stony earth bleached white by the peat. Deepening and widening the
channel as it gathers force with the increasing slope, the water digs
into the coating of drift or loose decomposed rock that covers the
hillside. In favourable localities a narrow precipitous gully, twenty or
thirty feet deep, may thus be scooped out in the course of a few years."

If, however, we trace one of the Swiss rivers to its source we shall
generally find that it begins in a snow field or _neve_ nestled in a
shoulder of some great mountain.

Below the _neve_ lies a glacier, on, in, and under which the water runs
in a thousand little streams, eventually emerging at the end, in some
cases forming a beautiful blue cavern, though in others the end of the
glacier is encumbered and concealed by earth and stones.

[Illustration: Fig. 24.--Upper Valley of St. Gotthard.]

The uppermost Alpine valleys are perhaps generally, though by no means
always, a little desolate and severe, as, for instance, that of St.
Gotthard (Fig. 24). The sides are clothed with rough pasture, which is
flowery indeed, though of course the flowers are not visible at a
distance, interspersed with live rock and fallen masses, while along the
bottom rushes a white torrent. The snowy peaks are generally more or
less hidden by the shoulders of the hills.

The valleys further down widen and become more varied and picturesque.
The snowy peaks and slopes are more often visible, the "alps" or
pastures to which the cows are taken in summer, are greener and dotted
with the huts or chalets of the cow-herds, while the tinkling of the
cowbells comes to one from time to time, softened by distance, and
suggestive of mountain rambles. Below the alps there is generally a
steeper part clothed with Firs or with Larches and Pines, some of which
seem as if they were scaling the mountains in regiments, preceded by a
certain number of skirmishers. Below the fir woods again are Beeches,
Chestnuts, and other deciduous trees, while the central cultivated
portion of the valley is partly arable, partly pasture, the latter
differing from our meadows in containing a greater variety of
flowers--Campanulas, Wild Geraniums, Chervil, Ragged Robin, Narcissus,
etc. Here and there is a brown village, while more or less in the centre
hurries along, with a delightful rushing sound, the mountain torrent, to
which the depth, if not the very existence of the valley, is mainly due.
The meadows are often carefully ir