
midal rocks. One of these rocks, which projects
from the slope on the opposite side of the valley,
is called the Three Crosses; indeed it very much
resembles the Calvaries so common on the conti-
nent. The Hirsch-stein, though lower than this
rock, rises to the height of several hundred feet
above its own base on the side next the river; its
strata are nearly vertical in the part where they re-
main united; but its base is formed by large masses
which have fallen from it, and which give it the ap-
pearance of an obelisk; between these masses, low
walls have been built, in order to render it more
firm. Winding paths have been cut here, and other
means contrived, to facilitate the ascent to the sum-
mit, on which there is also a cross, with a rail to
guard the brow of the precipitous sides of the ry-
ramid, that they may be looked down upon with
safety. From this summit, the inflexions of the hill
behind the rock enabled me to judge, that the strata
incline towards a point of subsidence less consider-
able than that whence the valley of Carlsbad re-
sulted; for on the opposite side of this hill there is
another valley, the bottom of which is formed by
a large mass of strata entirely sunken between two
irregular fractures,
747. I
279
747. I afterwards walked up the town on the
right bank of the river, where the houses are built
so near the foot of the rocks, that the latter have
been cut away, in order to procure a little space
hehind these houses. I could here see, that, though
this side of the valley is higher than the other, it
has however also subsided, with similar accidents;
its strata present their section above, and descend,
turning their plane towards the higher end of the
valley; and as, in different masses, they have dif-
ferent degrees of inclination, it may be judged that
there are interior fractures, independently of the
clefts which externally divide them.
748. I shall not enter into any details respecting
Carlsbad itself, or the waters of its baths; it is a
place which has been often described, and I think
I have said enough of its geological phenomena, to
recall its scenery to the memory of those who have
been there, and to awaken the attention of others
who may visit it hereafter. I set out from hence at
half past 19, and took the road to Toplis; my first
stage being to Buchaw, four miles distant, where I
arrived at four o'clock. I first ascended the hills on
the right bank of the Töpel, and above the rocks, I
found their summits cultivated. I have already
said that most of the summits of these hills are
covered with a very thick loose soil; but here, above
this soil, rise parallel ridges of granitic rocks, in
which the strata present their section at the top, and
are strongly inclined inwards. When I had reached
the
980
the highest point of the hill, I saw on the right a
vast subsidence in the form of a half tunnel, the in-
terior surface of which is cultivated down to the
bottom, where it terminates near a cleft in the rocks
forming a part of the enclosure of that space co-
vered with meadows, through which the Töpel
flows in its way to Carlsbad.
749. Having proceeded some way farther on this
summit, I came to the head of a large combe with
a rapid declivity, the bottom of which was covered
with meadows; and here, notwithstanding the
heavy rains of the preceding days, there flowed only
a rivulet; for combes cannot retain any water but
such as falls immediately from the air, or trickles
down from the springs on their sides: the sides of
this combe, however, were in all respects similar
to those of the vallies, being abrupt and beset with
rocks, between which fir-trees were growing. From
its lower part, I ascended a hill, and afterwards
entered a high vale, the bottom of which is covered
with grass and a little marshy, because the water
does not run off from it entirely. In this vale I
found an immense quantity of blocks of granite,
some of which were very large. After several in-
considerable descents and rises, indicating only that,
during the general subsidence of the strata, some
of the masses had sunk to a greater depth than
others, I came to a high plain, of great extent and
all cultivated, on which are two large insulated
↓
mounts: the mount most distant from the road is in
the
281
the form of a very regular cone, but it was covered
with grass from top to bottom, having only on its
surface some projecting rocks, the nature of which
I could not distinguish, because of the distance:
the nearest mount was a large rock of granite, en-
circled with a village, and crowned with an ancient
castle, which the postillion told me was called Eine-
berg. No cause that has been in action since the
continent has existed can have produced these two
insulated mounts on the highest soil throughout a
great extent of country. In this elevated plain, the
granite is very near the surface, aud is seen in the
sides of some small eminences, which have been
cut for the purpose of levelling the road.
750. I afterwards crossed several hills, and in
one of them I again met with the kind of granite
which is easily decomposed: its surface is very
soft, but I saw its strata in the sections on the sides
of the road; these strata incline inwards, but irre-
gularly; wherever the sections are at a certain
height, they moulder down, and fall in masses,
which break into separate grains, when struck with
a hammer. The whole soil, to a great distance,
consists of this granitic sand; yet, without any
change in it, I suddenly saw the road covered with
fragments of basalt, and bordered with basaltic
prisms. Remarking, near the road, an eminence
of a conical form, from 20 to 25 feet in height, I
suspected that it might be the source of these ba-
salts; and quitting the chaise, in order to view.it
more
!
282
2
more nearly, I found that in fact basaltic prisms
were taken from its foot, the largest and most en-
tire of which were reserved for bordering the road,
and the rest were broken, and thrown on the
surface.
751. For some way beyond this, the soil of the
hill continued to be of granitic sand; but at last it
changed, and I saw nothing but fragments of ba-
salt on the surface of the fields. Many cones here
rise on the nearly horizontal soil; observing one of
these cones near Buchaw, which is situated in a
vale, I ascended it, while the horses were changed:
it was entirely covered with grass, except here and
there, where some rocks appeared, composed of
vertical prismatic basalts; in walking round this
cone, I saw likewise several prisms, the upper ex-
tremities of which rose some inches above the
grass.
重
​1
Дит
752. At a quarter past five, I set out from
Buchaw for Libkowitz, at the distance of two miles,
and arrived there at eight o'clock. The road, which
is a causeway carried on in a strait line, rises and
descends, according to the inflexions of the ground.
The soil here is cultivated; and for a long time it
consisted of a brownish earth mixed with basaltic
rubbish, the latter being still used for gravelling the
road; but it changed, on a slope of some rapidity,
which I descended towards a vale, where I saw
several projecting rocks of micaceous schistus,
Having
283
Having crossed the vale, I ascended a hill of the same
schistus, the rubbish of which was now mingled with
the soil: blocks of this stone lay along these fields,
and on the borders of the road, where they were in-
termixed with blocks of granite. But as the ba-
saltic mounts have been seen to commence in the
soil of granitic sand, so they continue to appear in
these soils of schistose rubbish. In a part where
the causeway was carried over a mount of this kind,
I saw basalts on both its sides, which had been cut
down to some depth; its surface also was still co-
vered with basaltic fragments; but at last I saw it
gravelled with fragments of quarts. Here the light
failed me; and I could discern nothing farther till
I reached Libkowitz, except that there was no
change in the nature of the soil, and that the
causeway, of which great care is taken, was all the
way bordered with heaps of fragments of quartz
brought thither for the purpose of repairing it.
753. It is evident that, since the continent has
existed, no cause can
cause can have produced so many
changes of soil on these successive hills; but the
attention is here more particularly excited by the
basaltic cones. Cones naturally recal the idea of
volcanoes; now those of real volcanoes have been
formed by lavas flowing from their summit, and by
showers of comminuted scoriæ (commonly called
volcanic cinders) thrown froin their crater: but this
is not the manner in which these cones have been
formed;
1
284
formed; for, with respect to the construction of
their mass, they differ in nothing from the cones or
pyramids of granite, schistus, and gneiss, among
which they are found. Now this appears to agree
with my idea that basaltic lavas issued forth on the
bed of the ancient sea, where, when they had
cooled, they entered into the class of solid strata,
and afterwards participated in all the catastrophes,
fractures, partial subsidences, and angular motions,
to which, as I have heretofore explained, the pyra-
midal mounts of every other kind of stratum owe
their origin. As for the connexion between the
bases of these different pyramids, it cannot possibly
be discovered, because it lies at too great a depth
below the surface, which is covered with their
rubbish.
Sept. 23d. At half past six in the morning, I
set out from Libkowitz to Podorsam, distant two
miles, and arrived there at half after nine. I pro-
ceeded for some time on the same causeway, across
a country consisting of argillaceous strata; in ge-
neral, these are reddish; bút some that are bluish
àre intermixed among them. In those parts where,
in order to soften the declivities, the road has been
cut to a considerable depth, sections of these strata,
sometimes horizontal, sometimes inclining inwards,
appear on the sides. This combines with all the
other very numerous examples which I have already
had occasion to adduce, in proving, that, before the
stony
•
1
285
stony strata underwent their latest catastrophes,
they had been covered with the soft strata, which
consequently participated in the same catastrophes.
!
·
754. This excellent causeway, which I had fol-
lowed for some time, is the high road to Prague;
and I was sorry when I was obliged to quit it, and
turn to the left, the roads across these argillaceous
lands being in very bad condition after the late rains.
I now descended into a vale, beyond which I crossed
two ridges of hills perfectly similar to each other
in their nature and their form; they consisted ex-
ternally of a very thick loose soil, covered with a-
bundance of blocks of granite, of granulated quart≈,
and of breccia, intermixed with basalt; in both
these ridges, the side on which I ascended was very
rapid, and the loose soil was there so deeply fur-
rowed by the rains, that I saw beneath it strata of
a reddish sand-stone, which, in different places, were
differently inclined; while the opposite side of each
ridge extended to a great distance in a gentle slope.
I have already described many of these parallel
ridges, each of which is steep on one side, and
slopes gradually downwards on the other, the ho-
mologous sides being turned the same way: an in-
dication of parallel fractures of the strata, fol-
lowing the direction of interior caverns, towards
which the separated masses assumed an inclination
breadthwise.
755. After
286
755. After I had crossed the vale at the foot of
the last of these hills, I found a great change in
the form and nature of the ground; I ascended
another hill, in which the gentle slope on one side
was no longer contrasted by a rapid declivity on the
other, both slopes being equally gentle; the soil
here was of sand, mixed with granitic rubbish ;
which occasioned a great improvement in the road.
The ground continued to rise for a considerable way,
though with many inflexions; some deep clefts
afforded me a sight of strata of grey sand-stone,
much fractured, and in great disorder. There were
many blocks of granulated quartz at the surface;
and on the summit they lay in such quantities as to
have prevented cultivation. This high ground is
surrounded by mountains; their line appeared at
first to be continuous; but, as I advanced, they be
gan to separate into pyramids, which, as I perceived
when I passed before their intervals, were the ex-
tremities of angular ridges extending behind in
nearly parallel directions. Through these intervals,
I saw a distant chain of mountains so high, that
their summits were at this time involved in clouds.
This was the chain of the Ertz-gebürge, which is
followed by that of the Riesen-gebürge or Giant's
mountains; these chains are divided by a great in-
tersection, where the Elbe finds a passage from
Bohemia into Saxony. In my descent from this
high ground, I saw, on my right, a tract of country
everywhere interspersed with large insulated pyra-
mids;
287
mids; and it was towards this tract that I was now
on iny way.
756. I descended from these hills, by a very
gentle slope, into a vale, in which are situated three
large towns; one of these is Podhorsam, where I
was to change horses. In this slope, there are se-
veral inflexions, or small vales, with rivulets flow-
ing in them on grassy beds. The waters of these
vales, and even of that of Podhorsam, not being
sufficient, in common seasons, to supply the wants
of the inhabitants, it has been found necessary to
retain the rain-waters, by constructing across these
vales some dikes, which, though not raised to a
great height, produce large reservoirs, because the
slope is very gradual. Hence the water is drawn
off by small sluices at the bottom of the dikes.
Thus it is very clear that these vales cannot have
been excavated by the waters which flow in them.
757. At half past 10, I set out from Podhorsam
for Saaz, two ines distant, where I arrived at one.
I first, by a gentle slope, ascended a hill with a cul-
tivated summit, but cut down abruptly, on the left
of the road, towards a large vale, of which the
meadows come up to its foot; the sides of several
promontories that advance from this abrupt part
have crumbled down; but their cliffs are easily dis-
tinguishable because of the regularity of the slopes,"
which are covered with grass. The soil of the top
of the hill is full of sinall masses of white quartz
and
388
な
​$
and granulated quartz; but I saw no blocks, till I
came to a village at the bottom of a slope, where a
number had been collected for the purpose of
making stone enclosures. The summit of the fol-
wing eminence afforded me a nearer view of the
region of the pyramids, which had a most singular
appearance, as it resembled a camp composed of tents
of a gigantic size. They occupy a very wide tract of
ground, extending one behind another, to a great
distance; and in the midst of them rises a mountain,
which itself has pyramids along its summit, and of
which the sides descend to the common base of the
other pyramids.
758. As I crossed a slight inflexion of the culti-
vated slope, I saw the road bordered for a consider-
able way with blocks which had been detached by
gunpowder from larger masses, undoubtedly for the
purpose of clearing the fields: some of these were
of a grey granite with small crystals, others of a
pseudo-granite formed by the adhesion of small
masses of quartz, and others of granulated quartz.
I descended towards the next vale, by a hollow
road, which, serving also as a channel for the rain-
waters that fall on the adjacent slopes, has its sides
abruptly cut; and I saw some very large blocks
projecting in these sides, and some scattered on the
bottom; whence it is evident that the loose soil
here contains these masses to a great depth. In the
extremity of this hill there are two combes; and on
the lower part of the slope of that on the right, the.
I
small
{
289
1
1
sinall town of Saaz is situated. Before I arrived
there, I saw that on the skirts of the town there
were meadows with large plantations; and beyond
these I remarked seme cliffs, which I concluded
must have a river flowing at their foot.
759. At half past one, I set out from Saaz,
wishing to proceed three miles further to Brix,
where accordingly I arrived in the evening. On
quitting Saaz, I found the Eger flowing in the vale
by the same cliffs which I had seen from a distance:
these cliffs are attacked, not by the river, but by
the rain-waters falling on the loose soil of the brow
of the hill, where they make many deep furrows,
and wash down the earth to the borders of the
stream, which carries it away during floods, and
thus prevents it from accumulating; so that, before
any slopes can be formed here, and bound by ve-
getation, the base of the hill must, by this demo-
lition, be made to retire farther back. In several
places, I saw regular stony strata in these cliffs;
and when, having crossed the river, I ascended the
hill by a combe, which is very wide in its lower
part, but narrower towards the top, I again met
with the same strata in the sides of the combe,
where I saw them inclining inwards; whence it ap-
pears, that, at the time when the valley was pro-
duced by a subsidence, the strata on this side as-
sumed an inclination opposite to it. The upper part
of the hill is covered with a great thickness of white
clay; and under this there is a loose soil of a dif-
U
VOL. II.
ferent
+
290
3
ferent kind, which is about 10 feet thick, as I could
judge by some deep clefts, and contains large masses
of granulated quartz and of basalt. The river
finds a passage towards the right; and I followed
its direction for some time travelling over the
heights.
760. After I had proceeded a certain way, I de-
scended into a large vale, which contained a village
surrounded with meadows, and in which there
flowed only a brook in its way to join the Eger; yet
its opposite side was abrupt, and was everywhere
deeply channelled by the rain-waters collected into
rills on its surface. Having crossed this and two
similar vales, with villages and meadows at their
bottom, and watered only by brooks, I entered
another, along which the road passes. As I ap-
proached the region of the cones or pyramids, I saw
the nearest of them change their form, as I passed
before their line at a higher or lower level, accord-
ing to the inflexions of the road. From the higher
parts, I looked down on the base of these emi-
nences, some of which, at first though they had ap-
peared of considerable breadth, were reduced, as I
advanced, into simple cones; while some, which I
had taken for single pyramids, were multiplied into
several distinct ones, ranged on the same line,
one behind another. In short, there were very few
of the eminences near the road, which, as I pro-
ceeded, did not undergo some apparent change;
but, as I passed over too small a space to produce
any
291
any considerable difference in the angle formed by
my eye with the more distant eminences, I saw, in
their figure no perceptible alteration; and few of
them assumed any other appearance than that of
large pyramids. The loose soil of the hills over
which I was travelling was composed of rubbish of
schistus or of gneiss; along the road, I saw some
great blocks of granulated quartz, but more fre-
quently large basaltic balls or prisms.
761. When I came to the extremity of these hills,
I saw before me a vast valley, or rather a plain.
I had nearly passed the region of the cones, though
I still saw several of them at no great distance on
my right, and one on my left, which had on its sum-
mit an ancient castle, and at its foot the small town
of Brix, where I meant to pass the night. I should,
indeed, have spent the following day there, for the
purpose of observing the cones in the neighbour-
hood, had it not been for my fall on the Ochsen-
kopf, in consequence of which, my knee was still
in such a state as not to admit of my making long
excursions on foot. But luckily M. Von Lilienaw
had favoured me with a letter of recommendation
to Dr. REUSS, who resided at Bilin not far out of
my road to Toplis; I therefore determined to go
thither the next morning in order to call on him;
being very certain, from what M. Lilienaw had told
me, that, if I had the good fortune to meet with
him, he would supply the deficiency of my own ob-
servations by the most accurate details.
U 2
Sept.
}
1
292
Sept. 24th.—I set out from Brix, at half past 7
in the morning, for Bilin, which was at the dis-
tance of 3 miles. In the road, I went up a kind of
of combe, well worthy to be particularly described;
as affording a remarkable example of that gradual
effect of running waters, of which the continuance
is observable, and which, in many places, is not yet
terminated, though in what manner it will end may
evidently be seen,
762. This combe serves as a channel for the rain-
waters, and those of the springs within a great extent
of ground: so that, when the former are abundant,
they still attack its sides, which they have reduced
into cliffs, because the exterior mass of the hill con-
sists entirely of loose strata.
A small permanent
rivulet being produced by the springs, the bottom of
the combe is covered very thickly with grass; but
this bottom, having undergone, during the subsi-
dence from which the combe resulted, several frac-
tures across its breadth, whereby successive steps, or
small terraces, have been formed in it, the rivulet
falls in a cascade at the extremity of each of these;
and as they are composed of loose strata, it wears
away their edges when it is full of water, so that
they are gradually carried backward the whole way
up the combe, each of them being shortened below,
in proportion as it gains in extent above. At the
time when I passed up the combe, this process was
very clearly shewn by the effects of the late rains,
the water of which had not yet all run off. The
cascades
293
cascades were still turbid with the earth detached
from each of these small sections of the loose strata;
but this earth was soon deposited on the grass of the
terrace below. Now the progress of this operation
was particularly indicated by the nature of the
herbage; that of the higher part of each terrace,
being raised by the earth which had been washed
down on it, consisted solely of gramineous plants,
and was therefore of a uniform tint; but annual
plants still prevailing on the lower part, the verdure
there was of different shades. Earth falls on these
terraces also from the sides of the combe, which are
still crumbling down; and this, in time, will change
its bottom into a regular slope, where no appearance
of the steps will remain. This crumbling of the sides
has already taken place throughout almost the whole
extent of the combe, which is sufficiently widened in
the upper part, to have permitted them to be there
reduced into slopes, and covered with grass.
From
the highest of these retreating steps I entered a vale'
in the upper part of the hills; the bottom of this
vale is covered with meadows, and its sides, rising
in a gentle slope, are cultivated. The vale there-
fore, since its entrance is the point from which the
cascades begin, will supply the earth requisite to re-
duce both itself and the combe into an uniform slope.
Thus we find here, under a new aspect, an example
of those operations of waters on slopes, which pre-
sent us with chronometers so infinitely varied. At
every height we see some operations of this kind,
requiring time to be brought to a certain determi-
nate
t
294
}
}
nate completion; in many places, they are already
completed; and this would be everywhere the case,
if our continents were of very high antiquity.
763. As I proceeded towards Bilin, I saw some
cones to the right; and on the ground were large
basalts, occasionally intermixed with blocks of gra-
nulated quartz. From the higher part of the slope
above Bilin, I saw that small town, which is built
around a cone rising from the bottom of a large
valley, at the entrance of a very deep defile, whence
issues the small river Biela. This slope, the whole
way down to Bilin, is scattered with large basaltic
prisms and balls, on a soil composed of their rub-
bish; however I still found here some blocks of gra-
nulated quartz, and some others of a fine granite
with crystals of red feld spar.
764. Dr. Reuss was fortunately at home, and I
experienced very great kindness from him. This
gentleman has published a Lithology of the Circle
of Leutmeriz, which is the country of the pyramidal
eminences: I could not therefore have been referred
to a person more capable of informing me of every
particular relating to them. From him I learnt that
these cones, which, when viewed from a distance,
are so similar in their form, are yet very different
in their nature; that many are basaltic; but that
great numbers of them consist of other kinds of
stones, and amongst the rest of a porphyric schistus,
(the porphyre schiefer of Werner,) the substance of
which
295
which is gneiss, and the laminæ contain, like por-
phyry, an abundance of small crystals of feld-spar.
This region of cones, as I saw from the heights
above Bilin, commences at Briv, and extends as far
as the Elbe, being chiefly confined between the
course of the Biela, (otherwise called Tiba,) which
falls into that river at Aussig, and the corresponding
part of the Eger, which unites with it near Leut-
meriz. As I was told by Dr. Reuss, the principal
cones composed of schistus are, first, beginning from
Brix, the Breets-berg, at the foot of which that
town is built, and then three others that I had passed
in coming from thence, the Spitz-berg, the Schlad-
nig-berg, and the Selnis; I was now at the foot of
the Biliner-stein, or Rock of Bilin, which is also of
this class; and farther on towards the Elbe are the
Kostomblot, the Gros Franz, the Millitschauer-berg,
the Kletschen, and some others at a greater distance.
There are differences in the basaltic cones which are
intermixed with these, as the basalts of some being
in prisms, while those of others are in balls or
tabulæ. Dr. Reuss shewed me some basaltic prisms
brought from Buchaw, through which place I had
passed; on breaking them, they were found to con
tain balls about the size of a walnut; when the
prisms are decomposed by the air, the balls remain
scattered on the ground. The large basaltic balls
are like those which I have elsewhere described; in
the coure of their decomposition, they split into
concentric strata, and these strata themselves sepa-
rate into grains.
765. Dr.
1
296
I
1
765. Dr. Reuss was so good as to go with me
to view the Biliner-stein, the description of which
may convey a sufficient idea of this class of emni-
nences. This rock, rising from the soil of a vale,
and consisting of a group of pyramids, resembles,
on a small scale, the Aiguilles in the valley of Cha-
mouny near Mont Blanc, and has been produced in
a similar manner: it is composed of pyramidal la-
minæ of the porphyric schistus, which, having un-
dergone, during their catastrophe, an angular motion
attended with a shock, were thus split into separate
masses of strata, now become nearly vertical. We
have here, as well as in the Aiguilles de Chamouny,
an example of the various actions, which, since the
retreat of the sea from our continents, have been
exercised on them, according to the situation of their
parts, by exterior causes. This cone, on one side,
terminates on the brink of a deep cleft, at the bot-
tom of which the Biela flows. Now on this side its
base is continuing to wear away, from the effects of
the rains, the frosts, and other actions of the air;
and the progress of the demolition is even very rapid,
because whatever fragments fall down into the cleft
are carried away by the river: upon the slope here,
therefore, there were only a few straggling blades
of grass; for during great rains, the whole surface
sometimes slides, from top to bottom, into the cleft.
But the case is very different in the other parts of
the rock, the several masses of which, forming dif-
ferent ridges with intervals between them, are worn
away, in the same manner, on their sides; but the
!
rubbish
297
rubbish detached from them, being detained at their
foot, rises against them in slopes, and tends to fill
up their intervals, in which this new soil already
ascends to a great height, and is covered with plants
and bushes. To this cause, as I have said before,
is to be attributed the regularity of many of the
pyramids which I have elsewhere described, and
which were originally studded with rocks, though
only the summits of these rocks at present appear,
the intervals being filled up with rubbish.
766. We then descended to the edge of the deep
cleft, where Dr. Reuss made me remark that only
gneiss was to be seen on either side, but with its
strata in different situations; in the Biliner-stein
they incline inwards, descending beneath the mount;
while on the opposite side of the cleft, though at so
small a distance, they present their plane towards the
lower part of the valley. It is therefore evident that,
though there has been here only a simple fracture of
the strata, this fracture, which, to a certain height, is
filled up with rubbish, must have extended to a
sufficient depth to permit the masses on its opposite
sides to undergo very different angular movements;
in consequence of which it has been widened above,
and a passage has thus been opened for the Biela,
arriving hither through meadows, where it holds a
winding course. During this catastrophe, in which
all the strata were involved, those of porphyric
schistus were precipitated into the sunken space,
leaving the gneiss uncovered; as I have shewn to
4
have
298
have been the case with the granite in the mountains
of Fichtelberg, and as, in other places, the strata
of lime-stone, by similar catastrophes, have been
deprived of their covering of sand-stone. In the
intervals of the pyramidal mounts, whether schistose
or basaltic, the whole ground, to a great distance
from this region, is covered with basalts of different
kinds; and it is in a mixed sand of schistose and
basaltic rubbish that the garnets are found which
form an article of commerce, under the name of Bo-
hemian garnets; yet no basalt, nor any kind of stone
that appears externally, is known to contain them;
so that their origin has not yet been discovered,
though they are met with in great abundance in the
superficial soil.
767. After having received all this information
from Dr. Reuss, and made these observations in his
company, I set out from Bilin for Toplis, where I
arrived at 4 o'clock. I first crossed the large valley
or plain of which I have spoken, and then proceeded
along the foot of the Ertz-gebürge. In this valley,
there are beds of coal, under strata of sand-stone ;
strata of stone-marl are also found here, and are
used for making lime. According to the information
which I obtained, coal is met with in other vales
between this and Egra; and as, in some places, it
is seen to pass under the gneiss, it is supposed by
some to have been originally thus situated. But
I have already shewn it to be beyond a doubt that
beds of coal proceed from peat-mosses, which were
formed
8
299
formed on islands in the ancient sea; and that, these
islands having afterwards sunk beneath the level of
the waters, the peat was there covered with strata of
sand and marl, frequently containing marine bodies,
and certainly posterior to the strata of gneiss. After
the peat had been mineralized into coal, and covered
with stony strata, the whole bottom of the sea un-
derwent the most violent catastrophes; so that the
beds of coal have experienced as great fractures,
angular motions, and dislocations, as any kind of
stony stratum: it is not surprizing, therefore, if
strata of gneiss have in some places slidden over
these beds.
768. When I had advanced a certain way towards
the chain of the Ertz-gebürge, I followed its direc-
tion, nearly at the same distance, keeping it on my
left till I reached Topliz. I had learnt from Dr.
Reuss, that, though the mass of this chain consists
of gneiss from top to bottom, there are on it some
basaltic suminits, similar to those found in lower
situations. Now, as I have already said, this chain
is the contination of that of the Tichtelberg, in which,
while there are also basaltic eminences, the highest
summits are of granite, the gneiss, together with the
schisti, forming only lower ridges bordering the
granitic. Little doubt, therefore, can be entertained
that, in the Erts-gebürge, the gneiss has remained
upon the granite, and that the latter extends under
all the lower country consisting of hills and plains;
this is evident also from the granitic blocks which are
scattered
300
scattered on the hill, and from the rocks appearing
here and there, as, for example, in the hills at
Carlsbad. The lower mass at the foot of the chain,
has not, on this side, subsided uniformly; the sub-
sidence has here taken place in such a manner as to
produce several successive terraces, the front of
each of which was originally abrupt; but its rub-
bish being retained on the terrace below, and there
rising in a slope, the whole of this side of the chain
is either clothed with woods, or covered with turf;
and its base, having been much extended by the
rubbish which the waters washed down before the
surface was bound by vegetation, is at present cul-
tivated.
769. On turning towards Töpliz, I ascended a
soil higher than that over which I had hitherto been
travelling, and for a little way, I found on it large
blocks of reddish granulated quartz. Farther on, I
saw a great many basaltic balls along the sides of the
fields, and there was a rising ground to the right, on
which I judged that they likewise abounded; but it
could not have been the source of those near the
road, because the difference of level was very in-
considerable, and at the foot of this little emi-
nence, there was a great extent of horizontal ground,
with basaltic balls scattered over the whole of it.
Probably, therefore, the soil of the fields, which is
now lower than that at the foot of the mountains,
had been covered with basults before it subsided to
its present level. Immediately above Toplis, the
road
•
301
road is cut through the foot of a hill of reddish
porphyry; and as I descended this hill, I saw ano-
ther similar to it on the opposite side of the town..
770. Tüpliz is a place which is much frequented
on account of its baths; and there, as I had previ-
ously expected, I had the pleasure of meeting with
my worthy friend, Baron Von Reck, Chamberlain
to the King of Prussia, who knew the objects of
my journey, and was so good as to furnish me with
a guide to view the neighbouring country. I set out
between 4 and 5; and having reached the borders
of the hill on the side of the town opposite to that
on which I had entered it, I saw there a deep cleft,
similar to the defile at Bilin, and exhibiting strata
of the reddish porphyry on both its sides. On ob-
serving the spot, it may evidently be seen that this
cleft cannot have been made by a brook now flow-
ing at its bottom; for the hill rises in a gentle slope
towards the higher part of the course of this little
stream; which, if it had not met with this long cleft,
would have formed a small lake above, whence it
would have poured its waters into a combe leading
down on the left to Toplis. I then ascended the
opposite hill, by which I had entered the town, where -
the soil consists of a sand produced by the decom-
position of the porphyry, mixed with fragments and
even blocks of the same stone, of which I saw rocks.
here and there on the slope, all the way up to the
summit. This decomposition of porphyry is still
continuing, and has in part taken place on the sur-
face, since the continent has been abandoned by the
sea;
3
302
f
sea; more ancient catastrophes, prior to the birth
of the continents, had however prepared the way
for
the operation; for not only do we find these strata
of porphyry completely in ruins, but, among the
blocks of this stone which lay on the slope, I saw
some very large ones of granulated quartz. I had
the pleasure of spending the evening with the Baron,
and we then parted, to meet again at Berlin.
Sept. 25th.-I set out from Topli, at 7 in the
morning, for Aussig, 2 miles distant, where I ar-
rived at half past 10. On leaving the former place,
I travelled for some time over the same hills of
porphyry; but long after its strata had disappeared
from the surface, I continued to see large blocks of
it, at first alone, then mingled with blocks of gra-
nulated quartz, and at last with basalts. The road
was very much up and down hill; in one of its in-
flexions, all these stones disappeared, and I pro-
ceeded a considerable way without seeing any; but
afterwards I again observed the basalts, which con-
tinued to prevail alone till I came to Aussig.
}
771. From the top of the last eminence, I saw
this small town, situated at the junction of two
vallies. I descended into one of these vallies by a
gentle slope, and crossed it in a part where it was
very wide; its horizontal bottom extends to a ridge
of opposite mountains, which are steep, and much
intersected; but all their fronts, originally abrupt,
have slopes of their own rubbish formed at their
foot,
}
303
!
foot, and now clothed with vegetation. On the right,
the Biela enters this space, which was levelled by
its waters, and those of the brooks uniting with it,
during their earlier inundations; the soil of this
valley is very rich; and it is cultivated down to
some meadows which border the river, and which
are still sometimes under water. I had here a dis-
tant view of a large cleft in the above ridge of
mountains; and when I reached Aussig, I perceived
that the Elbe finds a passage through this opening,
and, on issuing forth, suddenly, bends its course to
follow another valley, taking a direction almost at
right angles with that which it had held above.
This river is joined by the Biela a little below the
town.
772. On my arrival at Aussig, I went to call on
M. FR. KÖHLER, to whom I had a recommenda-
tion from his brother at Egra; I informed him of
my plan to engage here a covered boat of sufficient
size to contain my chaise, in which I might go down
the Elbe as far as Pirna; he tried accordingly to
procure me one, but all the boats belonging to this
place happened at present to be out. It was 11
o'clock, when I received this information; and in
order to employ the time till the return of the boats,
I went to examine the entrance of the valley into
which, as I have just said, the Elbe turns its course.
773. Here a large promontory which is called
Marienberg advances below Aussig on the left bank
of
304
す
​of the river; on the side next the town, its slope is
covered with rubbish and planted with vines. This
promontory is cut down abruptly towards the river;
but that the latter has not here opened the passage
for itself, may easily be judged; for, on crossing
the promontory, I found that its slope on the oppo-
site side descended to a large tract of low ground
which was perfectly open; so that, unless the river,
when it began to flow, had found a deeper channel
ready for its reception, it would have spread over
this tract, and have taken its course, in a quite dif-
ferent direction, along other vallies on a level with
this soil.
774. This promontory of Marienberg, which
branches off from the top of the hills on the left
bank, is prolonged to a considerable extent on the
other side of the river; the passage for the stream
has here been opened by some catastrophe which haş
broken through the promontory; for both sides pre-
sent the section of their strata, though the section
on the right bank does not rise to nearly so great a
height as that on the left. Having crossed the river,
I ascended the right bank. The strata on both
sides are of porphyric schistus of a bluish grey; but
I should have been unable to distinguish them in
the high section of the left bank, here opposite to
me, unless I had recollected one of M. de Saussure's
rules, which I consider as very correct. In this
section I could only see that some lines almost hori-
zontal were intersected by others nearly vertical,
and
305
會
​I
and that those of each class were parallel with each
other. But M. de Saussure has remarked, that such
masses as these cannot naturally be supposed to
have split in a horizontal direction, because the
heaving of the higher parts, which alone could pro-
duce this effect, is prevented by their weight; whereas
an equal subsidence of the parts may easily have
occasioned them to split vertically; so that the lines
nearly horizontal may, in such a case, be considered
as the separations of the strata, and those which
are vertical as fractures. According to this indi-
cation, these schistose strata are inclined, but in
different degrees, in consequence of the changes
produced by the different degrees of subsidence.
775. Proceeding along the lower part of the
promontory, which is beyond the point where the
Elbe, after having bent its course, enters the cleft
that divides this projection, I descended into the
valley by which the river arrives at Aussig, and
followed it up to the part where, on issuing from
the Giant's mountains, it makes a turn in order to
enter this valley; the walk took me up about an
hour. At the opening of the valley, (and above
Aussig,) on the left bank of the river, there rises a
steep side, the lower part of which is entirely covered
with basaltic balls, tabulæ, and prisms, some of the
latter being very large; while the opposite bank,
for a considerable way, continues very low, and is
all in tillage, without blocks of any kind. Higher
up on the left bank there is a large insulated rock,
X
VOL. II.
which
306
which appeared to me to consist of schistus, and on
which stands the ancient castle of Schrekenstein.
As I continued to ascend this bank, I came to a
very singular basaltic phenomenon. This is a pro-
montory, about 100 feet high at its extremity, where
it is cut down abruptly towards the river, froin
which, however, it is at too great a distance to be
reached by the water. On considering the form and
the position of this promontory, I perceived it very
plainly to be composed of a basaltic lava different
from all which I had passed before. The basalts
are very distinct, both in its steep face and in its
sides. This steep face is in the form of a banana
leaf, with its end downwards: a large rib runs along
its middle, diminishing in size from the top; smaller
ribs branch off from this on both sides, turning in,
at the bottom, towards the principal one; and at the
point where the latter terminates, the small ribs
bend round its extremity in the form of a kind of
fan. These lateral ribs are formed by very small
basalts; and it may be judged that, in whatever
part of its length this promontory should be cut
across, it would exhibit the same figure which I have
above described; for the extremities of these basalts
are everywhere seen on its sides, being arranged
like logs in a pile of wood. I have mentioned a
similar phenomenon on the borders of the Rhine, in
the country of Bonn, where it extends over the bed
of the river: now that is a region in which I have
described many true volcanic cones, with their craters
composed of scoria, and their porous lavas, all the
lands
307
lands around being covered with volcanic ashes, and
pumice-stone. But here I saw none of these de-
cidedly volcanic indications.
776. I continued to ascend this valley, till I
reached its upper extremity, where the river bends
to enter it. When I came to the opening of the
higher valley through which the Elbe arrives at this
point, I saw, at its farther end, very lofty mountains,
belonging to a ridge that borders the right bank of
the river above; the summits of this ridge, within
a certain extent, rise to a greater height than those
of the eminences on the left bank. On these moun-
tains I observed a chronometrical phenomenon of a
kind already described in the Eriz gebürge; and
indeed it is one which may be seen in all great moun-
tains their front abrupt and much intersected, is
almost entirely covered with fir woods or with grass;
because the gradual subsidence of the strata before
them has left in their slope terraces, on which the
rubbish of the higher parts has accumulated in suc-
cessive taluses. But as, in some parts, none of these
terraces have happened to be formed, the taluses
there, though rising to a great height, extend much
lower down, and are still bare, because fresh rub-
bish is perpetually falling on them from the rocks.
above; which will continue to be the case, until, in
consequence of the gradual lowering of the rocks,
and the progressive elevation of the taluses, these
falls of rubbish shall no longer take place. I must
here repeat what I have said with respect to other
x 2
chronometers
308
chronometers of this class: it is fortunate for future
generations, that, in our age, exact geological ob-
servations have at last been made, and that the dif
ferent classes of phenomena presented by the sur-
face of the earth have been clearly stated; for a
great number of these are by degrees obliterated;
(a circumstance, indeed, which is itself a kind of
chronometer;) and when we shall have entirely lost
sight of them, no physical means of tracing back
past events will remain, except by digging to a great
depth, in various places, through vast heaps of frag-
ments, in order to discover what lies beneath them.
777. This same part of the course of the river
affords an example also of what will be the ultimate
state of the borders of all rivers, sooner or later,
according to the nature of their original beds. While I
stood by the bend of the Elbe, I had a view of its course
both above and below that point; the air was perfectly
calm; and, as far as I could see, the surface of the
stream, as smooth as a mirror, reflected, with the
greatest clearness, the objects on the opposite bank:
though the water was at this time shallow, there was
nothing which could ruffle it, either on its borders or
its bottom. In the upper part of this space, I do
not believe that the most exact level could have in-
dicated any slope. From Schrekenstein down to
Aussig, the bed of the river is less horizontal; and
there its surface was so much ruffled by the stones
on the bottom, that the smallest boat would at that
time have found some difficulty in passing.
778. In
309
778. In the part above the bend, the declivity
being so small, the sand brought down during inan-
dations has mostly been deposited on the bottom,
where it has buried the stones which originally were
there; the stream, therefore, has not brought down
those that lie on the lower part of its bed, but has
merely prevented the sand from accumulating in so
great a quantity between them. There is no river
on the course of which some similar part may not
be found; whence it is manifest that rivers do not
really carry along with them any thing but sand;
torrents only, when descending rapidly from the
mountains in narrow channels, have sufficient force
to move the stones on their bed; and the idea that
vallies have been excavated by running waters could
neither have been conceived, nor have obtained
credit with so many persons, unless these phenomena,
which are observable in all parts of the continents,
had been viewed in a very careless and superficial
manner. I have said, and I do not fear to repeat,
that this idea has diffused obscurity over the whole
science of geology: I have therefore here recurred
to the subject, for the purpose of fixing the atten-
tion of my readers on all the circumstances which
I shall continue to describe along the course of the
Elbe.
#
779. On my return to Aussig at 2 o'clock, M.
Köhler informed me that there was no likelihood
of the return of the boats this evening, and that it
was even uncertain whether any would arrive on the
morrow;
1
310
morrow; he advised me, therefore, to go by land to
Tetschen, which was a port more frequented, 3 miles
lower on the river. I thought it best to adopt this
plan; and M. Köhler having been so obliging as to
wait dinner for me, I sat down to table with him
while the horses were getting ready; after which I
set out at 3 o'clock.
780. A great part of the road from Aussig to
Tetschen is very bad; but for this it compensates
by presenting a variety of beautiful prospects, toge-
ther with many interesting objects of study relating
to the history of the earth. I first proceeded along
the left bank of the Elbe, passing under the abrupt
promontory of Marienberg, the whole base of which
is strewn with blocks of its own porphyric schistus.
After I had passed through the defile formed by the
intersection of this promontory, I entered the low
space which opens beyond it by the retreat of the
hills, especially those on the left. The river, in its
first inundations, occupied the whole of this space,
spreading over it all the large materials which the
torrents brought down from the mountains, and
which, having propelled them through the defile,
where its rapidity is the greatest, it finally deposited
in this basin; it is, however, very evident here
that, for a long time, the sediments of the stream
have not consisted of any thing more than sand.
The road is carried along the part where the soil,
having been at last raised above the level of com-
mon inundations, is now in tillage; but over some
spaces,
311
spaces, which were probably lower than the rest at
first, and are not yet completely filled up, the road
is continued by a causeway composed of basalts.
781. The mountains afterwards advance nearer
to each other; and as I travelled along the left bank
of the river, I came to a projection consisting of
the same small basalts which I had seen in the rock
above, and which here also were arranged in a re-
gular form, though not the same as in that rock.
For a certain way, the mountains on the opposite
sides of the river alternately approach each other
and recede; their slopes are, for the most part,
clothed with verdure, but in those parts in which
they still continue to crumble down, the taluses of
their rubbish are not yet bound by vegetation. I
crossed the river at a point where it was of great
width, and consequently not very rapid. I then
proceeded along the right bank, on which the ground,
sloping very gradually down to the level of the water,
exhibits the most beautiful rural scenery; being
chiefly laid out in orchards of fine fruits, which were
at present ripe. The river is immediately bordered
with meadows; but it is not by the stream that the
soils above the reach of its inundations have been
levelled, for they were originally low, and I saw
along the sides of the fields and orchards a quantity
of blocks of different species, which had been taken
out of them when they were cleared for cultivation.
782. The whole way from Aussig to Tetscher,
the
1
312
the valley of the Elbe bears marks of its formation
by a great subsidence of the strata, which here have
totally sunk, and not the principal valley only has
been thus produced, but likewise a multitude of
smaller ones that branch from it: the angular move-
ments undergone by the masses left at the highest
level have converted those masses into ridges of
mountains with angular summits, which present to
the Elbe sections of a pyramidal form: many of
them even, being cut off behind, rise as insulated pyra-
mids by the river side; but there are great differences
in this respect, and I have observed some remark-
able changes in the appearnce of these mountains,
as I changed my relative position towards them.
While I was travelling along the right bank, an
eminence on the opposite bank for some way
presented itself to my view as a pyramid; but, after
I had passed it, I saw that it extended behind to a
great distance; and its appearance led me to judge
that it was of schistus, like those above it. The
following example will exhibit greater variety.
783. I entered a plain encompassed with moun-.
tains in a manner extremely picturesque; and as the
road passed along the foot of those which were
farthest from the Elbe, that river was for a long
time concealed from me by those on its borders,
Here then I beheld nothing but a large circle of
mountains, terminated in front by one of superior
height, which had the appearance of a single pyra-
mid cultivated almost to the top, with some spaces
on
313
on it covered with grass, and others with wood.
But as I drew nearer to it, with a small change in my
point of view, I saw its summit separate into a
number of distinct pyramids, by the most forward
of which I was afterwards again deprived of the
sight of those that stood behind it; while at the
same time I discovered in its front some lower ones,
which before had appeared to form a part of the
principal mass. When I came up to this eminence,
I recovered sight of the Elbe through an opening
on the left; the right bank of the river, along which
the road continues to pass, being formed by these
pyramids. On this side, their mass is broken into
several promontories; and it is very remarkable that
the first is of basalt, while those which follow it are
of a grey quartzeous schistus, very hard, and exhi-
biting, when broken, a shining surface. The last
promontory rises to a great height, and is entirely
precipitous on the side next the Elbe, so that it has
been necessary to cut into its foot to make the road;
whereas the left side of the river presents only a low
terrace extending to some distant mountains, which
are covered with wood.
784. All these eminences equally shew the nature
of the catastrophe whence they originally resulted,
in which, the general mass of the strata having been
divided by fractures, the separated parts underwent
angular movements, in consequence of the greater
subsidence of one of their sides; while at the same
time vast masses totally sunk and disappeared, the
space
314
space which they had originally occupied remaining
vacant down to a certain level. It is thus that all
these vullies have been produced, even the deepest
one which affords a passage to the Elbe. Most of
the ridges of hills formed by these movements have
angular summits, and many parts of them have
been dissected, by transversal fractures into pyra-
mids, assuming different appearances in consequence
of the original differences in their forms. In some
of them, the strata, being nearly vertical, have
separated during their fall, and have thus produced
clusters of pyramids, of which the highest are situated
towards the centre of the groups, and the lower
ones around them. Of these pyramids, such as
have their sides too rapid to allow the falling rubbish
to rest on them, continue in great part naked; but
others, having on their surface many sharp projec-
tions which have retained this rubbish all around,
have taken the form of cones, with only a few rocks
rising above the rubbish, and shewing the disordered
state of the masses within. In general, the slopes
of these cones are clothed with verdure; but the
plants on them differ according to the nature of the
rocks: where the latter are foliated, and the rubbish
which composes the taluses is consequently very
minute, these slopes are grassy; but they are covered
with woods where the strata, being more compact,
have fallen in large masses, as divided by fractures.
The bases of these eminences, which are of great
extent, are for the most part cultivated, and the
higher
A
1
315
higher parts of the slopes are planted with vines, on
the side where the aspect is favourable.
785. No country can present a more cheerful
appearance than this part of the borders of the
Elbe, where the terraces which project from the foot
of the mountains, and are in some places of great
breadth on account of the distance of the latter,
are all laid out in orchards of the finest fruits, which
yield a considerable revenue to the proprietors of
the land, being carried down the Elbe to Hamburg,
and brought to Berlin up the Spree. This was the
season for those excellent plumbs, which are dried to be
sent to a distance, and which are made into what is
called plumb-cheese, over all the north of Germany.
At Aussig, where this kind of commerce begins, I saw
boats filled with baskets of these plumbs, and the trees
were loaded with them in such extraordinary abun-
dance, that great quantities fell into my chaise,
whenever it happened to strike against the branches
as it passed along. Many other boats were laden
with baskets of pears and apples of the best kinds :
among the former were white and brown beurrées,
which are carried from henee to Berlin; and among
the latter were burschäpffel, a very excellent fruit,
much esteemed in Germany, and sent as far as
Petersburg, packed in chests, each apple being
folded in a separate paper. All these valuable kinds
of fruit are gathered with much care, lest they
should be bruised; and as I travelled on, I saw, in
all
316
all the trees, women and children, who were pluck-
ing them from the branches, and laying them softly
in baskets, which they let down by cords with hooks,
while others stood under the trees to receive them.
786. In this road along the right bank of the
river, here still bordered with high mountains, I
crossed the beds of several torrents issuing from
deep clefts in these mountains, the sides of which
had not yet ceased to crumble down. I judged that,
during seasons of great rains, or the melting of the
snows, these torrents must be very considerable; for,
where they intersected the cultivated terraces, I
found their beds raised above the rest of the soil by
the quantity of stones which at such times they had
propelled along their course. The same precaution
is used here as in the great vallies of the Alps; and
I have described it also in the Giant's mountains ;
this consists in keeping open a channel for the tor-
rents along the highest parts of the ridge of rubbish
which they have brought down from above, in order
to prevent them from spreading over the neighbour-
ing lands, and scattering the stones, instead of thus
merely propelling the latter a little farther. I saw
on these beds stones of different kinds, chiefly
schisti; but they were mingled with basalts, of which,
consequently, there must be some in the mountains,
though, in general, these eminences consist of schis-
tus, as far as Tetschen, where I arrived in the even-
ing, and took up my lodging for the night.
Sept.
317
•
Sept. 26th.-I had here a recommendation from
M. Köhler of Aussig to M. RICHLER, who gave
orders that a covered boat should be hired for me,
and my chaise placed in it; after which he walked
with me to view the environs of the town, and par-
ticularly the castle, where thence is an extensive pro-
spect of the wide terraces that border the Elbe
from the foot of the mountains.
786. a. I have said that the schisti extend as far
as Tetschen; but here they cease, and at this place
begins, on both sides of the Elbe, that beautiful
white sand-stone which, in my last journey, I de-
scribed opposite to Pirna. I then mentioned that
the strata of this stone contain sea-shells, particu-
larly large pectines; and I found some tubes of sea-
worms in those of the hill on which the castle stands.
These strata must therefore have been formed upon
the bottom of the sea, in a situation nearly hori
zontal, and certainly over the schisti; yet here, both
these different kinds are on the same level, and at
the point where those of sand-stone externally com-
mence, they are found leaning against the others.
Every thing bears impressions of the catastrophes
from which resulted this subversion of the strata,
and in this place, a phenomenon similar to that de-
scribed at Aussig has been one of their effects; the
Elbe passes through an intersection of a ridge of
sand-stone descending from the hills on the left bank;
and, on the separated extremity of this ridge, form-
ing part of the right bank, stands the castle, which
is
318
I
is very large and in good preservation, and which,
at this time, was undergoing repair: but I have to
describe still farther phenomena, capable of re-
moving all doubt that the river found this channel
open at the time when it began to flow. The sum-
mit of this detached extremity of the hill, which is
occupied by the castle, is cut down abruptly towards
the Elbe, as well as on both its flanks; but in the
part farthest from the river it descends gradually to
the level of the town, having on each side a large
open space. Hence it is very evident, on viewing the
spot, that, if a deeper channel had not been ori-
ginally cut on the left side of the rock, the Elbe
would have taken its course on the right side;
which it might have done without making a very
wide bend.
787. From the castle-hill, I saw, on the left bank
of the Elbe, three promontories, which are com-
posed of the same strata of sand-stone, and which,
advancing towards the river, are cut off on its brink,
where they have the appearance of pyramids, rising
nearly to the same height, and being all equally ab-
rupt the first of these, that is to say, the highest
on the course of the river, is the promontory al-
ready described, upon the continuation of which, on
the right bank, the castle stands; opposite to the
other two, this bank presents only an open space.
Now the situation of the strata, here seen very
distinctly, proves that these eminences are masses
left at a higher level than the rest during the subsi-
dence
319
dence which produced the valley of the Elbe; and
that, while sinking themselves, though in a less de-
gree, they underwent various angular movements.
In the promontory corresponding with the castle-
hill, the strata are nearly vertical; while, in the
sections of the two following ones, which terminate
at the river, without any continuation on the oppo-
site side, the lines of separation of the strata in the
abrupt extremity are nearly horizontal, and on the
sides their planes may be seen to incline backwards.
These particular descriptions will afford precise ex-
amples of the effects of the catastrophes of the
strata, in mountains, and along vullies; and they
will prove an assistance to persons engaged in simi-
lar observations.
788. At half past 9 I embarked at Tetschen for
Pirna, where I arrived at half after 4; I was thus
7 hours on the water, though the distance was only
6 miles; but the current was so slow, that this little
voyage would have occupied me twice as long, if I
had gone down the stream without the assistance of
two rowers. The weather being calm and pleasant,
I remained the whole time on the deck of the boat,
attentive to the objects which seemed to pass in re-
view before me.
789. Though the course of the river was winding,
yet, for some time, its abrupt sides continued to be
nearly parallel with each other, while they exhibited
all the characters of a double fracture attended by
5
the
320
;
i
خور
the subsidence of the intermediary mass, and by
different angular motions in the masses which had
remained at a higher level. On the sides, some de-
tached masses formed projecting rocks, where, when
viewed from the river, the lines of separation of the
strata were nearly horizontal; but on observing these
masses laterally, in large clefts, I perceived that, in
some of them, the strata inclined towards the river,
and in others, the contrary way.
When the strata
are in this latter position, their section commonly
begins from the top of the abrupt side; but when
they incline towards the river, there is, above this
section, a woody slope; and, in many places, emi-
nences interspersed with rocks, and covered with
firs, are seen to rise behind. This is the same sand-
stone which I mentioned in my former journey, as a
kind greatly esteemned for building; accordingly it is
carried down the Elbe, and transported to a greater
distance; when broken, it exhibits a shining grain,
and the sand detached from it by decomposition is
of a nature quite different from that of the sand-
stone of the country of Bayreuth; for, as I have
already remarked, the latter produces only pines,
while the sand of which I am now speaking pro-
duces firs, like the rubbish of the schisti and the
basalts.
790. There were many parts in which I saw two
ridges of eminences, one on the bank of the river,
the other higher, and at a greater distance. In some
places, the antcrior part of the ridge that borders.
the
()
321
the Elbe, having subsided the most, has left some
elevated rocks, which, by crumbling down, have
formed slopes of rubbish, either terminating at the
top of some projection whereon they rest, or extend-
ing from above quite down to the borders of the
river: most of these slopes are covered with grass;
but in other places, where large blocks have fallen
on the declivity, it is covered with firs interspersed
awong rocks of a columnar appearance, as I de-
scribed in the preceding journey.
791. These mountains bordering the river are in-
tersected by several valliss or combes, of the sides
of which I had a view as I passed before their
openings; these sides likewise present abrupt sec-
tions of the strata, and their upper part is eut
into such forms as bear a resemblance to the walls
of ancient castles. When two of these intersec-
tions happen to be near each other, the masses in
their intervals rise into high pyramids, surrounded
with smaller ones, or with columns, which are con-
tinued all along the terraces on the border of the
river. The vallies, being deep, and extending to
some distance inland, bring to the Elbe streams of
a considerable size, one of which turns a mill at
Niedergrund; this is the last hamlet belonging to
Bohemia on the left bank of the river, and it con-
sists in part of a long row of houses encompassed
with gardens and orchards; on a broad terrace at
the foot of the steep face of the mountains. Lower
down on the river, the rocks, having happened to
Y
VOL. II.
bo
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​322
ގ
be much shattered, were still crumbling down in
very large masses, which overspread a considerable
portion of the breadth of the terrace at their foot..
When I arrived at this part, it seemed as if the
passage of the Elbe was here entirely closed; for
there rose before me, at some distance, an abrupt
mountain, the top of which appeared to be divided
into a number of pyramids; but, as I approached,
I lost sight of these pyramids one after another, and
what had at first seemed the foot of a large moun-
tain bore now the aspect only of a steep rock. In
front of this projection, the river turns to the right;
and a little below its bend, there is in the right
bank a cleft, the entrance of which is of sufficient
size to form a port; and this cleft extends far
enough inland, for rafts of wood to be brought
down from some distance by a very small stream
that flows in it here is situated Hornkatschen, the
first custom-house which belongs to Bohemia in
ascending the Elbe. For a certain space, the sides
of this cleft are of the same height with those of
the river itself, which flows hence towards another
great cleft. At this point, the sides suddenly rise;
and here I found them crowned with those large
pyramids which had vanished from my sight when
I approached the steep rocks apparently closing
the passage of the river when viewed from above.
792. There are very wide terraces along all these
shores of the Elbe, except in that part, a little below
Niedergrund, where large masses continue to fall,
and
!
<
323
+
and leave but a small space between the foot of the
slopes which are formed against the rocks, and the
river; and though, in other parts, great fragments,
from time to time, are still detached from the top of
the rocks, these fragments roll down the slopes of
rubbish, and stop at their foot. Thus all the ter-
races are grassy, down to the shore of the river,
which being at this time a little swelled by the late
rains, the grass extended below the water's edge.
Throughout all this part of its course, the Elbe is
very broad, and flows very slowly; its surface, when
I sailed down it, was as smooth as a mirror; and I
could judge that, though subject to extraordinary
swells, this river was so far, at such seasons, from
injuring its grassy banks, that, on the contrary, it
was still continuing to raise them by the deposition
of fresh sediments. I shall presently mention an
extraordinary instance of this as contributing to
prove what I have elsewhere affirmed, that rivers no
longer attack their shores in any part except where
they have not yet opened for themselves a free pas-
sage.
793. After the left bank had been lower for some
way, I arrived in front of a large space where the
rocks on that side are entirely discontinued, and
where there are only pasture-grounds extending
from the borders of the river to some fir-woods at a
considerable distance: but opposite to this open
tract, the right bank is bordered with steep rocks,
and in these are the first large quarries of the sand-
Y 2
stone
:
324
[
}
794. Below this point, the right bank changes
greatly its appearance: the rocks, which are low,
are at a great distance from the river, and their
higher parts form slopes covered with trees or with
grass, according to the nature of the rubbish whereof
they are composed. On a wide terrace in their
front is a long row of cottages extending to the
small town of Schandau within the Saxon territory.
The calmness of the river on which I was sailing,
and of which the surface continued to be perfectly
unruffled, permitted me to enjoy the beauties of the
rural scene that here presented itself to my view in
one of its happiest moments. Some of the villagers
were employed in making their second crop of hay
on the terrace, while others were gathering the fruit
in the orchards; the pastures were full of cattle;
goats were browzing on the rocks; and the good
.housewives, with their little children around them,
were busily employed in brightening their kitchen
utensils, and washing the vessels belonging to their
dairies. I had great pleasure in the thought that
the course of the lives of these happy villagers, was
pro-
•
Stone that are within view in going down the Elbe;
these quarries are continued as far as to a large
cleft, of which the sides are no less steep than those
of the river; though, as it is only a combe, no water
passes through it, except in rainy seasons: the bed
of the rivulet which is then formed in it was at pre-
sent dry.
"
325
probably as tranquil as that of the stream from
which I observed them with so much satisfaction.
795. In approaching an eminence of this right
bank, called the Lilien-stein, of which I spoke in
my former journey, I could easily perceive its sum-
mit to be no higher than those of many of the steep
rocks that I had seen in coming down the river; but
the ground has subsided all around this eminence,
and its slopes, covered with large masses detached
from the highest part, descend quite down to the
low soil. There being on the summit of the Lilien-
stein an elevation much narrower than the zone im-
mediately below it, which is very wide, it hence
assumes various appearances from different points
of view: at a distance, it seemed a vast pyramid,
with a very narrow summit; but as I approached,
this summit sunk, as if retiring from me; and though
I never lost sight of it, as I turned round the base,
it yet appeared to be shifted, like a tent, from one
part of the eminence to another. The highest of
the rocks around the Lilien-stein are extremely pic-
turesque, for they suffer from the air that erosion
to which, as I mentioned in my last journey, this
sand-stone is liable; and their forms likewise conti-
nually vary with every change of the spectator's pos
sition.
-
796. A little after I had passed the Lilien-stein,
I saw rising on the left bank of the König-stein,
another
啡
​326
another pyramid which descends with an uninter
rupted slope to the village bearing its name, and to
the shore of the river; so that its height appeared
very great when I viewed it in front: I did not how-
ever judge its summit to be really higher than that
of the Lilien-stein; but it is of great breadth, and is
occupied by a fortress, to which the rocks them-
selves form towers, and walls crowned with battle-
ments. On both sides of the König-stein I saw,
farther inland, and at different distances from the
Elbe, many other insulated pyramids, all too re-
mote to have been formed either by the river itself,
or by any of the small streams arriving here to join
it; they must, therefore, have resulted from the
catastrophes of the strata to which I have attributed
the rest of the pyramids that I have described
along the course of this great river, and in which
the whole of the neighbouring country must have
been involved.
797. Some way beyond Königstein, I came to
the part of the course of the Elbe described in my
former journey; at present, therefore, I shall pass
it over, mentioning only the remarkable circum-
stance to which I alluded § 792, when speaking of
the inundations of this river. I passed in front of
a village on the right bank, called by the boatman
Wilstatel; but I did not find that name in my map.
Part of this village, like some others which I have
described before, consists of a long row of houses
on the terrace bordering the Elbe; these houses are
nearly
327
5
nearly at equal distances from each other, and the
gardens and orchards around them are enclosed with
low walls, leaving on the outer side a large grassy
space which extends to the river-side. Here the
boatman told me that, during the preceding winter,
when, as I have already had occasion to say, all the
rivers in the north of Germany had overflowed in an
extraordinary manner, the level of the Elbe had
risen up to the windows of the upper story of the
houses of the village, but fortunately so slowly, that
the inhabitants had had time to escape with their
effects. Now no traces were remaining of the
action of the water on either the fronts of the houses
or the garden walls, nor even on the trees or grass
of the terraces. The river had gradually risen, ex-
tending its surface to a great breadth, but with little
rapidity, on its borders, the principal current re-
maining in the middle; and it had afterwards sunk
slowly as it retired; so that it had done no damage
to any part of this great terrace.
798. As I approached Pirna, the rocks on both
sides became lower; their fronts are here very
smooth, and their projections so regularly angular
in consequence of vertical fractures along the edge
of the subsidence which has produced the great
valley of the Elbe, that this river appears as if
bordered by fortifications; and the same form is
conţinued on the sides of a large cleft in the right
bank. On this bank, the space in front of the rocks
is laid out in vineyards extending nearly to the bor-
ders
}
328
I
ders of the river, which is here of great breadth,
and flows very slowly.
799. At half past four, I landed at Pirna; and
I determined to employ the rest of the day in walk-
ing down the left side of the Elbe, in order to ob-
serve the point at which this river, hitherto con-
fined between its elevated banks, issues forth into
the plain. After I had passed the castle of Pirna,
I saw that the promontory whereon it stands is cut
down abruptly on the lower side, and that, beyond
the intersection, the ridge, to which this eminence
belongs, is continued only by a small mount de-
scending gradually to the level of the plain. This
promontory is composed of the strata of sand-stone,
and follows the shore of the river. I went on, till
I came to the termination of the eminences which
had so far formed the left bank of the Elbe; while
the rocks on the opposite bank also became gra-
dually lower, till at last they passed beneath a soil
of rubbish. I thus reached the borders of the plain,
on the left side of the river. Hence I saw at a dis-
tance, on the right, the chain of granitic eminences
which, in my preceding journey, I had ascended
from Pilnitz with M. Köhler; and, on the left, I
discovered, above some distant hills, the pyramidal
summits of the schistose mountains, among which,
in the same journey, I had gone down the course
of the river, as far as Pirna, with him and Baron
Von Block. The interval between these two
chains, below the issue of the Elbe from its defiles,
Was
329
was likewise open to view, to as great a distance as
the eye could reach.
3
800. Here then we find the Elbe, after it has
quitted the long series of vallies into which I have
described its entrance on its descent from the
Giant's mountains; and in this last part of its chan-
nel, 18 leagues in length, from its bend at Aussig,
across the chain of mountains which separates Bo-
hemia from Savony, I had no where seen, from any
vestiges, that it had attacked its sides in order to
straiten its course: on the contrary, I could here
very evidently perceive this channel to have been
originally intersected by openings so numerous and
so wide, that the Elbe could not have risen per-
ceptibly, in any part, without finding either on its
right bank or on its left, other vallies which it might
have followed, without being obliged to cut its way
through rocks. As for its precipitous sides, it is
manifest that they have not been produced by the
action of the river, because the sides of the vallies
and combes which open into the principal valley, and
from which only rivulets proceed, are equally pre-
cipitous. The latter circumstance renders it almost
impossible to observe any effects of time in this
part of the channel of the river. Except in the
defiles of Aussig and Tetschen, which are not of
-great length, the double fracture of the strata, and
the subsidence of the intermediary masses, have pro-
duced a vacancy of sufficient breadth, along the
whole course of the river, to have afforded it always
an
330
1
an easy passage during its greatest swells; and there
are no spaces, at its own level, wide enough to have
allowed it to form any of those alluvial soils which
in other parts of its course, below this point, are
seen to be still gaining in extent.
The whole ope-
ration of the Elbe, therefore, in this deep valley,
the sides of which consist of stony strata, has been
to level its bottom by the sand. brought down from
the heights, and to deposit this sand also on the
masses of strata remaining a little above the usual
level of the water at the foot of the steep rocks;
and thus have been formed the terraces, over which
the river still spreads more or less, during its inun-
dations, but without ever reaching the rocks, or even
the slopes composed of the rubbish which crumbles
down from them. These terraces are continuing to
rise, in consequence of the accumulation of fresh
sand upon them; but this accumulation makes too
insensible a progress to furnish a chronometer. It
is therefore only when the Elbe flows between hills
composed of loose strata, that the progress of its
operations is easily observable; this has been already
seen in various parts of its course nearer to the sea,
and farther instances will appear along another
part which I followed as I continued my present
journey.
狐
​Sept. 27th. From Pirna I set out in my chaise,
at half past six in the morning, for Dresden, four
miles distant; and the roads being good, I arrived
there at half past nine. When large rivers flow
through
331
through plains, there are three distinct states which
may commonly be observed in the neighbouring
soils, according to their differences of level. At
the beginning of this journey, I gave an account of
these states on the left bank of the Elbe at IVitten-
berg; but I shall here describe them again, as well
because I am now speaking of a plain, as because
new examples of them will appear on the sides of
this river between Dresden and Wittenberg.
801. The first of these states is that of the grounds
over which, though they are very little above the
level of the river, it yet has never risen during
floods; such grounds may easily be distinguished
from the others which I shall mention, because, with
respect to blocks and other stones, they do not differ
from the higher soils in their neighbourhood; if any
of these masses are scattered on the eminences, they
are found also here, either placed along the borders
of the fields, which have been cleared of them when
brought into tillage, or dispersed over such parts as
are still uncultivated. The second state is that of
the grounds which, though but very little lower than
the former, are covered by the river, (more or less
frequently, according to their various heights,)
during its inundations, and which it has levelled
either by spreading the earth more equally over
them, or by the addition of its own sediments;
under the soils thus formed, the blocks have in great
part been buried; but some are seen, here and
there, to rise above the surface. Thirdly, at the
lowest
+
}
332
lowest level are the alluvial soils, formed by the
sediments of the river on the borders of its own
bed; these sediments being chiefly deposited in the
wide parts, where the course of the stream is slack-
ened when it overflows. The latter soils are become
meadows, which, when raised above the level of
common inundations, have been enclosed with dikes,
for their protection against the extraordinary swells
of the river. Now these dikes form a large class
of chronometers; for it is known by tradition at
what period each of them was first constructed.
802. The hills on the left become gradually lower;
but I travelled for some time on that side over a
high ground, where a large creek bordered with
cliffs has been formed by the river, which here
makes a sudden bend, and strikes against its bank
at a particular point. All the ground on the oppo-
site bank is low, and has been levelled to a great
extent; and the Elbe would have continued to widen
this creek, had not its current been repelled by large
piers, on account of a village which lies behind,
and which the postillion told me was called Heiden-
haus: since the stream has been thus turned, the
cliffs have been reduced into slopes, and covered·
with grass. I had observed blocks of hornblende on the
road; and on arriving at the village, I saw there heaps
of blocks of various kinds, which had been collected
together for the purpose of building; among these
there were some of differently coloured granites, of
sienite, of red porphyry, of gneiss, of granulated
quartz,
333
quartz, and of grey wacke, all taken out of the
neighbouring fields. That it is not the Eble which
has disseminated these blocks may easily be judged;
for, from the above precise description of the dif-
ferent soils on its borders, and of their respective
levels, it is evident that the river can never have
risen over these grounds, especially as this is a part
of the country in which, from the first, it has had
sufficient space to spread.
A
"
macy at Berlin. It being my intention to follow
the course of the Elbe down to Vittenberg, I en-
gaged, for this purpose, a covered boat, with a
sail and two rowers, and I caused my chaise to be
- put on board it.
•
803. I here quitted the banks of the river, and
proceeded by a strait road to Dresden, where I arrived
at half past nine; I stayed five days at this city, in
order to enjoy the company of the persons from
whom I had before experienced so much kind-
ness; and I found here also the worthy Count Ch.
Von Bruhl, with whom I had contracted an inti-
•
.
+
Oct. 3d. I embarked at Dresden at 11 in the
morning for Meissen, three miles distant, which was
as far as I purposed to go this day. The current
of the Elbe is in this part so slow, that, with the
assistance of two good rowers, I did not reach
Meissen till four o'clock; and the water is so shal-
low, that these men often laid down their oars, and
pushed on the boat with poles.
804. On
2017
334
1
804. On quitting Dresden, I found myself in a
large basin, formed by the retreat of the hills on
both sides. When I stood on the deck of the boat,
which raised me about 10 or 12 feet above the level
of the river, I could see the original banks, to a
greater or less extent, either on one side or the
other, and sometimes on both; at the same time, I
saw likewise the alluvial soils, behind the dikes which
secured them. At a league's distance from Dresden,
near the village of Pritznitz, I came to a very wide
cliff on the left bank, with the Elbe flowing so near
its higher extremity, as to prevent any slope from
being formed there by its falling materials,; so that
its foot was still open to the attacks of the river
during floods. However a beach composed of the
stones which had fallen appeared already above the
water. Whenever, therefore, this part, continuing
to crumble down, shall have retreated a little farther
backward, it will soon arrive at the same state with
the rest of the cliff, which is already reduced into
a slope, and covered with grass. This, cliff is the
extremity of a ridge of hills, advancing towards the
Elbe, and cut off abruptly on its border; while the
opposite part of the right bank is formed by a con-
tinuation of the low grounds extending to the foot
of some steep hills at a distance, which are much
intersected, and are planted with vines: some way
below, these hills come down to the river-side. In
passing before the above-mentioned cliff, I perceived
it to be the section of strata of a soft loamy stone,
which is easily worn away by the actions of the
1
1
air,
•
33.5
air, and of which the harder parts compose the
beach.
霉
​805. Below Kötschenbroda, on the right bank,
there is a piece of higher ground, which the Elbe
has likewise attacked, and reduced into a cliff. A
great deal of gravel having been here contained in the
soil, it has formed a beach, in this part, along the
river-side, and is continuing to accumulate at the
foot of the cliff. The Elbe, having an open space
on its left bank, has retreated from this obstacle;
and whenever it shall have bent its course in a suffi-
cient degree, the cliff will attain a fixed and per-
manent state. The river, being thus repelled to-
wards the hills on its left bank, appears, from a
certain distance, as if it were about to pass through
a cleft in those hills; but, on a nearer approach, I
found that, from the foot of the hills on the right
bank, which it had sapped ahove this point, it had
carried to the left such a quantity of gravel, as to
have formed there a high beach, whereby it is driven
back to the right. Before this beach was raised, a
part of the soil which now lies within it had been
covered by the river with sand and with mud; and
being consequently converted into good meadow-
land, it has been thought worth the trouble of pro-
tecting: across the beach, therefore, has been carried
a spur-work of timber, forming low piers, inclined
in the direction of the stream, and covered with
stones on the side opposed to the current, which is
thus turned off without difficulty.
1
806. The
*
1
336
2
1
}
*
3...
806. The hills on the left bank, which are here
covered with brush-wood, are much intersected
with deep vallies or combes. The right bank for
some way continues low, forming a plain; but this
afterwards contracts, and at last the hills advance
to the border of the river in a large rocky promon-
tory, in which I observed some quarries; the stone
taken out of them is a reddish granite; but it is so
much shattered, that no large masses of it can be
obtained. The Elbe here makes a turn, and passes
between two ridges of hills; those on the left bank
are continuous, and very abrupt on the side next
the river; they are intersected only by some large
fractures, in which rocks appear amidst the brush-
wood covering the slope. The opposite bank has a
quite different appearance, presenting a succession
of pyramids, the slopes of which are formed by the
rubbish of their higher rocks: these slopes are pre-
vented from sliding downwards by low walls built
across them one above another; and they are planted
with vines on their southern side.
1
!
807. The Elbe is far from occupying the whole
of the interval between these parallel ridges of emi-
nences, both composed of granite, yet so dissimilar
in their form: it has levelled the bottom of this in-
terval with the materials which have fallen from its
sides, and have been set in motion by its waters;
but it flows sometimes towards one side, and some-
times towards the other, not preserving a strait
course; and as I went down the river, I observed
that,
337
that, at every bend, the soil was high on the outer
side, and low on the inner, where it ormed mea-
dows. The preceding descriptions have afforded
proofs, that the gravel which rivers flowing in plains
detach from their borders is not transported by them
to any great distance, but remains on their beds;
and that the gravel found on these beds is always
the same as that on their borders, and commonly
belongs to the soil of the neighbouring country.
Now here I met with an exemplification of the former
remark, independently of the latter. Above the
part where the Elbe thus flows between rocks, I had
observed, on its bed and on its borders, a gravet
composed of stones of various kinds, the same be-
ing also contained in the neighbouring soils, where
these masses were already rounded. But in this
confined space, where there were no stones on the
borders of the river but angular fragments of the
reddish granite of the rocks, the bed of the stream
was for some way covered only with these frag-
ments: and I shall point out the precise place at
which they disappeared.
808. Some time before I reached Meissen, I had
on the left a long hill of granite, the abrupt front
of which was still continuing to crumble down; but,
on the right bank, the country was quite open. At
first, I saw nothing of Meissen but the castle, with
some houses built around it, on a very high rock
which is cut down abruptly towards the Elbe; but
when I approached the town, I suddenly perceived
Z
VOL. II.
that
338
the rock was separated from the body of the
hill by a cleft well worthy of a particular examina-
tion. At four o'clock I reached Meissen, where I
had intended to visit the celebrated manufacture of
china, which is on the same hill with the castle, and
mostly within the precincts of the latter; but fear-
ing lest the fine weather should fail me, and having
still a long voyage to make on the river, I thought
it better to employ the remainder of the day in ob-
serving this opening into the interior part of the
country. On arriving opposite to the entrance of
the cleft, I saw a brook, which issues from it, flow-
ing very calmly to join the Elbe, having already, at
a remote point, in its own valley, descended to
the level of this river: as it was my intention to
ascend that valley, and view the adjacent grounds,
I engaged a guide to attend me thither.
809. The cleft is narrow at its entrance, but be-
comes wider within. The town of Meissen is built
on the left bank of the Elbe, and covers the lower
part of the castle-rock, behind which it extends some
way, ascending the slope on that side towards the
castle. The right bank of the brook, formed by
the granitic hill, is very abrupt; the lower part of
its slope is studded with rocks, of which the inter-
vals are covered with turf; and its upper part is laid
out in vineyards. My guide led me up to the sum-
mit of this eminence by the very steep paths used
by the labourers, and I was not a little surprized
at the variation which I here found in the soil. That
of
K
339
of the whole slope, including the vineyards, up to
the top, consists entirely of granitic rubbish; while
that of the summit, which has been brought into
cultivation, is the common heath-sand, not mixed
with any fragments of granite, but only with gravel
and larger masses of white quartz; and this sand
appeared to me to be very decp: yet it will be seen
that the eminence itself is insulated, and that con-
sequently this soil, which is absolutely extraneous
to the granite beneath it, cannot have been trans-
ported hither from any quarter, since the continent
has been abandoned by the sea. This is a pheno-
menon of which I have already given many ex-
amples, and it renders the loose superficial soils of
countries consisting of stony strata, an object worthy
of very great attention, since it shows the variety or
the catastrophes and other operations which took
place on the bottom of the ancient sea.
-
•
810. I first proceeded along the brow of this emi-
nence on the side next the Elbe; and as from hence
I commanded most of the hills which I had seen
bordering this river on its opposite bank, I could
judge very clearly that at the time when its waters
were first collected in a stream, if it had not found
prepared for it the lower channel wherein it at pre-
sent flows, it would have passed behind these emi-
nences, which, in that case, would have stood on
its left bank; for they rise, separately from each
other, in the front of a large plain, where the river
might have freely held its course, and have after-
wards
7 2
340
1
7
wards entered its present channel lower down, near
the villers of Nieder-Côln and Spare. But from
the rig, bank advances a promontory of granite, in
font of that on which the castle stands; and a bridge
resting on the summits of these two opposite emi-
nences is here thrown across the river. It was pro-
bably the advantage of thus establishing a commu-
nication, for all seasons, between these opposite
banks, which occasioned the erection of the castle
of Meissen, and afterwards of the town; and the
latter has since been much increased, in consequence
of the flourishing state of the china manufacture.
811. After having made these observations on the
side next the Elbe, I crossed the hill to its opposite
side, where I found it cut down abruptly towards
the valley which separates this eminence from the
rest of the granitic ridge, and which is so wide,
that the Elbe itself might have found room to flow
in it, though it is pervaded only by the brook that
joins this river at Meissen, after issuing from a cleft
higher up; this brook was at present so inconsider-
able, that, having descended into the valley in order
to observe it, I stepped across it in several places.
The eminences surrounding this large space are
much intersected; by which a very profitable addi-
tion is made to the superficies of the ground on the
same horizontal base. All the sides of the hills
with a favourable aspect are laid out in vineyards
supported by low walls built across the slopes of
rubbish the sides less advantageously situated are
covered
1
341
covered with woods or coppices; and the intervals
between the eminences are occupied by meadows.
On the brows of the hills, there are still some rocks
that continue to crumble down; and their rubbish
has formed slopes, which are not yet bound by ve-
getation, because the materials had a great way to
fall, before they found a base whereon they could
accumulate.
812. Though the brook is so inconsiderable, and
though there is so wide a space over which it is free
to spread. yet, as it has not preserved its course
in the middle of this space, it attacks at one point
the foot of the hill whence I had just descended ;
and when it overflows, it saps the base of the slopes
of rubbish, the surface of which, being thus occa-
sioned frequently to slide down, I observed to be
still bare. But in the parts where the foot of the
hill is seldom reached by the stream, the rubbish is
retained by the asperities of the section of the pre-
nitic strata; and there I found the slopes more
fixed, and covered with vegetation. In these very
parts, however, when the brook, during an extra-
ordinary swell of its waters, attacks at a high point
these slopes which are thus cut across by the edges
of the strata, one portion of their surface slides
down upon another, in the same manner that a
cascade falls from rock to rock; and the plants
which have overspread them perish. My guide told
me that, on such occasions, the paths leading up
these slopes towards the vineyards are carried away;
and
<
342
and he shewed me some places where, having been
thus destroyed by the great inundation of the pre-
ceding winter, (which I have so frequently men-
tioned,) they were not yet repaired.
Oct. 4th. I embarked at six o'elock in the morn-
ing, and at three in the afternoon I arrived at
Torgau, fix miles distant. In passing under the
very high bridge which I mentioned as forming at
Meissen the communication between the two banks of
the river, the boatmen told me that the winter before,
the water had risen to the top of the arches, that the
lower part of the town had been mostly inundated,
and that the water of the Elbe had ascended a con-
siderable way in the channel of the brook which I
had observed the preceding day.
<
Hig
813. After having passed the bridge, I saw, on
the right, an open country of great extent, being a
continuation of the plain which lies behind all the
eminences bordering that bank above this part of
the course of the river. This space shews the na-
ture of the catastrophe which produced both the
valley of the river, and the plain itself. It was on
the present left bank of the Elbe that the principal
fracture took place, and was followed by the greatest
immediate subsidence; this subsidence extended so
far as to form the plain on the right bank; but,
along the great fracture which happened on that side,
soine massés remained at a higher level than the
rest; and these, having undergone angular motions,
are
343
are now the pyramids of granite by which the left
bank is bordered here, as it is, above Pirna, by those
of sand-stone.
814. After I had gone some way farther down
the Elbe, I again saw hills rising on both its
banks, which exhibited chronometers of two differ-
ent kinds. Those on the left bank shewed the pro-
gress of the effects of natural causes, in the forma-
tion of slopes of rubbish under the rocks, and the
fixation of these slopes in several places by the growth
of trees and bushes; while in other places the pro-
cess was not yet terminated, because the rocks still
crumbled down too frequently to permit the plants
springing up on the slopes to rise to any height be-
fore they were covered with fresh rubbish. On the
right bank, of which the aspect is favourable for
vines, appeared the progress of cultivation. There
the owners of the land, not waiting till the slopes
of rubbish should be fixed by acquiring the requisite
degree of declivity, had built low walls to support
them at different heights; and in this place I saw
repeated the operation which I have described, with
many details, in my Lettres sur l'Histoire de la
Terre & de l'Homme, as one of the means employed
by industry to render more productive the surface
of the earth. The rocks above continue to crumble
down on the highest terraces, and in several other
places, as well as here, they are cut at the foot, for
the purpose of making them crumble the faster. By
trenching these terraces in the spring, each of them,
in
4
•
344
*
in its turn, is made to supply that below it with the
necessary quantity of this rubbish; and as the ope-
ration extends the whole way down, the lowest of
them is every year raised by the portion of soil which
in this manner is brought down to it. Thus, in such
parts of the feet of mountains as have a climate and
exposure favourable for vines, art accelerates the
operations of nature, by causing the higher rocks to
crumble down more rapidly, and lessening the de-
clivity of the slopes. I explained, in my first
Travels, that, wherever the rocks above have ceased
to crumble down sufficiently, or some obstacle below
prevents the extension of the slopes, so that their
declivity cannot be any farther lessened, the vine-
dressers, every winter, carry up to the highest parts.
of the vineyard the earth which they had thrown out
in trenching it the preceding spring; an operation
always begun from the bottom; and thus the same
quantity of soil is constantly preserved on each of
these terraces, which are divided by little walls across
the slope.
815. Thoughout the whole of this tract, the course
of the Elbe is nowhere confined, except between
the opposite promontories at Meissen, and there
only when it is swelled; below this point, it winds
through large open spaces, approaching sometimes
one bank, and sometimes the other, but without at-
tacking either; for its borders are grassy, and it has
formed some islands on its bed. The left bank is
very picturesque, from the forms of its granitic
rock,
345
rock, and their reddish tint, which make a very
agreeable contrast to the verdure of the trees inter-
spersed among them. Their strata, where but little
inclined, may be easily distinguished; but, where
` inclined so much as to be nearly vertical, which is
the case in some masses of these rocks, it is impos-
sible to distinguish them, so much have they been
broken and subverted by the catastrophes which
have reduced them to this state. The river is so
shallow in some places, on account of the wideness
of its bed, that I saw a woman cross it in a little
boat, with a very short pole.
-
816. These picturesque rocks on the left bank
become gradually lower; and at last they disappear,
at a point where a large valley opens just above the
village of Zehro. Below this, the rocks again rise
on both sides, but with many interruptions, so that
frequently one bank is open, while there are rocks
on the other. On the most projecting rock belong-
ing to the left bank stands the castle of Hirschstein,
or the Stag-rock, as I had before occasion to ex-
plain, when I mentioned another of the same name
at Carlsbad. This is the last of the granitic emi-
nences on the left bank; beyond it, the country
becomes low. After having passed Morschwitz on
the right bank, I arrived before Leutewitz on the
left. Below this, I again saw some insulated rocks
of granite on the right bank, the intervals of which
afforded me occasional views of the interior part of
the country; but the last of the promontories on this
side
346
side advancing towards the Elbe is composed of
strata of loose sand. After this, scarcely any more
granite appeared externally; but, from what has
been seen above, it certainly must prevail under the
sand that covers the whole country; which is far-
ther indicated by the form of the ground, consisting
of hills and vales, whence it is evident what must be
the state of the granitic strata within; and all these
hills are scattered with blocks of granite, and other
primordial stones. A great way beyond this, how-
ever, I thought I observed, below the village of
Riesa on the left bank, another rock of granite, on
which, near the river, a house was built.
817. I now again beheld all the phenomena of
sandy countries, and of the banks of the rivers which
flow in them. The Elbe is here confined in several
places, either on one side or on both, by the dikes of
alluvial soils. Lower down on its course, I saw
frequently soils of the kind which I have generally
described as having been levelled by the river,
when spreading to a greater or less extent during its
inundations, before its channel was fixed. It after-
wards again flows between sandy eminences, still
wearing away some parts of both its banks; and as
these consist of strata of sand intermixed with others.
of marl or of clay, the materials which fall from
them are carried down by the river, and contribute
below to the formation of alluvial soils. Wherever
it has been thought worth while to secure these soils,
on account of their vicinity to inhabited places, this
has
347
has been effected by low spur-shaped piers, such as
I have already mentioned, which are made obliquely
in the direction of the course of the river, and have
their higher side much inclined. When these piers
are at a small distance from each other, they have the
double advantage of throwing back the current of.
the river towards the middle of its bed, and retain-
ing the sand in their intervals; and this produces a
strand, on which the materials falling from the cliffs
being retained, the latter are reduced into slopes,
and covered with grass; while the strand itself,
being under water during floods, becomes grassy
likewise, and the river has no longer any other
action on it than that of raising it by the deposition
of fresh sand. But, in the parts against which the
current still bears too directly, the cliffs, continuing
to crumble down, are yet naked.
818. I had opportunities of observing all these
modifications, as I continued my voyage down the
Elbe. I now came to a large space where no high
ground appeared within sight; this space extended
as far as the small town of Strehla, situated on the
left bank, on the foot of a high hill, along which the
river passes, making a bend to the right. All this
part of the country is sandy, and the woods consist of
pines; but there are a great many oaks in the alluvial
soils, and likewise in those which the river has level-
led during floods.
Դ
819. Here I observed the proof which I men-
tioned
348
$
the sea.
tioned above, that gravel, never travelling far in
plains, is consequently not carried down by rivers to
I had passed but a little way beyond the
granitic hills which border the Elbe in the upper
part of its course, when I ceased to perceive any of
their rubbish, either on its bed or on its borders;
nor could I be mistaken in this respect, because of
the redness of that granite, and the angular form of
its fragments. From the point where the river entered
this sandy country, I observed in it no other gravel
than that which is contained in the sand, and is coin-
posed of stones of various kinds.
820. Below a certain space, the soils on the right
bank rise in hills of loose sand covered with pine
woods; I saw these begin a considerable way before
I came to Mühlberg, a place situated on that bank.
The land being here of little value, on account of its
distance, even from any large villages, the Elbe has
been left to its own spontaneous operations, or at
least has been very little assisted in them. In this
part may be seen in what manner the alluvial soils,
and some islands on the bed of the river, have been
produced. The sand is deposited wherever the
stream, although swelled, possesses little rapidity;
and as soon as the soils thus formed have risen to
the level of the river in common seasons, their mois-
ture promotes the growth of reeds and osiers, which,
during floods, oblige the water to slacken its course
between their stalks, where it consequently deposites
an additional quantity of mud; in this manner these
new
349
new grounds are at last raised to the height of the
greatest inundations; after which they spontaneously
become meadows, interspersed only with bushes of
osier; for the reeds perish, as soon as their roots
are above the level of the water in common seasons.
In those parts of the shores of the river, or the
islands, where this operation does not happen to
take place, it is imitated by the labour of man; and
this is the only respect in which natural causes are
assisted throughout the whole of the above space,
the elevation of such soils as are still too low to be
converted to any use being accelerated by planting
on their surface small stakes of osier very near each
other. After a few inundations, these stakes are
almost entirely buried under the sediments of the
river; but having, in the mean while, taken root,
their branches continue to detain the sand and other
substances floating in the water, till they have gra-
dually raised the soil to the level of the highest
floods; after which, it may either be converted to
use in the intervals of such floods, or else be se-
cured against them by dikes. The same expedient
is employed also to fix the dunes, or sand-hills, either
along the coast, or in countries consisting of loose
fine sand; sometimes slips of birch, which likewise
readily take root, are used for this purpose, some-
times merely some pieces of straw; for the sand
carried about by the winds will lodge between either
of these, until bound by the roots of the grass
springing up on it in rainy seasons.
09
821. It
350
$21. It was two o'clock when we arrived at Mühl-
berg, which is at the distance of four miles from
Meissen. As the name of this village terminates in
berg, I had expected to see it placed on an emi-
nence; I was therefore surprized at finding it si-
tuated in an alluvial soil: I landed for the purpose
of observing this soil, which is secured, on the side
next the Elbe, by a strong stone dike, consisting of
fragments of wacke of various colours. The whole
tract is intersected with large ditches which are ter-
minated by sluices in the dike; they had not at pre-
sent any water in them, because the level of the
river was low. On the outer side of the dike, I saw
a strand formed by the gravel which the strcain
impels against it, and which consisted of wacke of
various colours, white quarts, granulated quartz,
and grey granite; the same stones being found in
the soil of the whole country.
822. From Mühlberg we continued our course
for about two hours; but a contrary wind had
sprung up, which already much impeded our voyage,
and the next day put a stop to it. The shores of
the Elbe continued to be very low, till I approached
Belgern, a village situated on the left bank. Here
the course of the river has been opposed by the ex-
tremity of a hill, which it has attacked and reduced
into a cliff; but this cliff is rapidly wearing down,
because the sandy strata of the hill being intermixed
with argillaceous strata, the water which filters
through the former is retained by the latter, till it
Valmi
softens
L
351
softens the whole mass; so that, in rainy seasons,
the cliff crumbles down in large pieces. In conse-
quence of this, a large cove has been formed here,
to the extension of which it will in time become ne-
cessary to put a stop, by repelling the river in this
place in the customary manner; for Belgern is si-
tuated in an inflexion of the shore very little below
the point thus attacked, and is secured only by the
part which still remains of the original soil at the
extremity of the cove on that side. There were for-
merly some cliffs below Belgern; but they are now
reduced into slopes, and covered with grass.
823. After passing these cliffs, I found the soil
low on both the banks; sometimes it was the ori-
ginal soil coming down to the river; but more fre-
quently alluvial grounds enclosed with dikes; of this
latter kind there are many islands, and particularly
a very large one opposite to Torgau, a town situated
on the left bank. As I now saw nothing, even from
the deck of my boat, but lands similar to these, I
was the less concerned at the bad weather which
came on, and obliged me to retire into the cabin.
We now had not only a contrary wind, but so vio-
lent a storm arose, that we were obliged for some
time to lie close under one of the shores; on which
account we did not arrive at Torgau till eight in the
evening.
Oct. 5th. Being detained the whole day at Torgau
by the continuance of the same wind, I employed
this
352
this time in observing the adjacent country. The castle
and part of the town are on a mount which is encom-
passed by an extensive tract of alluvial soil, secured
with a strong dike. The waters of this tract are dis-
charged in part byla canal crossing the lower part of the
town, and terminated by a sluice in the dike. The
streets are paved with rounded stones, among which I
saw several kinds of granite, mostly red, but some grey,
red and greenish porphyry, and wackes of different
colours; I saw likewise blocks of the same species
along the houses, to keep off the wheels of the car-
riages; and on inquiring whence these stones came,
I was told that they were found in the sand of the
neighbouring hills.
824. Advantage has been taken of the large allu-
vial island surrounded with dikes, immediately in
front of Torgau, to form here a permanent passage
across the Elbe. From the town to the island there
is a bridge, which is supported by stone piles in the
part nearest to the main land, and is covered with a
roof of boards. Another bridge passes from the
island to the opposite bank; and the branch of the
stream which it crosses is called the Old Elbe, pro-
bably as being on the side where the principal cur-
rent of the river formerly lay; but this branch
having been contracted by the extension of the
island, and of the alluvial grounds on the right
bank, the chief current, which is also the straitest,
is now on the side next Torgau. Several other
streams had been formed beyond that of the Old
Elbe,
353
Elbe, but they have been choaked up since the prin-
cipal current was thus changed; the mouths of these
may still be seen near the villages of Zeta and
Rosenfeld; but the rest of their bed is filled up.
825. The bridge being of considerable height on
the side next Torgau, it commands a view of a vast
tract of low grounds along the course of the Elbe ;
some of them are enclosed with dikes, and others,
which are merely levelled by the river, extend, on
the land side, to hills at different distances. Over
all this tract the Elbe formerly spread itself, lower-
ing the highest parts, while it elevated the lowest
with the materials of the former, and with the
muddy particles brought down by its waters during
innndations. Having had this prospect of a great
part of the country through which I was to pass
the following day, I was aware that I should lose -
nothing essential if confined by bad weather to the
cabin of my boat; I therefore resolved to embark
the next morning, and proceed by water to Witten-
berg, as I had originally intended; because, the
distance being only four miles, I hoped to be able to
reach that place in the course of the day, even
though the wind should still continue unfavourable.
Oct. 6th. I embarked at Torgau at seven in the
morning, passing at first. between the alluvial soils
adjoining to the town, and the large alluvial island.
Along all the shores, I saw only osiers and reeds ;;
but farther inland I descried some large oaks and
A a
VOL. II.
poplars,
354
poplars, which indicated grounds merely levelled by
the river. I remarked that in the parts where the
stream had a tendency to bear against either side,
stakes had been planted in front of the osiers, the
branches of which had been interwoven between
them; and the water, during the inundation of the
river, being calm behind these stakes, its mud was
deposited there, and thus, in time, a real dike was
raised. I saw likewise that, wherever a beach had
been formed on the side opposite to any of these al-
luvial grounds, longitudinal channels had been cut
in it, for the purpose either of taking out gravel for
various uses, or of determining a part of the river
to take that course in its inundations, in order that,
its stream being thus diminished, it might less for-
cibly attack the dikes.
A
826. There being no other considerable stream
within a great distance of the point where the Elbe
enters these vast plains, it has been found necessary
to employ this river in grinding corn for the neigh-
bouring inhabitants. The mills are constructed on
two boats strongly fastened together, between which
the wheel is fixed; so that it is always at the same
level relatively with the surface of the water, whether
the latter riscs or falls; and as these mills are placed
in parts where the current passes near high grounds,
the boats are moored to the shore with strong chains
on the side against which the current bears; and in
order to retain them on its course, they are fastened
to poles planted in the bed of the stream: thus the
4
wheel
-
955
wheel is turned by the current; but if the latter,
when greatly swelled, becomes too violent, the boats
are loosed, and the current itself carries them to the
shore, where they enter a recess made for that pur-
pose.
картин
&
827. About ten o'clock, the contrary wind be-
came so violent, that it was impossible to row against
it; so that we were obliged to go on shore, near a
gravelly strand on the right bank. I would not at
first have my chaise taken out of the boat, because
the boatmen thought that the wind might change at
noon; and besides, no horses were here to be had,
without going to some distance to obtain them from
the farmers; but I landed myself, and began to
stroll over the neighbouring grounds. I found here
a great extent of horizontal land, open, and entirely
uncultivated. This land was covered with grass,
except in the parts over which it might plainly be
seen that the Elbe still spread whenever it over-
+flowed; and there, in some furrows made by the
stream, I could see that the soil consisted only of
sand mixed with gravel. That this river formerly
spread much farther inland during its inundations,
may be judged from the great extent of the ground
that it has levelled; and I shall presently describe a
tract which, though formerly attained by it, is now
no longer within its reach, and which shows very
.evidently that the stream, by excavating and straiten-
ing its bed, has lowered its level about 10 feet. In
the part where I had now landed, the soil was
A a ?
chiefly
་
356
chiefly planted with wild pear-trees, and with a few
oaks and beeches; nearer the river, there were only
a few bushes interspersed among the grass, which
served for pasturage; and in the lower parts, where
the Elbe had deposited its muddy sediments, there
were meadows.
828. Here is seen an example of what has every
where taken place on the low grounds which lie near
the course originally followed by large rivers, and
which at first were within the reach of those streams,
though the latter, having sunk their channels to a
greater depth, have now ceased to spread so far: it
is only in the lowest parts of these grounds that any
muddy sediments have been deposited; for where
the soils are gravelly, as is the case here, the waters,
instead of enriching in this manner the higher parts,
have, on the contrary, washed away from them the
earthy particles mixed with the gravel, leaving no-
thing behind but the sand spread over the surface by
the last inundations which extended so far. It is on
this stratum of sand that vegetation has here taken
place; the trees grow in it very well, and the grass
beneath them serves for pasturage: a large herd of
cattle was at this time feeding here, and goats were
browzing among the bushes. It is owing to these
bushes, that the surface of the ground is not per-
fectly level; because, during extraordinary floods,
the sand is deposited betwixt their branches, and a
small hillock is thus gradually raised around each
bush. I could easily judge how far the inundation
of
357
of the preceding winter had extended here, because,
a great way within this wood, I saw a quantity of
fluviatic muscles scattered on the ground, and still
quite fresh.
829. But the following circumstance will directly
shew that an absolute depression of the level of the
Elbe has taken place within the course of a few cen-
turies. The horizontal zone above described is
bounded by lands insensibly rising to the foot of the
neighbouring hills, and extending on both sides as
far as the eye can reach. Now on the line where
these lands begin to rise, I saw the remains of dikes
which had formerly served to secure against inunda-
tions a zone as horizontal as that bordering the river,
but at a level a little above it. These dikes having
now become useless, because the stream, when
most swelled, no longer rises to this height, they
have been cut through in several places, to open
communications between the arable lands on the
highest zone, and the meadows on the lowest,
830. On my return to the boat, the boatmen told
me that there was no chance of our being able to
proceed any farther down the river this day, but that
the wind was exactly favourable for their return to
Tetschen with their sail; they therefore proposed to
land my chaise, and to borrow horses for it at the
village of Treben, which stood at a little distance on
the higher ground, that I might continue my journey
to Wittenberg by land. I could not have refused to
comply
i
358
comply with this proposal, unless I liad chosen to
reumain in the boat till the wind should change; but
indeed I was glad of the alteration in my mode of
travelling; because I judged that, from the river, I
should see nothing but a continuation of the same
low grounds, and that it would therefore be better
worth my while to observe the interior part of tlie
country. Whilst one of the boatinen was gone in
quest of horses, and the other was bringing my
chaise on shore, with the assistance of some people
belonging to a boat which had been stopped there
like our own, I employed myself in collecting the
various kinds of gravel here scattered on the shore
of the Elbe; this was the same gravel which I had
already observed to belong to the soil of the higher
grounds and the arable lands at their foot; but
on the banks of the river, where it had been
washed quite clean, and was now wet, its colours
were so brilliant, and consequently so distinct,
that I could scarcely pick up a sufficient quan-
tity of it to be satisfied that I had taken spe-
cimens of every kind. I found here a great variety
of species of every class of stones, granite, for-
phyry, micaceous schistus, gneiss, hornblende, white
quarts, and granulated quarts, all evidently pro-
ceeding from the soil through which the Elbe has
cleared its course, and which extends over the neigh-
bouring hills; I even met with some flints here,
though, throughout all these countries, there are not
the slightest vestiges of any chalky strata.
1
Now
thris
359
this part of the course of the Elbe is only an ex-
ample of what may be found along all the rivers
which flow in plains; evidently proving that streams
transport nothing from high grounds to the sea,
except such minute particles as float in running
waters.
831. My chaise was ready for me by half past
one; but the farmer, from whom the horses were
obtained, would not allow me to take them any far-
ther than Brettin, where he assured me that I should
find others with which I might proceed to Witten-
berg; but he was mistaken: I reached Brettin at
three o'clock, and no horses were to be had at that
place till the next morning; so that I was obliged to
spend the remainder of the day there, and all that I
could do was to employ in observations as much
time as the rain, which again came on, would
permit.
832. In my road to Brettin, I first crossed all the
horizontal soils planted with trees, and ascended the
heights at a greater distance from the Elbe; then
proceeding in the direction of the river, I came
down into a spacious tract which consisted of
meadows of mowing grass, intersected with ridges
of higher ground affording only pasturage. This
tract is in no part secured with dikes, and it does
not appear to differ from the low space over which
I had previously passed, in any other respect, than
that, while most of the surface of the latter is above
i
the
360
the inundations of the Elbe, here no parts had been
originally at that height except these ridges; but
their intervals are now so much filled up with the
sediments of the water, as to be above its level at
all times except during extraordinary swells of the
river, which even then cannot pass over this tract
with rapidity, because of the ridges.
833. Having afterwards crossed a space very
low, but not enclosed, I came to a dike which begins
from the river side, and advances inland a conside-
rable way, enclosing laterally an alluvial soil that
extends to a great distance down the Elbe; above
this dike, the stream has been left at liberty to
spread the rain-waters descending from the heights
are received in a canal following the dike, which is
continued along the alluvial soil on the land side;
this soil chiefly belongs to Brettin, a large village
situated in that part of it which lies at the greatest
distance from the river. Here the richness of these
grounds is shewn by a long double row of handsome
barns, wherein are laid up the hay and the corn
produced by a particular tract which I shall pre-
sently mention. To arrive at the village, I passed
over the lateral dike. In front of the barns, there is
a pavement composed of very large stones of all the
species which are found in the sand of the neigh-
bouring hills; it rained when I reached this place,
so that I could not, for some time, go to walk on the
outer side of the dikes; but, in the mean while,
some amends were made to mc by the beauty of
miany
361
many of the masses of granite and porphyry, to
which the water that covered them served as a kind
of varnish.
834. The rain ceasing for a short time, I took
advantage of the interval to pass beyond the dike
which borders this alluvial tract on the land side.
The hills here are not very high; but, on ascend-
ing them, I had a view of the whole of this vast
space, entirely surrounded with dikes, which are all
bordered with canals, as well as the higher one, for
the purpose of receiving the water from the interior
part of the country: a part of this water is led to
the river by the canal left open to it along the lateral
dike, over which I had passed to enter these
grounds; but the greater part is carried across the
alluvial soil by canals bordered with dikes that in-
ternally divide it, to openings in the dike nearest to
the river, which may ascend into all these canals when
the sluices are open: the rain-waters falling in this
enclosed space are also carried by the same channels
into the Elbe. The low horizontal lands, over
which, as I have said, the river passed at a former
period, here extend behind the dikes; and this,
though it consists of sand, is the tract mentioned in
the preceding paragraph as so abundant in its pro-
ducts; its fertility being occasioned by the quantity
of manure, which is supplied by the cattle fed in
the meadows, and is carried a considerable way
over those higher parts that would either be planted
with trees, or would supply only pasturage, if their
situation
}
362
F
situation were not attended with this advantage. I
had not proceeded far on these high soils, when the
rain came on again with great violence, and obliged
me to return to the village.
Oct. 7th. I set out from Brettin at half past
five in the morning, with the intention of reaching
Belitz in the evening, that I might thus be able to
arrive at Berlin early the next day; but unluckily
no horses were to be obtained except those of the
farmers, which were all now employed in ploughing;
and were so bad, that I was obliged several times
to change them on the road, sending to villages at
a considerable distance in search of fresh ones,
which proved no better than those that I left behind,
in the charge of some countryman, till the driver
should return to take them back to their owners;
and thus, though it was only three miles to Witten-
berg, I did not arrive there till three o'clock.
835. On setting out from Brettin, after having
crossed the horizontal soils on the outer side of the
dike, and travelled some way on higher ground, I
turned to the left, and proceeding in a direction pa-
rallel to the course of the Elbe, I came first to
some other soils nearly horizontal, which were tole-
rably fertile, and were interspersed with meadows.
At Jessen, I crossed the Schwartze-Elster, (or Black
Elster,) a stream flowing to join the Elbe, and dis-
tinguished by this name on account of the dark
colour imparted to it by a peat-moss from which it
issues:
363
issues: having, however, taken up some of its water
in a glass from a part where it looked the darkest,
I found it perfectly limpid, notwithstanding the rain
of the preceding day. I saw no blocks on these
soils; yet there were some in the villages, whither
they had undoubtedly been brought from higher
grounds. The lands become lower towards the vil
lage of Elster; but though they are cultivated and
tolerably fertile, yet, as they belong to the tract
over which the Elbe has not spread since it has been
reduced to its present level, they are not enclosed
with dikes on the opposite bank there are similar
lands, some forming meadows, and some planted
with trees. During extraordinary inundations, these
grounds must be overflowed; yet I saw on them a
few hamlets, probably in parts a little above the
level of the rest. Near Elster, the Elbe has a ten-
dency to attack and abrade its bank; and the soil
being gravelly, a beach is formed at the foot of the
bank, in the parts where the grazel is pure: in this
beach I saw the same kinds of gravel as in the
neighbouring fields, which are however very fertile;
as it is there mixed with a great deal of earth.
JA
836. It was near one o'clock before I could set out
from Elster for Wittenberg, where I arrived at
three. I followed, for a long time, the course of
the Elbe, here forming a large cove, beyond which
begins, on this side of the river, a very extensive
tract of alluvial soils bordered with dikes; these
soils, now covered with meadows and planted with
naks,
}
364
oaks, must evidently have been added to the original
low grounds of this bank, since the time when the
latter were levelled by the inundations of the river;
for the line of their junction may be traced by the
small cliffs which here and there remain to mark it.
The higher grounds are in tillage; but they are
very inferior in fertility to this tract of later forma-
tion: their grassy surface appeared to me to consist
of peat; and the only trees on them are some wil-
lows, which have been planted on their border along
the sides of the alluvial meadows. Wherever I ap-
proached this border, I found nearly the same dif-
ference as at Elster between the level of these
grounds, and that of the alluvial soil, to which, in
several places, they descend in a grassy slope.
The inhabitants have taken advantage of this decli-
vity, by constructing mills at the lower extremity
of the course of some brooks, which at first flowed
directly to the Elbe; the water, from the part
where its level is the highest, is led to these mills
by wooden troughs; and after it has thus passed
over their wheels, it crosses the alluvial soil between
two dikes, and falls into the Elbe by sluices in that
bordering the river. As I proceeded along its right
bank, I found the alluvial grounds terminate a little
above Wittenberg, where the soil of this bank being
sandy, it is reduced, by the river beating against
it, into a cliff; and the stones that have crumbled
down have formed a wide beach, over which lies the
road to the town. In this cliff I saw projecting
several blocks, chiefly of granite, and at its foot
were
365
were accumulated many others that had fallen from
it: I afterwards saw great numbers of them along
the streets at Wittenberg.
837. At three quarters after seven, I set out from
this place for Treuenbrietzen, three miles distant,
where I arrived at nine o'clock at night. Immedi-
ately on quitting Wittenberg, I came upon a cause-
way raised above the level of the meadows, across
which a brook flows to join the Elbe, and which
are consequently inundated, like those of that river,
whenever it overflows. This causeway is bordered
with blocks, brought undoubtedly, as well as those
placed along the houses at this end of the town,
from the large cultivated slope of a hill which I af-
terwards ascended; for I saw none left on this slope
near the road, though vast quantities were scattered
on the summit of the hill, which is a heath inter-
spersed with woods of pines and birches, and with
spaces where the sand is perfectly loose. The cul-
tivated parts of this hill exhibit very little fertility,
and some spots are so much covered with blocks,
that it has not been thought worth while to clear
them for the sake of obtaining only a scanty pro-
duct. Above the heath I saw rising some blocks of
granite, which were from 7 to 10 feet in length,
and of which, perhaps, the larger part was buried
in the ground. I then came to one of the spaces
where there were no blocks; but after having passed
an inflexion of the soil, I again met with those
masses in great abundance. These alternations of
spaces
366
*7#1
A
spaces in which there were such quantities of blocks,
and of others where there were few or none, were
repeated till I reached the half-way house, where
my driver stopped to feed his horses. Here the
night closed in, as it had done at my arrival at this
very place, on my way from Berlin, at the be-
ginning of my present journey; it thus happened
that I observed the whole road, though at different
times; and over that part of it which I had seen
before, I now travelled in the dark. From Treuen-
brietsen, I set out at 10 o'clok for Belite, at the
distance of two miles.
Oct. 8th. I reached Belits at three quarters
after two in the morning; and an hour afterwards I
set out for Potsdam, two miles distant.
A
k
>
838. In my account of the former part of this
journey, I have mentioned a remarkable kind of
stone with which the road from Potsdam to Berlin
is gravelled as far as the half-way house, two miles
distant from the former place; but I shall hore
describe it more particularly, because of a consider-
ation which has been presented by M. de Saussure,
§ 1101 of his Voyages dans les Alpes, and to whịch
I have already had occasion to refer in my Travels,
in England.
K
839, In this passage, M. de Saussure introduces
a mineralogist studying the phenomena of the
country which lies between the Jura and the Alps,
and
-367
and particularly observing the masses of primordial
stones scattered over the surface of this tract; after-
wards, speaking of the western bank of the Lake of
Geneva, he thus continues: "He will behold with
some interest large blocks of these débris dispersed
"here and there on the borders of the lake; for
"example, between Allamand and Rolle. There
were formerly very fine ones along the high road;
"but they have been almost all destroyed, either
"for the purpose of mending that road, or for
<<
building. It was very natural that such uses
"should be made of them; but for me, I cannot
see, without a lively regret, the destruction of
such precious monuments of the great revolution
to which the surface of our globe is indebted for
"its present state. For if this destruction conti-
((
"C
nues to make such progress as I have seen during
"the last twenty-five years; if the enclosure of
"lands and the construction of buildings go on in-
creasing in the same proportion; it is probable
"that, in the course of two or three centuries, few
66 or none of these monuments will be left in our
40
CC
6c
IC
(6
"6
country. This consideration combines with many
"others in proving the truth of an opinion, which
"I have elsewhere already hinted; that although
the mountains, especially the primitive, appear
1
८८
to be of such an antiquity as alarms the imagi-
"nation, yet the actual state of the surface of our
"land, its population, its culture, are comparatively
" of an almost recent date."
T
66
$40. When
1
368
I
840. When I cited this passage in my Travels in
England, it was with reference to a tract of country.
in which M. de Saussure's prediction has been com-
pletely fulfilled, and that within a much shorter
period of time than will be the case in the neighbour-
hood of Geneva. On my arrival in England, near
40 years ago, happening to go the first year to
Bath, I saw the hills near Marlborough in Vilt-
shire covered with large blocks of granulated quartz.
This was a very remarkable monument of the nature
of the great revolutions to which the surface of our
globe is indebted for its present state. It was a
phenomenon proceeding from the same cause as the
dispersion of the blocks in the neighbourhood of
Geneva; but the latter blocks consist of the same
genera of stones which compose the central chain
of the Alps; and hence M. de Saussure had sup-
posed them to have been brought down from those
mountains by what he called the debacle, that is to
say, the retreat of the sea from our continents. He
had however remarked one circumstance, which, if
he had extended his observations farther, would pro-
bably have induced him to change his opinion: this
circumstance was, that, among the blocks scattered
around the Alps, and even in the vallies of that
chain, some are of stones not known to exist in
strata in any part of the chain itself. But he could
not have fallen into the same error with respect to
the phenomenon of Marlborough downs, which
concurs with many others described in the course of
the present Travels in proving, beyond all possiblity
of
369
of doubt, that the masses of stones scattered over
our continents have not migrated on their surface
from any place whatever. The blocks of granulated
quartz which I observed on those downs in such
great abundance, soon after my arrival in this
country, were not only scattered on hills composed
of chalky strata, but no stratum of their own kind
is known to exist throughout the whole of the
southern part of England; thus no cause acting
superficially could have conveyed them thither.
But, that I may return to M. de Saussure's remark;
having passed very frequently, in the course of 30
years, over the hills near Marlborough, I saw the
blocks there gradually diminish in quantity, till at
last, in consequence of the extension of agriculture,
and the uses made of their fragments in the con-
struction of walls and pavements, and the gravelling
of the road, they rapidly and entirely disappeared.
841. It will require a longer time to produce the
same effect with respect to the blocks in the
neighbourhood of Potsdam. Within the space of
two miles from that place, on the road leading to
Berlin, I passed over two ridges of hills strewed
with these blocks, which extend into Brandenburg;
but I have never found them anywhere else, nor
have I seen stratu of the same species in any moun-
tain. This stone, as I have already said, is ex-
tremely remarkable, being composed of very black
hornblende, and feldspar of a most lively red; and
these colours are everywhere in contact with each
Bb
C
VOL. II.
other,
370
other, not being separated by any intermediate
shades. The blocks are laid along the sides of the
read, which, very much frequented by carriages,
because the King has a palace at Potsdam, is con-
stantly requiring to be repaired with fresh fragments
of this stone. To this tract, therefore, M. de
Saussure's remark respecting the space which he had
observed near the Lake of Geneva may exactly be
applied; since it is very probable that, in the course
of two or three centuries, none of these blocks will
be left upon the hills near Potsdam; and, as they
are scattered over so limited a space, they may even,
within that period, be all cleared away and for-
gotten.
842. I was indebted to a favourable circumstance
for seeing these stones to the greatest advantage.
The blocks having been split on the hills, in order
to render the carriage more easy, large fragments
lay in heaps on the sides of the road, ready to be
broken small when it required mending; and the
fine colours of these had been brought out by a
heavy shower which had just fallen. I never ob-
served so beautiful an assemblage of stones in any
other spot, except near the Lizard-point, where, as I
have related in my Travels in England, I saw to the
same advantage, after rain, the serpentine of that
cape, with its spots of red, black, and green, not
merely in the blocks and fragments scattered over
the adjacent grounds, but in the large pyramids
rising on the coast, which cxhibited these colours
in all their brilliancy.
843. All
371
843. All the blocks of these Potsdam hills pre-
sent the same association of very black hornblende,
and feldspar of a lively red; but there is much
variety in the relative proportions and distribution
of these substances. In some of the masses, the
ground was black, with large red spots; in others,
the spots were black and the ground red. A great
many pieces were speckled with red on a black
ground, and others with black on a red ground; the
spots in all differing very much both in form and
in arrangement; there were even some masses in
which the red and the black formed distinct stripes,
alternating with each other, as if in strata. In
short, the skins of the leopard and the zebra are
not more admirable, with respect to either the dis-
position or the beauty of their colours. It would
be worth while to saw off and polish specimens of
all these varieties, and to lay them up in some public
cabinet; for, as I have already said, their source,
in time, will certainly be exhausted.
844. I arrived at Berlin at 11 in the morning,
having employed 30 days in this journey, upon
which I had set out on the eighth of September,
1799. I continued for some time after this to reside
at Berlin, and subsequently at Brunswick ; till in July,
1804, I undertook the Travels which have been
already published, passing that year along some
parts of the coast of the Baltic and of the North
Sea, and employing the following years in various
excursions in England.
CON-
Bb2
372
CONCLUSION.
SUCH and so numerous are the monuments
of every kind, belonging to the History of the Earth,
which I have observed in my various Travels; and I
was already in possession of this abundance of ma-
terials, never before collected under one point of
view, when I wrote and published my Elementary
Treatise of Geology, engaging myself to establish
on indubitable facts all the propositions contained
in that work. Of all sciences founded on facts,
geology comprizes within it the greatest number of
classes, which are all required to concur in its con-
clusions; and since it has been directed to the elu-
cidation of the history of the past ages of the
Earth, and consequently of that of its inhabitants,
it has become of the highest importance to the
whole human race.
This science having sprung up precisely at the
time when I was engaged in my earliest studies, it
greatly attracted my attention, and I soon became
fully sensible of its importance. Hence I was led
to a careful examination of the systems already in
general
373
general circulation; and on considering their foun-
dations, I was not slow to perceive, from my ac-
quaintance with the mountains in the neighbourhood
of which I then resided, that these systems were
premature, a sufficient number of facts not having
been as yet collected to admit of the deduction of
solid conclusions; and I therefore resolved that I
would myself undertake a course of regular obser-
vations. Accordingly I have had this object con-
stantly in view, in the whole series of my Travels
from the year 1754, beginning with my excursions
among the mountains, when I was engaged in ex-
periments on the measurement of heights by the
Barometer, and on the heat of boiling water at dif-
ferent levels; and it may appear how much time
and labour I have employed, both in studying ter-
restrial phenomena at various elevations, and in dif-
ferent parts of our continent very remote from each
other, and in following the progress of physical
causes, as well general as particular.
It was not till after I had collected so great a
multiplicity of facts belonging to every class essen-
tial to my object, that I wrote the fundamental
work to which I have just referred: in a work of
that nature, it would have been impossible to intro-
duce these facts with all their circumstances: for
they were by far too numerous, and such great in-
tervals would thus have been interposed between
the different conclusions, as would have rendered
it impossible for the memory to retain the points of
connexion
W
374
connexion between them. I therefore generalized
the facts belonging to each class, in order to deduce
from them the necessary conclusions; leaving it to
my Travels, which I reserved for subsequent pub-
lication, to shew the accuracy of these generaliza-
tions, by precise descriptions of a vast abundance
of particular facts of every class.
It has required much time, in the midst of my
other occupations, to arrange and publish these nu-
merous observations, together with all my experi-
ments on the actions of physical causes; which is
the reason that this undertaking has not been sooner
completed. But now, all who are desirous to pre-
vent the introduction of error into a science, so in-
teresting to the whole human race, will comprehend
that it would be as contrary to every principle of
philosophy, on one side, to refuse to admit these
conclusions, without pointing out errors either in the
detailed descriptions of the phenomena, or in the
deductions drawn from those descriptions, as, on
the other, to oppose them merely by bringing for-
ward other systems, not established by facts col-
lected in a similar manner: a task which I have
already shewn that those who have published such
systems have been very far from executing, I shall
therefore briefly state the principal propositions
which result from this great assemblage of facts, in
order that my readers may have a clear view of the
whole.
Ma
I. Most
375
I. Most of the errors which have been intro-
duced into geology, and which, subverting each
other in their rapid succession, have thus led to a
persuasion that there is no solidity in this science,
proceed from the neglect of such a study of ter-
restrial phenomena as might enable men to discern
and distinguish two separate periods in the History
of the Earth, one prior, the other posterior, to the
birth of our continents.
II. These two periods have been determined by
the discovery, now generally admitted, that the part
of the globe which at present is inhabited by man,
was once the bed of the sea; for the first period
must evidently have been that of the continuance of
the globe in this first state; and the second must
have begun at the epoch when the bed of the ancient
sea became dry land. This, I say, is a point on
which there is no longer any controversy. But the
earliest geologists who acknowledged these facts
imagined several slow causes of a gradual retreat
of the sea from its original bed. It was only, how-
ever, before the study of terrestrial phenomena had
been carried to a sufficient length, that such an idea
could have been conceived; for continued observa-
tions have shewn all these slow causes to be de-
void of reality; as I proved, in my first work, by
comparing them with facts; and all geologists of
any distinction now consider it as a point which has
been demonstrated, that the birth of our continents
was
376
was occasioned by some sudden revolution of the
globe.
III. But the want of discriminating between the
two periods above determined, and between the phe-
nomena separately assignable to each, has proved
the source of their errors, It has been supposed
that our continents, since they have existed as such,
have been the theatre of certain operations, which,
however, are now demonstrated to have taken place
on the bed of the sea; and as this mistake has ren-
dered it impossible to attribute these operations to
any other causes than those known to be at present
acting on the surface of the globe, (though the pre-
cise manner in which they act, and what effect they
have really produced, have never been considered,)
it has hence been found necessary to allow to the
action of these causes a time without any deter-
minable limit; because it cannot be shewn that,
within a known period, they have produced any si-
milar effect. Of this I shall not adduce any other
example, than that of the supposed excavation of
vallies by the action of running waters; an ope-
ration which would require a time absolutely illi-
mitable, since no actual progress in it can possibly
be pointed out.
C
IV. In the very first of my geological works, I
refuted all these systems of slow operations on our
continents, no only collectively, but each in par-
ticular
377
ticular with respect to its distinctive points, by a
multiplicity of phenomena, which afford demon-
strative proofs that our continents are of very small
antiquity. De Dolomieu and de Saussure. both
so highly distinguished as attentive observers of
nature, not only acquiesced in the proofs which I
adduced of this very important circumstance in
the history of the earth, but supported them with
new ones resulting from their own observations; as
I have already shewn with regard to M. de Saussure.
I have always been at a loss to comprehend how
those who have since persisted in maintaining sys-
tems of such operations on our continents, as must
have required an incalculable time, have found it
possible to preserve a strict silence respecting these
proofs of their error, though an error which involves
within it the whole science of geology: I can only
suppose that their prejudices have diverted their at-
tention from these proofs, because I had contented
myself with stating them under the form of general
facts; which I did under the expectation, that, as
it was every where easy to verify them, the atten-
tion of others would be excited by this object;
which has not yet been the case. However I have
now, in my various Travels, demonstrated the ex-
actness of these generalizations, by such an accu-
mulation of facts of all genera and species, that it
will be no longer possible to pass them over in
silence. I shall therefore proceed to shew the na-
ture of these facts, and the geological consequences
which result from them.
嗑
​V. The
378
1
S
V. The causes which are now acting on the sur-
face and on the borders of our continents are all
known, and the following are the circumstances
common to their action. In the first place, it is easy
to distinguish the points where their operation com-
menced, on certain parts of the continents; and
hence we are enabled to determine the state of these
parts, when they were abandoned by the sea, which
is the leading epoch in their history. Now, in many
cases, it is possible to measure the progress of the
effects of these causes, as well in totality, as within
known times; and thus, from the variety of the
causes, we are furnished with all that multiplicity
of chronometers, absolutely distinct, and independ-
ent of each other, which I have so particularly de-
scribed in the course of my Travels, and which all
concur in demonstrating the recent origin of our
continents.
VI. The same course of investigation leads to
another object, which is likewise of great import-
ance in geology. Having thus ascended to the
points where commenced the action of continental
causes, that is to say, (of those causes which have
acted on our continents since their birth,) we here
discover what must have been produced by those
different causes, which had been antecedently in
action on the bed of the ancient sea; and the prin-
cipal effects of the latter causes may be charac-
terized as follows. The first was the production of
strata successively differing in genera and species,
all
379
all of which, from the nature of their composition,
must have been formed in a continuous manner, over
large spaces, and in a situation nearly horizontal.
This, I say, was evidently the first effect; but
afterwards, from what we now observe, these strata
were divided by fractures into masses which be-
came ridges of mountains, having undergone such
great angular movements, that vallies were necessa-
rily produced in their intervals. After so many
descriptions as I have given in my Travels, I need
not hesitate to assert that an attentive observation
will evidently shew the impossibility of the produc-
tion of vallies any otherwise than by this operation,
which must have taken place before the birth of our
continents; for it may be seen, in all vallies, that
the only effects of running waters and of gravity
have been to attack their projections, raising, at the
same time, the lower parts of these original cavities
of the continents, by the materials which the waters
have detached from their borders and deposited on
their bottom. The establishment of this point is so
essential, that I have not been afraid of too greatly
multiplying the proofs of it, by descriptions of
vallies and of the effects of running waters at every
height, among mountains, between hills, and in
plains, throughout a great variety of countries.
Hence those who may still think it proper to main-
tain that running waters have excavated vallies will
no longer have any excuse for forbearing to meet
these facts with something of the shape of argu-
ment;
P
380
ment; whereas they have hitherto opposed them no
otherwise than by silence.
VII. We know then in what the observable mass
of our continents consists; that is to say, in struta,
the greater part solid, and the rest soft, which differ
successively in genera and species, and which bear
certain characters of having been originally depo-
sited in a situation nearly horizontal, over large
tracts of the bottom of the sea. The first question
which now presents itself is the following: whence
have proceeded the substances successively contri-
buting to the formation of these strata? For that
they must have proceeded from some part of the
globe in which they had previously existed is very
evident. With respect to this question there are
only two systems; and I shall incntion in the first
place that of Dr. Hutton and some other geologists;
that these substances were formerly borne along by
the rivers of ancient continents, (which continents,
by the continuance of this operation, were finally
destroyed,) and were spread over the bottom of the
ancient sea by the motion of its waters. In refu-
tation of this opinion I have assigned a peremptory
reason. The mud transported to the sea by rivers
is composed of mingled particles of all the sub-
stances which those streams have detached in their
course now there does not exist in the sea any
imaginable cause capable of separating these sub-
stances, and keeping them apart from each other,
until
A
381
until formed into masses of distinct strata; as, for
example, the various species of schisti to a great
thickness: then, immediately on these, strata of
lime-stone, in some places not less than 5000 feet
thick, as is to be seen in their abrupt sections; and
on these again, without any steps of transition,
strata of sand-stone, also to a great thickness; with-
out reckoning many other strata of very distinct
kinds, which are intermixed with the latter. How
could these substances have been sorted, and sepa-
rately deposited one species on another, upon the
bottom of the sea? Such a supposition is nothing
less than impossible.
VIII. There remains therefore only the system
which has been adopted by the geologists most dis-
tinguished by their accurate investigation of natural
phenomena; I mean that of chemical precipitations,
successively different, in a liquid originally covering
the whole globe, in which the elements of the mi-
neral strata and of the fluids that compose the
atmosphere were held in a state of reciprocal dis-
solution, and of which the liquid of our present sea
is the residuum. This is the system that I have
adopted from de Saussure and de Dolomieu; for
it is perfectly conformable to the general laws of
chemistry, and, with the addition of another cause,
it affords a complete explanation of all the phenomena
of our mineral strata and of the atmosphere. Of
this other cause I shall presently speak, after having
remarked that the above is the only road by which
we
382
we can ascend to the succession of physical events
that were brought to pass on our globe by causes
now no longer existing, and in which we cannot
go astray, provided that we correctly ascertain every
circumstance in the facts whereon we build, and
that we confine ourselves to strictly logical con-
clusions.
IX. The additional cause, to which I have just
alluded, will now lead me to another question ne-
cessarily involved in this deduction from terrestrial
phenomena. Since all the substances which com-
pose our mineral strata and the atmosphere were
originally held in dissolution by each other in the
same liquid, no change could have taken place in
this liquid, unless certain new ingredients had com-
bined with some of those already contained in it to
form solid molecules, successively differing in species,
which, separating from the rest of the liquid, had
sunk, and accumulated at the bottom; while, during
this operation, other ingredients, combining under
the form of expansible fluids, had ascended to com-
pose the atmosphere. For this is the manner in
which all chemical precipitations are immediately pro-
duced. Now whence did these new ingredients pro-
ceed? Dr. Hutton, who supposed that our strata
had been formed of the substances transported to
the sea by rivers, did not concern himself with this
question; but, on observing what a mixture of sub-
stances rivers carry to the sea, the impossibility
that any imaginable cause could have separated
these
383
these materials, and thus produced strata absolutely
distinct, laid one on another, as is the case with those
which everywhere compose the mass of our conti-
nents, becomes so evident, as absolutely to enforce
acquiescence in the hypothesis of their formation by
chemical precipitations. The above question must
then necessarily present itself: What was the source
of these new substances, by the introduction of
which were produced, in the same liquid, these suc-
cessively different precipitations?
X. We are here obliged to enter into a wider
field of facts; for, as all terrestrial phenomena are
connected with each other by some common causes,
it is impossible to determine the cause of any one
of them with certainty, without taking into consi-
deration all the others which can possibly have any
relation to it. Some step is wanting to enable us
to ascend, from the general conclusion that our
struta have been produced by chemical precipita-
tions in a liquid, to the cause of these precipitations,
which must necessarily have been the introduction
of new substances into the liquid; and we shall find
this cause by the solution of another question: since
our mineral strata were certainly formed on the
bottom of the sea, in what manner were they
abandoned by its waters, and reduced to their
present state?
XI. There are only two possible causes of this
change on our globe; either the retreat of the sea
8
from.
1
384
from its ancient bed, which thus became our conti-
nents, or the elevation of these continents above its
level. Dr. Hutton determined in favour of the last
of the propositions of this dilemma; in which
respect he adopted the system of LAZARO MORO,
without paying any attention to the peremptory ar-
gument already brought in refutation of it in my
Lettres sur l'Histoire de la Terre & de l'Homme;
an argument which I shall here repeat. The cause
assigned to this elevation is the sudden action of a
great internal heat. But heat can occasion in solids
only an inconsiderable expansion, when acting on
them alone; in order to raise them, therefore, that
is to say, to effect their separation from the base ou
which they rest, heat must produce, between this
base and the mass to be elevated, expansible fluids:
the latter, when they have acquired a great density,
may undoubtedly act very powerfully; but the solid
mass of the strata could not be raised in this man-
ner without being also broken; and Dr. Hutton
even adduced it as a proof of this elevation, that
our strata, in fact, are broken in innumerable places.
Now since it is only so long as expansible fluids are
confined within a space of which the sides oppose
resistance to them, that they can exercise their
action, their escape through these apertures, as it
would have reduced their density to that of the at-
mosphere, must have deprived them of all power
within. The vault then, completely shattered,
would have fallen down again on the base from
which it had been separated. My first geological
-
work
"
+
385
work having been written in French, it was perhaps
for that reason that Dr. Hutton was not struck with
this objection; but what surprizes me is that M.
Playfair, who, in my Letters to Dr. Hutton, pub-
lished in the Monthly Review, must have seen this
objection, (as well as that which relates to the
minute particles carried by rivers to the sea, con
sidered as the source of our mineral strata,) has re-
peated both these hypotheses, without taking any
notice of my arguments against them.
XII. All the phenomena of our mineral stratá
whereon these geologists found the system of cle-
vation, particularly the ruptures and angular move-
ments which these strata have undergone, would
equally have been effected by the subsidence of such
parts of the surface of our globe as are now at the
lowest level; so that these phenomena themselves
afford no indication of the manner in which they
were produced: it must certainly have been in one
or the other of these two ways; either by the ele-
vation of the parts now highest, or by the subsidence
of those now lowest; this, I say, is an absolute di-
lemma; but as both these causes would have occa-
sioned the same mechanical effects, that is to say.
fractures, and angular motions of the separated
masses, there is nothing in these immediate effects
that can determine to which of the two they should
be assigned. We must therefore inquire, in the
first place, whether there may not be some reason
for the exclusion of one of these causes; and then
---
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VOL. II.
procced
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386
7
proceed to examine the other by a comparison
with the phenomena which ought to be referable
to it.
XIII. I have already shewn a peremptory rea-
son for the exclusion of the hypothesis of elevation;
namely, that, after the rushing out of the expansible
fluids by the effort of which it is supposed to have
been effected, the broken masses would have fallen
down again on the bottom of the caverns produced
by their separation from the base to which they had
originally been united.. Now as this hypothesis
has not even for its object the explanation of the
actual state of our strata, but was imagined prin-
cipally for the purpose of accounting for the erist-
ence of the continents above the level of the sea, it
must manifestly require that the fractures and dis-
locations, which are now observable in our strata,
should have been suffered by them during the very
elevation of these continents; whereas the impos-
sibility that any continents should have existed from
this cause has been proved by the preceding argu-
ment: they do, in fact, exist only from the subsi-
dence of a part of the surface of the globe, and the
consequent retreat of the sea from its ancient bed,
which had already been the theatre of the catas-
trophes whereby our strata were reduced to their
present state. Now to this latter hypothesis it is
not possible to apply the same peremptory objec-
tion which I have adduced against that of elevation ;
namely, that the masses when elevated would have
fallen
1
387
45
fallen down again, and that thus no permanent
effect could have been produced; permanence being,
on the contrary, the necessary consequence of the
subsidence itself. In the former system, the eleva-
tion would have been attended with the formation
of caverns, over which the continents must have re-
mained suspended without any support; a thing
altogether impossible: in that of the subsidences,
(supposed to have been only partial,) the masses,
subsiding in caverns previously existing beneath
them, must, when they reached the bottom, have
remained there in a state of stability; except in the
case of some effects which have been produced on
our continents since their birth, and have contri-
buted to shew the cause of the state of our strata,
namely, new subsidences of some parts of their sur-
face, (of which I have given examples in the course
of my Travels;) while, at the same time, earth-
quakes are an indication of the vacancies still re-
maining between the masses which have subsided in
the caverns, and which it is evident must rest on
their bottom, because these shocks produce exter-
nally so little effect. This is an absolute difference,
totally excluding the system of elevation, but in no
respect contrary to that of partial subsidences.
S
XIV. But besides, the consequences of the latter
system supply us with direct arguments in its favour;
the first of these consequences is that it leads us to
the essential cause which was left in suspence above,
that of the introduction of new substances into the
primor-
CC 2
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I
primordial liquid, and of the consequent production
of precipitations successively differing from each
other; which I have shewn to be the only origin
that can be assigned to our mineral strata. My
present aim being only to give a summary view of
the great objects of geology, I cannot here enter
into the whole of my system with respect to this
point; but I have stated it fully in my Elementary
Treatise of Geology; so that nothing farther is at
present necessary than to explain briefly its funda-
mental points, and to indicate the direct proofs by
which, in that work, I have supported it.
XV. Our globe was originally composed of dis-
united particles, on which were formed, in the first
place, strata of granite, and others of the same
class. These strata, resting on a base so little
solid, underwent repeated fractures, and the liquid
that covered the globe passed through these aper-
tures into its interior parts, this causing the sub-
sidence of the particles, and producing the caverns,
which, by degrees, increased in extent, and became
deeper, till at last they occasioned the catastrophes
of the different classes of strata which had been
formed by successive precipitations in the liquid,
from the following cause.
XVI. The liquid, introducing itself among these
particles, and combining with them, formed expan-
sible fluids, which, ascending through the same frac-
tures of the strata, occasioned, in the exterior part
of
ANT
penel
1
389
of the liquid, precipitations, successively differing
in their nature, because the loss of the substances
which entered into the composition of certain classes
of strata effected changes in the liquid itself; and
these changes were attended with correspondent dif-
ferences in the expansible fluids formed by that
portion of it, which, at each new catastrophe, pe-
netrated into the interior part of the globe.
XVII. Another effect of this introduction of the
liquid among the interior particles was that of pro-
ducing the concretion of large masses, which formed
in the caverns a kind of partition-walls, and served
as props to the strata, till these masses themselves.
sunk, in consequence of the penetration of the
liquid beneath them. On this account, the later
catastrophes were much more considerable than the
earlier, which had been occasioned only by partial
caverns; and it was not until after the subsidence
of these concrete masses that stability was pro-
duced. In this manner an anterior continent was,
for a long time, supported, till at last, by its sudden
subsidence, as I have explained in my former works,
the bed of the sea was changed. Such is the gc-
neral progress of causes and effects whereby our
continents have been brought into their present
state; and I shall now give an equally concise view
of the phenomena which afford indubitable proofs
of this succession of events,
+
XVIII.
890
1
XVIII. The first immediate proof consists in the
changes which certain circumstances observed in our
strata shew to have taken place at sundry epochs
in the liquid of the sea, and in the atmosphere.
Within a certain period, was formed a class of
strata distinguished by the title of primordial, which
exhibit no trace of the existence of organized beings
on our globe, either in the sea or on the land.
Another class of strata, called secondary, was after-
wards produced, and in general, these strata were
very different in their nature from those which had
preceded them. It is in this new class of strata
that we find the remains of organized bodies, in the
first place, of marine animals, and above these, of
vegetables and terrestrial animals.
In the succes-
sion of these strata, we find successive changes in
the species of the organized bodies, following those
which I have already shewn to have taken place in
the water and the air. Nothing then, can more
exactly indicate the whole progress of the chemical
operations which I have traced above, and of which
I shall now explain the connexion with these new
facts.
L
XIX. While every catastrophe of the strata,
occasioned by subsidence, was attended with the
ascent of expansible fluids from the interior parts
of the globe, into the liquid where they produced
the precipitation of some of our mineral strata,
there were disengaged from the same liquid, other
fluids, which combined to form the atmosphere.
4
During
391
During the first period of these operations, neither
the liquid nor the atmosphere was in a state proper
for the existence of organized beings; afterwards,
when such things did exist, changes in those which
belonged to both the classes, marine and terrestrial,
were produced by corresponding changes in the two
elements, water and air; it being by the latter ele-
ment that terrestrial animals and vegetables were
effected. Such is the general connexion between
the formation of the strata, and the history of or-
ganized bodies on our globe; and a direct proof that
these two classes of changes, thus reciprocally de-
pendent on each other, originated in successive sub-
sidences of different parts of the bed of the sea, is
afforded by this circumstance; that all precipitations
in the marine liquid, and all perceptible changes in
organized creatures, have been terminated by the
great revolution, which changed the bed of the sea,
and thus brought the surface of our globe into its
present state of stability.
XX. It may now be understood by what motive
I have been led to extend my observations relative
to the masses of different kinds of stones scattered
over soils to which they are extraneous, into so many
various countries and situations; this being a phe-
nomenon so intimately connected with the catastro-
phes of our strata. There are only two possible
modes of explaining the dispersion of these masses;
either they have migrated from the eminences, over
the low grounds, in consequence of the action of
some
392
some impulsive cause, or they have been ejected
from within, in the very spots where we at present
find them, by the expansible fluids violently com-
pressed in those caverns into which subsided the enor-
mous masses of strata now lost from the surface.
But, after the multiplicity of direct facts collected
in my Travels against every possible idea of the mi-
gration of these masses on the continents, there can
remain only the other proposition of the dilemma,
which I have moreover established by facts equally
direct and equally numerous; namely, that they
have been ejected from within. And thus the whole
of my system is here again supported on a pheno-
menon almost universally prevalent over every part
of the surface of our continents.
It were unnecessary to state in this place the per-
fect correspondence which subsists between the ge-
neral result of these facts, and the History of the
Earth as contained in the Book of GENESIS; but
in my Letters to Professor Blumenbach, this cor-
respondence has been fully pointed out. Of all
geological conclusions, this is unquestionably the
most important, since it concerns the whole human
race; but neither in the above letters, nor in those
1
QUE
sur l'Histoire de la Terre & de l'Homme, have I
placed it among the proofs of my system; I have
explained it for the purpose of fixing more strongly
the attention of my readers; but I have never re-
curred to it for the support either of the facts
which I have brought forward, or of the conclusions
་
which
393
which I have deduced from these facts; for this
would have been a petitio principii. On this great
point, Truth has been my leading object; and as I
have sought it by an attentive study of terrestrial
phenomena, so I believe that these Travels col-
lectively will be found to contain it.
뿔
​}
*
[
INDEX
i
INDEX
TO THE
PLACES MENTIONED IN THE SECOND VOLUME.
A.
ADERSBACH, § 649.
Alexanders-bade, §§ 717, 718, 726.
Auma, § 622.
Aussig,
764, 770-779, 785.
B.
Bautzen, § 477.
Bayreuth, 640-644, 683-685.
Belitz, 601, 602, 837.
Berlin, 599, 600, 838, 841, 844.
Berneck, 633-639, 685.
Biela R. §§ 763-766, 771,
Bilin, §§ 763-767.
Bischoffs-grün, § § 701, 704-707.
Bober, R. § 492, 493, 501, 542, 544, 545, 553-558, 560
-579, 581, 582, 584-590.
Bober-Röhrsdorf, §§ 564, 565.
Bober-Ullersdorf, §§ 564, 568.
+
Brettin,
396
1
Brettin, §§ 831-834.
Brix, §§ 761, 764.
Buntzlau,
§ 584, 585.
Cammer-hügel, § § 730-732.
Carlsbad, 741, 743-748.
587-591.
Crossen,
C.
D.
454, 803, 804.
Dresden,
Düben, §§ 602, 609, 610.
.
E.
Egelsdorf,
497.
Eger R. 708, 710, 715-717, 724, 726, 728-730, 732,
735-738, 741-743, 745, 759, 760, 764.
Egersdorf, § 597.
Egra, §§ 726, 729-732.
Elbe R. 454, 458-469, 471, 474, 491, 532-537, 602-
610, 612, 764, 771-830, 832-837.
Elster R. §§ 612, 613, 617, 619, 620, 622.
Ertz-gebürge, M. § § 755, 767, 768.
F.
Flinsberg, 491, 494, 496.
Frankfort, §§ 595-597.
Friedenberg, § 497, 498.
Friedland,485.
بال على المين
Fichtelberg M. §§ 613, 618, 621, 633, 639, 641, 642, 644,
646, 685, 686, 692--729, 732, 768.
Friedlandische-geburge, M. § § 481, 489.
Friesen-stein, M. §§ 548, 549.
Gefell,
*397
Gefell, 625, 628-630.
Gera, §§ 616-620, 715.
Giant's mountains, §§ 481, 487-489, 497-553, 556, 755.
Gillingreuth-höhle, §§ 658-661.
Goldcronach, §§ 690, 692.
Grosse-rad, M. § § 524-530.
G.
Hohenberg, § § 717, 724.
Hohestein, M. § § 493, 494.
Havel, R. § 600.
Hau-fuder M. §§ 489, 491, 493, 496.
Herrnhutte, $ 478-483.
Iser R. § 491.
H.
Hertzberg M. § 497.
Hirschberg, §§ 501, 502, 544, 550-561.
Hirsch-stein, § 744-746.
Hof, § 629, 715.
I.
K.
Kemberg, §§ 607, 60s.
Kemnitz R. §§ 499, 572.
Kockel R. §§ 492, 504, 505, 513, 518, 521, 528.
Königstein, 470, 796.
↓
Lang-
1
398
Langwasser, $$ 498, 499.
Leipzig, §§ 610-612.
Libkowitz, §§ 752, 753.
Lilienstein, §§ 470, 795.
Löbau, § 477.
Lohmen, § 458.
Lomnitz R. §§ 544, 547.
Löwenberg, § 584.
Luchsberg, M. §§ 718-725.
Müglitz R. §§ 458, 468.
Mühlberg, §§ 820-822.
Mülde R. § 610.
Münchberg, $ 631.
L.
Naab R. §§ 699, 725.
Mäffersdorf, §§ 486–497.
Mauer, § § 578, 579.
Mayn R. § § 634, 642, 653, 686–691, 694, 695, 699, 703,
708.
Meissen, §§ 808–812.
Mole M. § 523.
Muggendorf, §§ 650, 654–657, 671.
M.
N.
O.
Į
Ochsen-kopf, M. §§ 692, 694, 696-703, 705, 706, 718.
Oder R. § § 493, 588, 590—593, 596.
f
Petersdorf,
3.99
P.
Petersdorf, § 502-504, 541.
Pirna, §§ 454, 458, 462, 798—800.
Podhorsam, §§ 753, 756, 757.
Potsdam, 600, 601, 837, 838, 841-843.
Raden, 462-464, 471.
Radenwalda, §§ 458, 474.
1
Rednitz R. § 653.
Q.
Queis R. $$ 492-494, 497, 498, 587.
R.
Reibersdorf, §§ 483, 484.
Rollen-stein M. §§ 709–711, 714, 715, 718.
Rosenmullers-höhle, §§ 664-670.
Rösla R. §§ 717, 718, 726, 728.
S.
Saal R. §§ 630, 715.
Sagan, §§ 586, 587, 589.
Sans-pareil, §§ 644, -646—652.
Schandau, § 794.
Schirnding, § 728.
Schleitz, 623-625.
-
Schmidtfeldt, § 477.
Schmiedeberg § 540, 548, 549, 649.
Schnee-berg M. §§ 612, 701, 708, 709, 711, 717, 718, 720,
725.
Schnee-grübe, §§ 518, 520-524.
Schnee-koppe M. §§ 524, 529-531, 537, 544, 560.
Schrei-
400
An
1
Schreibers-hau, §§ 504-540.
Schwartzbach R. §§ 439, 491, 492, 496-498..
Singenten-grün, § 726.
Spitzberg M. §§ 479, 481.
Spree R. § 598.
Sprottau, §§ 585, 586.
Stolpen, 475, 476.
Streitberg, §§ 653, 654.
Tafelfichte M. §§ 488-491, 494, 560.
Tetschen, §§ 779, 786-788.
Ullersdorf, §§ 493, 494.
Uttewalda, §§ 458, 459.
T.
Töpel R. § § 743, 745, 747, 748.
Töplitz, §§ 767–770.
Torgau, 823-825.
Treuenbrietzen, §§ 602, 837.
Vogelsdorf, 597-599.
U.
V.
W.
Weischenfeld, § 675.
Weissenheid, $716.
Weissenstadt, §§ 710, 711, 716.
Welt-ende, §§ 553, 555, 560, 562, 564.
Weydenberg, §§ 686, 687, 689.
Wiesent R. 653, 655, 657—659, 1662, 663, 672, 674, 675,
677-679, 681.
Wistenstein,
401
Wistenstein, $$ 651, 653.
Wittenberg, §§ 602, 607, 834, S36, 837.
Wunsiedel, §§ 717, 718, 726.
Zeitz, §§ 613, 614.
Zwernitz, §§ 647, 649.
Zackel, R. § § 492, 501-510 512, 514, 515, 521, 528, 538.
-543, 553, 554, 563.
VOL. II.
:
Z.
D d
TABLE
1
1
$
TABLE
OF THE
GEOLOGICAL FACTS
Described in these TRAVELS, arranged as belonging to the Two
PERIODS of the HISTORY OF THE EARTH, which are
distinguished in the COCLUSION; with References to the
Volumes and Sections.
1
FIRST PERIOD *,
During which our Continents were formed at the bottom of
the ancient sea, and underwent there various catastrophes.
I.
The struta, having been produced by precipitation in a liquid,
were originally horizontul and continuous.
¿
* Under this First Period, it is here intended to comprize the Sir Periods
or Days of the Creation, as recorded m the book of GENES18, together with
the space of time, beginning from the creation of man, and terminating in
the deluge; which last space is considered as forming the commencement of
the seventh day. In Mr. PARKINSON's very interesting work on the Organic
Remains of a former World, it may be scen, p. 451, Vol. III. that the dili
gent study of nature has led that gentleman to form the same conclusions
respecting the length of these days.
t
A
For-
A03
1
Formation of the strata by precipitation, and consequently
in a horizontal position, first determined by M. de Saussure
from his observations on the breccias of the Valorsine, §§ 12
-16, I.
Their original horizontality and continuity proved also by the
marine and other organic bodies contained in them, §§ 363,
415, 431. I. §§ 462, 470, 579, 676, 786 a, II.
Strata of sand-stone at Zittau once continuous with those
on the borders of the Elbe, § 483, II.
That the consolidation of the strata on the bottom of the
sea did not require a great heat, shewn by the consolidation
of tofus on the bed of the 'iesent, § 663, II.
{
II.
The undermost substance in the known mass of our conti-
nents is granite, which, contrary to the opinion of some
mineralogists, was formed, like the rest, in strata.
Stratification of granite apparent
In an insulated rock near Darmstadt, § 238, ↳
In the form of the hill of Drackenfeld, § 24, I.
In the Rosse-trap, a granitic hill encompassed by strata of
wacke,
386, I.
In a quarry near Herrnhutte, $ 482, II,
In the sides of the valley of the Queis, § 494, II.
In Mount Kynast, § 503, II.
In rocks in the Giant's mountains which appear as if composed
of piles of blocks, §§ 510, 517, 551, 552, II.
In the Ochsen-kopf, § 700, II.
In blocks on the Fichtelberg, $712, II.
In the Rollen-stein, § 714, II.
In the Luchsberg, §§ 719, 721, II.
D d ?
IB
r
404
t
In blocks near Egra, § 733, 11.
In eminences near Carlsbad, §§ 741, 746, 750. II.
In hills near the Elbe, §§ 812, 815, II.
Bed of the Zackel formed by the planes of granitic strata,
§§ 506, 509, 539, II.
Strata of two distinct species of granite in the Grosse-rad,
§ § 524, 525, II.
in the Friesen-stein,
§ 549, II.
III.
The strata which were formed on the granite differed succes.
sively from each other, and no remains of organic bodies
are found, either in the granite itself, or in the first of the
succeeding strata; but in those of later production, va
rious kinds of these bodies are contained.
granite covered with gneiss on the summit of the Schnee-
kuppe, 531, II.
-
in Mount Helicon near the Welt-
ende, § 559, II.
in the Ertz-gebürge, § 768, 11.
Successive hills of granite, gneiss, and schistus, in the country
of Bayreuth towards the Fichtelberg, § 631, II.
Strata of gneiss and of white quartz near Freyberg, § 450, I.
Gradations from gneiss to schistus in the Fichtelberg, $ 695,
II.
Gneiss covered with porphyric schistus near Bilin, § 766, II.
Great variety of strata in hills at the same level in the valley
of Tharand, §§ 426-431, I.
Strata of a fibrous schistus intersected with veins of white
quartz at Zierenberg, § 233, I.
Schistus covered with lime-stone, near the Hartz, §§ 171, 172,
351, I.
on the banks of the Elbe, where it was originally co.
vered with a sund stone containing marine bodies, though
both are now at the same level, § 786 a II.
Strate
405
3
Strata of sand containing many marine bodies, and covered with
calcareous strata couverted into petro-silex; near Aix-la
Chapelle, $255-258, I.
of gypsum in a hill near Osterode, covered on one side
with lime-stone containing marine bodies, and on the summit
with marl and sand in which rhinoceros's bones have been
found,354, I.
Ancient lavas, near Göttingen, covered with strata of lime,
stone and sand-stone, § 193, I.
Bed of surturbrandt, (or fossil peat,) in the Cattenbül near
Munden, covered with strata of white clay and sand, § § 198,
199, 201, I.
in the Meisner in the country of Hesse,
lying on strata of lime-stone and sand-stone, and covered
with others of white clay, lime-stone, and basalts, § § 211,
212, I.
in the Robelsberg, covered with thin
strata of sand-stone and basalts, §§ 217, 218, I.
near Helmsted, lying on aluminous clay,
and covered with common clay and sand, § 370, I.
Alternations of lime-stone and marl in the Jura, §§ 52—57,
64, 82, 85, 89, 90, 115, 116, 132, 136, I.
Marine bodics found in both, § § 31, 54, 61, 66, 82, 85, 115
-117, 136, 1.
Differences of the marine bodies in successive strata, near Va-
langin, §§ 93, 94, Į.
Strata of lime-stone containing masses of jaspachates, in the
valley of Tharand, § 428, I.
Marine bodies contained in the lime-stone of the caverns near
Muggendorf, § 656, II.
Lime-stone covered with strata of breccia and sand-stone in the
bills and plains between the Alps and the Juru, § 138, I.
Coul-bed, in a hill near Rehburg, covered with strata of sand-
stone containing both marine and vegetable bodies, § 338, I.
Three coal-beds in a hill at Osterwald, of which the uppermost
is mere fossil peat, and which are separated from each other
by a succession of different kinds of strata all containing
marine bodies, § 360, I.
Strata
406
Strata of sand-stone which have slidden down from those of
lime-stone, in the valley of the Red Mayn, and are now co-
vered with gypsum, § 691, II.
Marine bodies contained in sand-stone near Pirna, §§ 462,
468, II.
near the Bober, §§ 579
—581, II.
Strata of sond-stone, at Tharand, containing marine bodies,
and covered with sand, mixed with flints in which also ma-
rine bodies are found, § 431, I.
Argillaceous stratà containing marine bodies, and covered with
strata of sand, near Zell, § 100, I.
Strata of sand, one of which contains abundance of marine
bivalves, near Aix-la-Chapelle, § 259, I.
Vegetables in strata of sand-stone and marine bodies in a stratum
containing iron, between marble-strata, in the Hartz,
'§ 380, I.
Flints in the sand, near Osnaburg, which contain marine bodies,
and must evidently have been formed in strata of chalk dis-
solved on the bed of the ancient sca, §§ 155, 158, I.
?
J
.
ļ
breccias of the Valorsine observed by M. de Saussure, $§ 14,
15, I.
Strata of breccia between the Alps and the Jura, § 138, I.
in the valley of Tharand, § 429, I.
of Walterdorf, § 581, II.
Masses of breccia, in Hesse, containing the same primordial.
gravel which is found in the sand there, §§ 228, 230,
231, I.
The same circumstance in Bohemia, §§ 734, 735, 754, II.
V. The
IV.
剩
​Phenomena of Breccias.
407
Near Dasseldorf,
Near Darmstadt,
V.
The latest precipitation in the ancient sea was pure quartzeous
sand, which is spread over all the preceding kinds of
strata.
?
Strata of this Sand described
151, I.
$235, 238, 240, I.
In the country of Bremen, §§ 283, 285-287, I.
Near Lunenburg, § 322, I.
In the country of Hanover, §§ 332—334, 339, 341, 343, İ.
On lime-stone and sand-stone near the Hartz, §§ 345, 388, I.
-near Brunswick, § 368, 1.
In Brandenburg, §§ 408, 414, 421-423, §§ 595, 597, 599,
601, 602, II.
On granite near Herrnhutte, § 478, II.
583, 585, 587, II.
In Silesia,
On sand-stonc near Buntzlau, § 584, II.
On certain eminences in the Fichtelberg, § 717, II.
** That these strata must have participated in the latest cutas-
trophes of the stony strata appcars
Near Boitzenburg, § 311, I.
In a cliff bordering the Havel, $ 601, II.
In a granitic hill of which the summit is covered with this sand;
at Meissen, 809, II.
*** Exemplification of the difference
Between this sand, and that consolidated in strata on which it
lies, near Zell, § 159, I.
Between
408
Between this sand and the sand produced from triturated gra-
nite on the bed of the Bober, §.589, II.
In the course of the period during which the strata were
formed, they underwent many catastrophes; (i. e. rupturcs,
attended with the partial subsidence of the intermediary
masses and the angular motion of those which remained at
the highest level; and thus became the ridges of hills and
mountains now existing on oor continents. These ca-
tastrophes, which determined the present form of the surface
of the earth, were occcasioned by caverns, produced under
the strata, in consequence of the gradual penetration of thẹ
water of the sea among the pulverulent particles originally
composing the mass of the globe.
External proofs of the catastrophes of the strata, VI-VIII.
1
VI.
That illies, combes, and simple clefts, have resulted from
these catastrophes, and not from the action of running
waters, is evidently shewn by their various phenomena.
* The opposite sides of vallies composed of different substances.
Valley of Grund bordered with schistus on one side, and gyp-
sum on the other, § 353, I.
Narrow valley of the Bode, with wacke on one side, and the
granitic obelisk of the Rosse-trap on the other, § 384, I.
Vale near Ilsenburg, with marl-stone on one side, and schistns
on the other, § 391, I.
Valley of Tharand, with porphyry on one side, and gneiss on
the other, 430, I.
، ܐ
Banks
409
Banks of the Bober composed of different kinds of granite,
$571, II.
Combe near the Bober, with granite on one side, and gneiss
and schistus on the other, § 573, II.
** Different inclinations of the strata on the opposite sides of
vallies.
On the banks of the Lcine, §§ 169, 191. I.
of the Sieber, 188, I.
On the sides of a combe near Hof, § 629, II.
of a cleft at the foot of the Biliner-stein, § 766,
II.
*** Differences in the height and form of the opposite sides of
rallies.
Of the opposite banks of the Seyon, § 86, 1.
of the Doux, § 105, I.
pp
793, 802, 804, 806, SOS, 813, 816, 818, II.
of the Weser, §§ 163, 366, I.
of the Elbe, 403, 469, I. § § 783,
of the Bober, §§ 555, 557, 558, II.
Of the opposite sides of a valley near Pyrmont, § 366, I.
of the fracture from the bottom of which
the Resse-trap, §§ 383, 384, I.
II.
**** Differences of declivity in the same valley.
In the bed of the Kemnitz, §§ 499, 572, II.
In the valley of the White Mayn, § 638, II.
In the bed of the Elbe, 777, II.
472, 473, II.
Shewn by a cascade on the course of the Doux, § 69, I.
of the Reuse, 83, I.
of the Suze, § 126, I.
of the Bode, § 383, I.
of a brook at Raden, §§
of the Kockel, $§§ 512, 513,
Shewn
1
410
f
Shewn by a cascade on the course of the Elbe, §§ 535, 536,
II.
by masses of strata forming bars across the course of
the Bober, §§ 566, 579, II.
***** Cavities and large horizontal spaces on the course of
streams; the former producing Lakes and Pools, and the latter
being inundated when the streams are swelled.
Lake on the course of the Doux, § § 67, 68, I.
Lakes of Neufchatel and Bienne, § 130, 133, I.,
Lake near Lockum, § 339, I.
Lakes on the course of the Spree, § 407, I. § 598, II.
of the Havel, §§ 407, 409, I. §§ 598,
601.
Pools on the courses of the rivers descending from the Giant's
mountams, §§ 498, 543, 517. 553, II.
of the principal branches of the Mayr,
§ 642, II.
of the other streams proceeding from the
Fichtelberg, 725, II.
Horizontal spaces on the course of the Ecker and the Ocker,
§ § 397, 398, I.
تر
813, 815, 820, 827, 834, II.
562, 564, 568, 569, 574, 577, 590, II.
604, II.
of Berneck, § 638, II.
II.
of the Bober, §§ 554, 555,
of the Oder, §§ 590, 596,
of the Elbe, §§ 604, 694,
of the Elster, § 619, II.
of the waters of the valley
of the Wiesent, § § 653, 679,
of the Red Mayn, § § 686,
694, II.
****** Differences of breadth in the same valley.
In the Val-de-Travers, §§ 46 a-48, 83, 84, 139, I.
In the valley of the Doux, §§ 67, 69, 105-107, I.
In
411
In the valley of the Seyon, §§ 91, 95,
I.
of the Suze, §§ 118, 119, 123–126, 128, 129, I.
of the Leine, S1, I.
of the Ocker, § 598, I.
of Tharand, §§ 426-430, I.
In vallies near the Elbe, §§ 461, 809, 811, II.
In the valley of the Zackel, § § 504—507, 554, II.
of the Elbe, 535, 537, 771, 773-776, 780,
781, 786 a, 799, SOO, 804, 806, II.
of the Bober, §§ 555, 561, 562, 564, 565, 568
-577, 582, II.
II.
of the White Mayn, § § 637, 638, II.
of the Wiesent, § § 653, 659, 662, 675, 680, 681,
of the Eger, §§ 735-737, 741, 742, II.
of the Topel, § § 743, 745. II.
******* Various marks of fractures and subsidences.
In vallies near Esbeck, §§ 165, 168, 169, I.
In the valley of the Leine, §§ 191, 344, 345, I.
In a valley near Cassel, § § 220, 221, I.
In the valley of the Rhine, §§ 243, 247, I.
In a vale near Rheburg, § 339, I.
In vallies in the Hartz, §§ 348-350, 380, 383—386, 395, I.
In the valley of the Mulda, $ 438, I.
In valleys and combes near Maxen, §§ 454, 455, 457, 458,
II.
In a deep combe forming a low forest near the Elbe, §§ 608,
609, II.
In the valley of Schleiss, § 624, II.
In vallies and combes in the country of Bayreuth, §§ 629,
633-636, 639, 644-646, II.
In the valley of the Wiesent, §§ 653, 655, 662, 675–678,
680, 688, II.
of the Red Mayn, §§ 685, 691, II.
of Carlsbad, § § 741, 746, II.
In a combe near Brix, §§ 761, 762, II.
¿ . . ‚ `
X
Impos
412
***
**** Impossibility that Combes can have been formed by
the small quantities of water which Aow in them, shewn
In a combe in the Jura, §§ 25-27, I.
In combes in the Giant's mountains, §§ 514, 516, 533, II.
In a combe opening into the valley of the Bober, § 573, II,
near Carlsbad, § 749, II.
******* Clefts and Fractures in the strata, attended with
various accidents.
La Roche-fendue, §§ 70—72, I.
Cleft affording passage to the Seyon, §§ 91, 136, I.
Clefts in the rocks which border the Val-St.-1mier, § 121, I.
affording passage to the Surze, §§ 123, 125, 126, 128,
129, I.
in the sund-stone rocks near Raden, §§ 459-461, 471,
II.
474,
Cleft affording passage to a rivulet which joins the Bober,
583, II.
糖
​to the Elster, § 617, II.
Clefts in the hills near Gefell, § 627, II.
Cleft in the hills near Muggendorf, §§ 664, 672, 673, II,
affording passage to a brook near Töpliz, § 770, II.
Fracture of the strata in Freyberg, which forms the boundary
of the district of the mines, § 451, 1.
VII.
The mountains and hills of the present continents are formed
by the masses of various kinds of struta, which were left by
the catastrophes at a higher level than the rest.
1,..
* State
413
* State of the abrupt sides of our present eminences, shewing them
to have become such by the subsidence of masses of strata ori-
ginully continuous with those which compose them.
Abrupt sides of the mountains encompassing a low space in
the Jura, near the entrance of that chain from Franche-
Comté, § 23, I.
of the Creux-du-Vent, § 50, I.
P
748, II.
of Mont Salive, § 135, I.
of the hill at Osterwald, § 359, I.
of the Regenstein, § 388, I.
of hills near Löbau, § 477, II.
of the Schnee-grübe, §§ 520—522, Ik
of the Mole, § 523, II.
of granitic eminences above Carlsbad, § 741,
of the Ertz-gebürge, § 768, II.
of eminences near the Elbe, §§ 787, 791, II.
** The strata, now composing the summits of many eminences,
originally covered by other strata which have slipped down on
the sides.
Granitic pyramid of the Rosse-trap left uncovered by the
fracture and subsidence of strata of grey wacke, §§ 381-386,
I.
Granitic chain of the Giant's mountains bordered on both sides
with ridges of micaceous schistus and quartz, §§ 488, 494, II.
of the Fichtelberg bordered with ridges of
schistus and gneiss, §§ 694-696, 705, 717, II.
Schistose chain at Zierenberg left uncovered by the slipping
down of strata of lime-stone and sand-stone, § 231, I.
The Hope-warte composed of strata of lime-stone, which by the
slipping down of those of sand-stone, are left uncovered on
the summit, § 226, I.
*** The
414
j
*** The same strata which form the summits of eminences found
near them at a lower level.
The same calcarcous streta which form the summits of the Jura
compose also the hills and plains of Franche-Comté and Bur-
gundy, § 23, 141, 144-146, I.
Hills composed of the same strata likewise occupy the space
between the foot of the Jura and the Alps, § 129, I.
Masses of lime-stone and marl, which, having been broken off
from the strata of the Jura, have separated in their fall,
slipping down one over another, and now rest against the
foot of the chain, §§ 54-57, 88—90, 130—132, I.
The strata which compose the summit of the Grand Salère
form also that of the Petit Salève at a lower level, § 134,
135, I.
Mounts near Ilsenburg composed of the same strata as a
neighbouring hill, § 391, I.
Low soil near Auma formed by the subsidence of masses of
strata originally continuous with the surrounding hills, §
622, II.
**** Various kinds of strata now found at the same level with
which they originally covered.
Intermixture of hills of lime-stone and sand-stone near Osnaburg,
§ 152, I.
near Pyrmont,
§ 164, 1.
of schistus and lime-stone on the borders
of the Hartz, § 173, I.
gen, 190, 191, I.
Sad
195, 202, 208,
+
I.
in Hesse, $$
of various kind of strata near Aix-la-
Chapelle, § 259-261, 1.
of lime-stone and sand-stone near Göttin-
Intermixture
415
Intermixture of hills and rocks of gneiss, sienite, and porphyry:
near Dresden, §§ 424, 426, 427, I.
of granite and sand-stone, near the Elbe,
§ 475, II.
near Hernhutte, §§ 481-483, II.
of granite, gneiss, schistus, and basalts,
of granite and basalts, near the foot of
the Giant's mountains, § 500, 503, II.
of lime-stone and sand-stone, in the
country of Bayreuth, §§ 640, 61, 646, 652, 653, 682, 683,
686, II.
of schistose and basaltic cones, near Bilin,
§§ 761-766, II.
Insulated rock of granite, and another of sienite, in a sandy.
soil, forming the commencement of a chain composed of
primordial strata which borders the country of Bergstrass, §§
238, 241, 242, I.
Mount of gypsum near another of chalk, in the sandy soil near
Lunenburg, § 320, I.
***** Similarity in the forms of contiguous hills, shewing them
to have been produced by the same catastrophes.
Hills abrupt on one side, and on the other descending in a
gentle slope, in the country of Hanover, § 190, I.
in Hesse, § 208, I..
in Brandenburg, §§ 414—416, I.
+1
in Bohemia, $754, II.
Angular ridges and pyramids bordering the Elbe, §§ 464, 468,
470, 474, 782-784, 787, 791, 795, 796, 806, 813, II.
Pyramidal eminences at the foot of the Giant's mountains, §§
500, 503, II.
Granitic
416
Granitic cones in the Fichtelberg, §§ 709, 711, 784, 718-720;
II.
****** Irregular subsidence of the fractured masses, now found
at various levels, shewn by rocks and other inequalities of the
surface.
Uneven surface of the plain between Dole and Dijon, § 145, Ì.
of a sandy hill near Lunenburg, § 321, I.
Rocks rising above the sand in the hills of Rehburg and the
plain at their foot, $$ 333, 334, I.
Pyramidal projections on a hill near Osterwald, § 362, 1.
Schistose pyramids on the foot of the Ilartz, § 390, I.
Characters of irregular subsidence in a tract of lime-stone hills
in Brandenburg, §§ 414-417, I.
Cavities in the slope of the Schnee-Koppe, which receive the
waters of the mountain, and thus have become lakes, §
529, II.
Rocks on the slopes of the Giant's mountains, § 550, II.
Calcareous rocks at Sans-pareil, §§ 647, 648, 649 a, 650, II.
Pyramidal rocks on the summit of the Biliner-stein, § 765, II.
The mode in which mountains and rallies were produced,
exemplified by the phenomena of ice in the Elbe, §§ 303,
301, I.
VIII.
The strata, during their subsidences, assumed various degrees
of inclination.
* Sections
417
* Sections of strata variously inclined.
In the Jura, §§ 23, 28, 35, 50, 54, 56, 58, 65, 83, 86, 105, 121,
123, 125, 126, 128, 140, I.
In the plains of Franche-Comté and Burgundy, §§ 141, 145, I.
In the Deister and other hills near Hanover, § 162, I.
In lime-stone and sand-stone hills near Pyrmont, § 164, I.
In the Hartz, §§ 173, 349, 383, 384, 386, I.
In the country of Hesse, §§ 202, 208, 220, 221, I.
Near Aix-la-Chapelle, §§ 259, 260, I.
Near Boitzenburg, § 311, I.
In the hills of Rudersdorf, §§ 415, 416, Í.
In hills near Dresden, §§ 424, 426, 429, I.
In the sides of the valley of the Mulda, § 438, I.
In rocks near the Elbe, §§ 461, 462, 787, 789, 815, II:
In the hill of Herrnhutte, § 482, II.
In the Dreslerberg, § 488, II.
In a cliff bordering the Havel, § 601, II.
In the sides of vallies and combes in Saxony, §§ 615, 620, 623,
.624, II.
In the Fichtelberg, §§ 693, 695, II.
In the Cammer-hügel, § 731, II.
In the valley of the Töpel, §§ 746—748, JI.
In a hill near Carlsbed, § 750, II,
In the side of a combe near the Eger, § 759, II.
** Edges of dipping strata appearing on the summits of hills.
Forming ridges across an eminence in the Jura, §§ 58 a, 59, I.
across hills near the Hartz, §§ 377, 387; 388, I.
across the Grosse-rad, §§ 524, 525, II.
Split at the top into many laminæ, on a hill near Osterwald,
§ 359, 1.
into angular columns, on the Rollen-stein, §
into pyramids on the Biliner-stein, § 766, II.
E e
Internal
714, II.
VOL. II.
418
Internal proofs of the catastrophes of the strata, IX-XIII.
f
* Metallic Veins.
Vein of lead and silver in the Hartz, in which is a cavity
forming a grotto of singular beauty, § 182-187, I.
Veins cut through by the fractures which, being attended with
the subsidence of the intermediary mass, produced the
valley of Wildeman, § 348, I.
General phenomena of the mines of Freyberg, §§ 432-449, I.
Proofs that the veins in those mines were produced at succes-
sive periods, §§ 435, 436, 449, I.
that they were formed by precipitations against the
sides of the fissures which contain them, § 439, I.
Veins of quartz containing gold, at Gold-cronach, § 692, II.
Vein of antimony, at Gold-cronach, § 693, II.
False veins, in the Hartz, of later formation than the true, §
173, I.
Differences in the strata on the opposite sides of veins, in the
Hartz, § 173, I.
in the
1
mines of Freyberg, § 437, I.
Masses of quartz containing veins of black iron ore scattered
in vales in the Fichtelberg mountains, §§ 696, 705, II.
il
1
IX.
Phenomena of Veins.
1
}
}
** Veins composed of different substances,
Veins of white quartz in a fibrous schistus, at Zierenberg, § 233, I.
of trapp in sienite, in the Plauen-grund, § 426, I.
Veins
{
419
Veins of trapp in granite, in the side of the small Schneegrube,
§ 522, II.
Surprizingly large vein of agate in gneiss, near Maxen, where a
subsidence having taken place between two fractures, the
vein is now seen to pass across the bed of a brook, §§ 455–
457, II.
Beds of Coal and Surturbrandt, which are both shewn to have
proceeded from peat-mosses sunk beneath the level of the
ancient sea.
X.
Coal-pits, near Aix-la-Chapelle, §§ 248-254, I.
in the hills near Rehburg, §§ 334, 335, 338, I.
at Osterwald, §§ 359-361, I.
Bed of coal, in the valley of Tharand, § 427, I.
in a valley at the foot of the Ertz-gebürge, over
some parts of which a stratum of gneiss, has slipped, § 767,
II.
Upper stratum of coal at Osterwald resembling surturbrandt, §
360, I.
Beds of surturbrandt in the mountain of Cattenbül, §§ 196, 198,
199, 201, 206, I.
|000
› B
in Mount Meisner, §§ 211-214, I.
in the Robelsberg, §§ 217, 218, I.
in the neighbouring countries, § 234, I.
near Helmstedt, § 370, I.
XI.
The disordercu state of the strata is seen in Quarries.
£e 2
Quarry
!
420
Quarry of granite near Hernhutte, § 482, II.
of gneiss near Freyberg, § 450, I.
of lime-stone near Rudersdorf, §§ 414, 415, I.
of sand-stone in the Cattenbül, § 197, I.
sea.
in a hill near Rehburg, $$ 335-338, I.
near Bayreuth, § 644, II.
XII.
Caverns are proved to have resulted from the unequal internal
subsidence of the strata, while still under the waters of the
Cavern near the issue of the Bied, §§ 37-41, I.
Grotto on the course of a brook near the Elbe, §§ 472, 473, II.
Caverns in Bayreuth, §§ 655-662, 664-670, II.
Level of the ancient sea at a particular period shewn by the
sea-sand and bones of white bears found in these caverns, §§
657, 658, 661, II.
Cavern in the Ochsen-kopf, § 702, II.
XIII.
Subterranean streams, formed within the bosom of the moun.
tains, and issuing forth at the bottom of some of the neigh-
bouring vallies.
Issue of the Reuse at St. Sulpi, §§ 27, 45; I:
of the Bied above Motier-Tra veis, § 36,.
Issue
421
Issue of a stream which joins the Reuse, § 46, I.
of the Noiraigue, $$ 47, 75, 77, I.
1
of a brook supposed to be the discharge of the waters of
the vale of Locle, §§ 67, 72, 73, I.
of four rivulets which unite to form the Longe-aigue,
§ 80, I.
of rivulets flowing to join the Suze, §§ 119, 120, I.
in the Val-de-Tavanne, § 122, I.
Discharge of the waters of the Lake of Etalières which has
been produced by a recent subsidence, §§ 60-63, I.
of a brook at Brevine, § 63 a, I.
Intermittent torrent of St. Martin, §§ 99—102, 104, I.
Tunnels on the course of that torrent into which the water
sinks,
101, I.
in the Val-de-la-Sagne, § 77, I.
near Chaux-de-Fond, §§ 103, 104, I.
in the gypseous hill of Osterode, § 355, I.
Stream, at Chaux-de-Fond, which issues from one tunnel, aud
flows into another, $ 107-113, I.
Two natural wells in which the water rises and falls, in the
Val-de-Travers, § 82, I,
Proofs of the subsidence of the fractured struta into Caverns
filled with air and water, the compression of which by the
descending masses produced explosions on the bed of the
ancient sea, XIV-XVI,
XIV.
The blocks of stone now scattered on our continents are de-
monstrated by their various phenomena, not to have mi-
grated in any manner on the surface, but to be fragments
of
422
of the shattered strata, which were expelled from within
during the catastrophes.
* Blocks of natures extraneous to the strata on which they lie.
Blocks of primordial stones mixed with others of lime-stone, on
the original slopes of the calcareous chain of the Jura, §§ 31,
42, 46, 50, 53, 102, 114, 121, I.
in a stratum of white clay, which
lies beneath a bed of surturbrandt, in the Meisner, this bed
being covered by a stratum of sand-stone overspread with
basaltic rubbish, § 211, I.
to a great depth in the sand, near
Aix-la-Chapelle, $$ 248, 254, I.
very abundant in the sandy soil of
Bremen, §§ 274-285, 287–290, 293, 301, 305, 312, 316,
318, 319, 321, 332, I.
in such quantities as to form a su-
perficial stratum on a hill of marl-stone near Ilsenburg, §§
390, 391, I.
in sandy soil in Brandeburg, §§ 409,
414, 417, I. §§ 597, 599, 601, 602, II.
near Dresden, § 451, I.
in the sandy plains near the granitic
chain of the Giant's mountains, but very different in species.
from the strata of that chain, § 487, II.
in sand, near Sprottau, § 586, II.
intermixed with a great variety of
others, on different soils in Bohemia, §§ 727, 730, 732-736,
749, 752, 754, 755, 757-760, 769, 777, 780, II.
on sand-stone, near the Elbe, § 802,
II.
of granite and sienite, in heath-sand, near Darmstadt,
§§ 236, 240, 1.
in sand, in the country of Brunswick, §§ 368, ·
Blocks
400—402, I.
423
Blocks of granite in the Hartz, of a species different from the
granitic strata of that chain, §§ 378, 379, 386, I.
and white quartz, near Herrnhutte, where no
strata of the latter appear, §§ 482, 483, 485, II.
Blocks of granite and white quartz on a hill of gneis, near the
Bober, § 575, II.
on argillaceous schistus, near the Bober, §
on the schistose ridges of the Fichtelberg, §
696, II.
on the slope of the Ochsen-kopf, but different
from the granite of the mountain, § 703, II.
of white quartz on various soils in Saxony, §§ 614, 621,
622, 627, 628, II.
in the country of Bayreuth, §§ 630,
632, II.
containing veins of black iron ore, in vales on
the opposite sides of the granitic chain of the Fichtelberg, §§
696, 705, II.
582, II.
— of a brown quartzeous stone, on sandy soils, between
Leipzig and Zeitz, §§ 612-615, II.
of granulated quartz, on granitic sand covering strata of
schistus and grey wacke, in the Hartz, §§ 174-176, I.
and very hard sand-stone, on hills
of lime-stone and sand-stone, in Hesse, §§ 195, 220, I.
dispersed over a very extensive
tract of country in which no strata of this stone appear, ex-
cept in rocks near Aix-la-Chapelle, § 260, I.
near Helmstedt, §§ 369, 374, I.
of a hard sand-stone, on strata of sand of a different
nature intermixed with blocks of granite, in the country of
Hanover, $ 163-165, 334, 339, 358, 359, 366, I.
in Hesse, $$ 197, 207, 209, I.
of a stone composed of black hornblende and red feld-
spar, near Potsdam, § 600, 838-843, II.
of a hard lime-stone, extraneous to the strata, in the
country of Hanover, §§ 166-170, 190, 363, I.
3
Block
424
Blocks of a sand-stone unequally decomposed, near Brunswick,
§ 368, I.
— of grün-stein, on the opposite sides of the Fichtelberg,
§§ 693, 706, 727, II.
Prisms of rock-crystal ainong blocks of primordial stones, on the
summit of the Chaumont, § 137, I.
** Blocks of primordial stones not scattered in quantities propor-
tional to their distance from the mountains whence they have been
supposed to proceed.
Abundance of primordial blocks in Franche-comté, on the side
of the Juru farthest from the Alps, §§ 23, 27, I.
Tracts of country near the granitic chain of the Hartz, in
which scarcely any granitic blocks are found, §§ 170, 342,
343, 346, 356, 368, 378, 390, I.
Vast abundance of blocks in the peninsula of Bremen, at a dis-
tance from any mountain, §§ 274-285, 287, 316, 332, I.
Large blocks of granite, near Bergstrass, separated by several
ridges of hills from the Giant's mountains, § 485, II.
Tract of ground, near the Fichtelberg, where no blocks of granite
are found, § 646, II,
*** Spaces covered with blocks alternating with other spaces in
which none appear.
Near Osnaburg, §§ 151-153, 155, I.
Near Hanover, §§ 159, 160, 341, 342, I.
In Bremen, §§ 284, 288-290, 321, I.
Near Wolfenbüttel, §§ 398, 399, I.
Near Brunswick, §§ 399-402, I.
Near the Oder, §§ 587, 595, II.
In Saxony, §§ 602, 609, 837, II.
{
!
Blocks
425
?
**** Blocks on eminences, which they cannot have ascended by any
cause, since those eminences have been at their present relative
level.
In the Jura, §§ 34, 35, 43, 49, 91, 128, 137, I.
In the Hartz, §§ 174, 175, I.
On the Tafelfichte, §§ 489, 490, II.
On the Luchsberg, §§ 721, 722, II.
.
***** Eminences composed of Blocks.
Promontory in the Jura, $ 96, I.
Many eminences in the Hartz; §§ 175, 177, I.
The Ilsenstein, §§ 394, 395, I.
The Borsberg, §§ 452, 453, I.
Summit of the Nelken-stein, § 570, II.
of the Ochsen-kopf, §§ 698, 700—702, II.
of the Schnce-berg, § 701, II.
Promontory advancing from the Luchsberg, § 719, II,
****** Blocks shewn not to have been brought down from the
mountains by streams.
Blocks on the bed of the Reuse, § 37, I.
— on the course of the rivers proceeding from the Hartz, §§
397, 398, I.
from the Giant's
mountains, §§ 495, 496, 506-511, 515, 539-541, 543, 554,
557, 562-565, 575, 577, II.
from the Fichtel-
berg, 688,689, 717, II.
******* Rounded
426
**** Rounded Blocks reduced to their present form by the de-
composition of their angles, and not by the action of running
waters.
In the Val de Rus,
93, 95-99, 102, I.
On the bed and sides of the Zackel, $$ 506-510, 540, 554, II.
of a brook which joins that river, § 514,
II.
of the Little Zackel, § 515, II.
On the Giant's mountains, §§ 542, 543, 549, 551, II.
On the bed and sides of the Bober, $$ 555, 557, 559, 562-
565, 567, 572, II.
In the valley of Walterdorf, § 579, II.
******** Phenomena which indicate the expulsion of the Blocks
from within.
Situations of some of the blocks on the Jura, §§ 34, 50, 52, 79,
91, 128, 130, 137, 138, 140, I.
Cavity which has its sides covered with blocks, and appears to
have been the focus of their explosion, near Osnaburg, §§ 154,
155, I.
near Zarrendorf, § 156,
I.
Cavities of the same kind in Bremen, § 284, I.
near Lunenburg, § 322, I.
A low space near Weissenheid, bearing similar characters,
713, II.
Blocks which, having been thrown up by explosion, were broken
in their fall, on the Chaumont, § 137, I.
The same phenomenon, on a slope on the bank of the Reuse,
§ 140, I.
in Bremen, 289, I.
XV.
427
XV.
The stony strata are frequently covered with a loose superficial
soil extraneous to their nature.
Loose soil containing blocks and gravel of white quartz and grey
wacke, on schistose hills in Saxony, §§ 621-623, 627, II.
produced by the trituration of masses of strata du-
ring the catastrophes, and covering the schistose ridges which
border the Fichtelberg, §§ 693, 695, II.
of sand and granitic rubbish on sand-stone in Bohemia
$ 755, II.
XVI.
The Gravel contained in the superficial soil is composed either
of fragments of stony strata, expelled, like the blocks, from
within, or of silices, formed in calcareous strata which were
dissolved while still covered by the ancient sea.
* Gravel composed of fragments of stony strata.
Of primordial stones on the bed of the Eder, and in the soil of
the neighbouring hills, §§ 224, 225, 228, I.
mixed with a great variety of marine exu-
via, which shew it to have existed in the form of gravel on
the bed of the ancient sea, near Aix-la-Chapelle, § 256, I.
and other stones, in the country of Hanover, $$
357, 364, I.
near Helmstedt, § 366, Ì.
Of white quartz, on the beds of streams in Saxony, and in the
soil of the neighbouring hills, §§ 613, 628, II.
Rounded fragments of the kiesel-schiefer, or touch-stone, on the
bed of a brook, and in the loose soil of a valley, of the
Hartz, § 356, I.
* Siliceous
428
** Siliceous Gravel.
Flints containing marine bodies and chalk, in the sand, in the
country of Hanover, §§ 155, 156, 158, 341, I.
abounding in the sand, throughout a very extensive tract
in which no chalk appears, except in a hill near Aix-la-Cha-
pelle, § 261, I.
Soil, near Calais, composed of siliceous gravel differing entirely
in its nature from the flints contained in the chalk of the
neighbouring cliffs, § 269, I.
Siliceous gravel in Bremen, § 289, I.
— near Dresden, § 431, I.
Flints intermixed with masses of amber, in the sand, near the
Giant's mountains, § 487, II.
XVII.
Phenomena which indicate the existence of ancient Volcanoes.
*Basalts, which were probably produced by Lavas bursting forth
on the bed of the ancient sca.
Basalts in the form of polyedrical wedges containing balls, on
the Dransberg, §§ 193 a, 194, I.
The same on the Cattenbül, $ 200, I.
on the Meisner, §§ 209-213, I.
on the Robelsberg, §§ 217, 218, I.
on mountains near Cassel, §§ 221, 222, I.
on various hills in Hesse, §§ 226, 229, I.
Rock of basaltic prisms on the summit of the Spitzberg, § 479,
II.
A hill rising from the same base composed of spherical basaltie
masses, each containing many balls, § 480, II.
}
Stratum of basaltic balls on one side of the granitic hill of
Herrnhutte, § 482, II.
Basaltie
#
}
429
Basaltic balls scattered over a horizontal tract near Töpliz, §§
769, 770, 11.
Regular arrangement of basalts in hills berdering the Rhine, §
247, I.
near the Elbe, §§ 775,
781, II.
Association of regular basalts with rocks of the same stone ir-
regularly fractured in the hill of Stolpen, § 476, II.
Basalts containing olivin on the granitic hill of Hertzberg, §
497, II.
in strata on the skirts of the Giant's mountains, § 500,
II.
on a hill above the Welt-ende, § 559, II.
on the summits of mounts belonging to the Fichtelberg,
§ 724, II.
Basaltic mount, near Langwasser, $ 499, II.
— near the Bober, § 578, II.
of eminences near the Eger, § 728, II.
cones, in Bohemia, §§ 750-753, 764, II.
summits of some of the gneiss mountains of the Erts-
gebürge, §768, 11.
fragments scattered in Bohemia, § 734, II.
in strata alternating with others of clay, in
the Cammer-hügel, in which there is a cavity evidently pro
duced by internal fire, §§ 731, 732, II.
1
A
** Remains of sunken Volcanic Cones,
On a hill near Göttingen, 192, 193 a, 06, I.
At Cassel, $§ 222, 223, I.
Near Darmstadt, $$ 239, 240, 242, I.
1
SECOND
480
}
{
SECOND PERIOD,
Which is still continuing, and which commenced at the epoch
when our continents, being abandoned by the sea, became
subject to the action of atmospherical causes.
XVIII.
Since Rivers began to flow, they have carried on various ope
rations on their banks and beds.
* The loose soil washed away by streams, in clearing their channels,
and the blocks and gravels originally contained in it left uneo
vered on their beds.
Primordial stones left uncovered on the bed of the Reuse, §
37, I.
Blocks on the bed of a brook near Cassel, § 221, I.
Gravel on the hed of the Eder, §§ 224, 225, I.
Blocks on the bed of the Ecker, § 396, I.
Rounded granitic blocks on the bed of the Little Zackel, § 515,
II.
of the Bober, §§ 564, 567,
II.
Gravel on the bed of some rivulets in Saxony, $$ 609, 628, II.
of the Elster, §§. 613, 619, II.
Stones on the bed of the Red Mayn, §§ 688, 694, II.
and gravels on the bed of the Elbe, §§ 778, 807, 819,
821, 830, 833, 835, II.
** Rounded
431
** Rounded blocks impelled by some rivers along the narrow and
rapid parts of their beds, but left stationary on the wide and
horizontal parts.
Shewn on the bed of the Schwartzbach, § 496, II.
II.
of the Zackel, $$ 506-509, 539, 540, 554,
of the Kockel, § 518, II.
of the Bober, §§ 554, 564, 565, 567, È.
*** Operations of Rivers in attacking their banks.
Of the Elbe, §§ 301, 310, 324, 326, 327, 403, 405, I. §§ 802,
805, 817, 822, 835, II.
Of the Weser, § 366, I.
Of the Bober, §§ 564, 574, 576, II.
Of the Oder, § 593, II.
Of the Elster, § 620, II.
Of the Red Mayn, § 686, II.
Of the Röslu, § 728, II.
Of the Eger, § 742, II.
Of a rivulet flowing in a combe near Brix, § 762, IĮ.
Of a brook which falls into the Elbe, § 812, II.
**** In forming beaches and strands at the foot of their crumb-
ling sides, which are thus preserved from farther demolition.
Beach formed by the Oder, § 593, II.
by the Red Mayn, §§ 686, 687, II.
Beaches and strands formed by the Elbe, §§ 804, 805, 817, 825,
827, 835, 836, II.
***** In
432
***** In forming alluvial grounds, which narrow their channels.
Alluvial soils formed by the Rhine and the Moselle, § 246. I.
and islands formed by the Elbe, §§ 298, 299,
302, 310, 312, 313, 315, 324, 327, 404-406, I. §§ 607,
780, 815, 817, 820, 821, 823-825, 833, 834, 836, II.
by the Bober, §§ 574, 590,
by the Oder, §§ 593, 596,
II.
II.
****** In raising and levelling the bottom of their beds, and
the low grounds which border them.
1
II.
1
Soils raised and levelled by the Reuse, §§ 37, 139, I.
by the Ocker, §
by the Elbe, §
II.
792, 800, 805, 807, 817, 825, 827, 828, 836, II.
736, II.
397, 398, I.
406, I. §§ 607, 610,
by rivulets which join the Elbe, § 461,
by the Zaekel, § 554, II.
by the Bober, §§ 554, 568, 574, 576,
by the @der, 596, II.
by the Elster, §§ 612, 619, 620, II.
by streams in Bayreuth, § 645, II.
by the Wiesent, § 679, II.
by the Red Mayn, § 694, II.
by the Eger and its branches, §§ 732,
by the Biela, § 771, II.
XIX.
433
XIX.
The aquatic plants and mosses on the beds of Rivers afford a
proof that no erosion takes place there.
Moss on granitic blocks on the bed of the Reuse, § 37, I.
on the rocks beneath the cascade of the Doux, § 69, I.
in the bed of the Suze, § 126, I.
over which a brook that joins the Elbe falls
473, II.
in a cascade,
on the rock over which the Kockel falls in a cascade, §
513, II.
- over which the Elbe falls in a cascade, § 536,
II.
XX.
The Lakes and open horizontal spaces on the course of Rivers
afford a proof that the latter have not excavated the channels
in which they flow.
* Phenomena of Lakes.
Lake on the course of the Doux, §§ 67, 69, I.
Lakes of Neufchatel and Bienne, which, though once united,
are now separated by alluvial grounds, §§ 87, 129, 130, I.
which receive the waters descending from the Schnee-
koppe, $529, II.
Lake of Fichtelsee, in the mountains of Fichtelberg, which, like
the lakes in the low grounds of Mecklenburg, is filling with
peat, § 699, II.
VOL. II.
Ff
Lake
434
Lake of Weissenstadt, §§ 710, 716, II.
Pools on the courses of the streams descending from the Giant's
mountains, §§ 498, 543, 547, 553, II.
below the Schnee-grübe, § 521, II.
Pool on the course of a rivulet in Sarony, § 609, II.
Pools on the course of the branches of the Mayn, § 642, II.
of the Eger, $ 717, II.
of the Naab, § 725, II.
Small ponds and marshy spaces in the valley of the Wiesent, $
679, II.
** Open horizontal spaces, in which, as in Lakes, Rivers have
deposited whatever materials they have collected in their course,
On the course of the Doux, §§ 105, 107, 1.
of the Reuse, § 139, I.
of the Ocker, §§ 397, 398, I.
of the Elbe, § 403, I. §§ 773, 780, 804, IĮ.
of the Buber, §§ 554, 564, 566, 568, II.
of the White Mayn, §§ 637, 638, II.
of the Topel, $ 745, II.
XXI.
Phenomena of Peat.
Peat-moss in the Val de la Sagne, §§ 75, 76, I.
Peat formed, near Dunkirk, on a soil consisting of sea-sand
which contains recent shells, § 267, I.
Peut-moors in the country of Bremen, §§ 277, 278, 315, I.
near Lunenburgh, § 323, I.
3
Peat-moor
495
Peat-moors in the country of Hanover, $§ 340, 341, I.
Peat filling up the Fichtel-see,' § 699, II.
on one side of the Ochsen-kopf, § 703, II.
Peat-moor in which the Lake of Weissenstadt is situated, § 710,
11.
from which the Black Elster issues, § 835, II.
The actions of running waters, of atmospherical causes, and of
gravity, afford, by their progress, a variety of Chronometers,
manifestly indicating that our continents, on which these
actions have been exercised, cannot be of any higher anti-
quity than is asserted in the MOSAIC HISTORY. XXII-
XXVI.
XXII.
Chronometers afforded by the decomposition of various kinds of
stone.
* Masses rounded by the decomposition of their angles.
Masses rounded, while still remaining in their original situation
in a granitic rock, near Darmstadt, § 238, I.
Rounded granitic blocks in the country of Bremen, §§ 282,
285, I.
Columnar piles of rounded blocks of sand-stone, near the Elbe,
$$ 463-467, II.
of granite, in the Giant's
mountains, §§ 510, 516, 517, 551, 552, II.
Rounded blocks of sand-stone on the course of the Buber, §
580, II.
r f 2
Sinall
436
}
Small rocks, in the valley of the Wiesent, consisting of two
different kinds of strata, and reduced by decomposition to
the form of mushrooms, § 680, II.
Granitic columns on the Rollen-stein, reduced to their present
form by decomposition, § 714, II.
Erosion of rocks of sand-stone near the Elbe, § 795, II.
** Increasing effects of the erosion produced by the wind on
stones.
On rocks of lime-stone at Suns-pareil, § 648, II.
of sand-stone at Adersbach, § 649, II.
*** Sand produced by decomposition.
Of granite, in the Hartz, §§ 177, 179, I.
-- in the Giant's mountains, i§§ 509-512, 515, 516,
524, 525, 540, 549, 551-553, 557, 559, 562, 661, II.
in the Fichtelberg, §§ 714, 718, 722, 727, II.
near Carlsbad, §§ 750, 751, II.
Of porphyry, near Töpliz, § 770, II.
XXIII.
Chronometers afforded by Slopes.
• Slopes of rubbish formed by the crumbling down of abrupt
sides.
On the sides of a combe in the Jura, § 26, I.
of the Val de Travers, §§ 31, 35, I.
On
437
On the banks of the Suze, § 127, J.
of the Ilse, where these slopes occasionally slip
down, 393, I.
On the side of the Spitzberg, § 479, II.
On the sides of the Schnee-grübe, § 521, II.
of the combe of Berneck, 633, II.
of the valley of the White Mayn, § 636, II.
of the Wiesent, §§ 653, 655, II.
of a cleft near Muggendorf, § 673, II.
of the Biliner-stein, § 765, II.
On successive terraces on the side of the Ertz-gebürge, § 768,
II.
of mountains near Töpliz, §
776, II.
On the sides of mountains near the Elbe, $ 781, II.
On the banks of the Elbe, §§ 790, 800, 802, 804, 806, 811, 814,
817, 822, II.
On the sides of a valley near Meissen, § 812, II.
**Reduction of cliffs into grassy slopes.
On the course of the Elbe, §§ 301, 326, 327, 403, 405, I. §§
802, 804, 805, 817, 822, II.
In the Giant's mountains, § 520, II.
On the course of the Bober, § 564, II.
of the Oder, § 593, II.
of the Havel, § 601, II.
of the Red Mayn, §§ 686, 687, II.
of the Eger, § 742, II.
On the side of a valley near Podhorsam, 757, II.
XXIV.
438
I
XXIV.
Chronometer of Alluvial Soils.
Interval between the lakes of Neufchatel and Bienne, composed
of alluvial soils, §§ 87, 129, 130, I.
Roman sepulchres at Coblentz covered, to a great thickness,
with the sediments of the Rhine and the Moselle, §§ 244–
246, I.
Alluvial soils on the course of the Elbe, §§ 302, 310, 313, 315,
324, 327, 405, 406, I. §§ 607, 780, 825, 836, II.
of the Bober, §§ 574, 577, II.
of the Oder, $$ 593, 596, II.
Maritime new soils formed on the coast of Bremen by the sea.
sand, and the sediments of the Elbe, §§ 277, 306-308, I.
1
XXV.
Chronometer of the formation of Tofus and Stalactites.
I.
Tofus in a cavern near the issue of the Bied, §§ 38, 39,
on the sides of the calcareous eminences of the Alps, §
41,
I.
on the bed of the Wiesent, § 663, II.
Stalactites in which the bones of white bears are imbedded, in
Gillingreuth-höhle, in the country of Bayreuth, §§ 657, 660,
661, II.
in Rosenmullers höhle, $$ 664-670, II.
XXVI.
439
XXVI.
Chronometers resulting from the progress of agriculture and
human labour.
Demolition of rocks near Rehburg, § 333, I.
Names of places, in some parts of Germany, indicative of the
period when lands were first taken into cultivation, § 374, I.
§ 643, II.
Commencement of cultivation on lands abandoned by the
Bober, § 574, II.
Progress of cultivation on hills bordering the Oder, § 594, II,
on slopes near the Elbe, § 814, II.
Artificial formation of alluvial soils, § 820, II.
1
THE END.
Law and Gilbert, Printers, St. John's Square, London,
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