The Peaks and Valleys of the Alps

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Excerpt from The Peaks and Valleys of the Alps: With Descriptive TextThe slaty coherents are, as a rule, more easily affected than the limestones by the destructive agents to which they are exposed, and in proportion as they prevail over the compacter rocks, so does the scenery become more wild and ruinous, an example of this will be found on Plate 13. Where, however, they are largely developed, the mountains often become singularly dreary and desolate, their ridges not being composed of a material hard and tenacious enough to weather into bold forms, have a wom ragged outline, which is very paltry when compared with the jagged teeth and pinnacles of the slaty crystallines, and the slopes below are covered with a dull black splintery shale, which, when decomposed, changes rapidly from a burning dust in the sunshine to a slimy mud in the rain, and is therefore wholly unfavourable to vegetable life. Hence, places like the neighbourhood of the Col d'anterne (plate 11) are in reality far more desolate than the most barren slopes of fallen blocks below the hardest crystalline precipices. These, though they crumble away never so slowly, yield at last a wholesome soil, and it is only now and then, when we come upon a bed consisting chie¿y of mica, that we are reminded of the shale districts, where, even if a plant has at last succeeded in taking root in some few inches of friendly soil upon a bank of débn's, it is speedily overwhelmed by a fresh shower of splinters which comes trickling down from above.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.