tion, and of the mechanist for toil; now nourishing
the pasture, and now grinding the corn, of the land which it has first
formed, and now waters.

Sec. 30. I have etched above, Plate +35+, a portion of the flank of the
valley of Chamouni, which presents nearly every class of line under
discussion, and will enable the reader to understand their relations at
once. It represents, as was before stated, the crests of the Montagnes
de la Cote and Taconay, shown from base to summit, with the Glacier des
Bossons and its moraine. The reference figure given at p. 212 will
enable the reader to distinguish its several orders of curves, as
follows:

_h r_. Aqueous curves of fall, at the base of the Tapia; very
characteristic. Similar curves are seen in multitude on the two
crests beyond as _b c_, _c_ B.

_d e_. First lines of projection. The debris falling from the glacier
and the heights above.

_k_, _l_, _n_.Three lines of escape. A considerable torrent (one of whose
falls is the well-known Cascade des Pelerins[91]) descends from
behind the promontory _h_: its natural or proper course would be
to dash straight forward down the line _f g_, and part of it does
so; but erratic branches of it slide away round the promontory,
in the lines of escape, _k_, _l_, &c. Each row of trees marks,
therefore, an old torrent bed, for the torrent always throws
heaps of stones up along its banks, on which the pines, growing
higher than on the neighboring ground, indicate its course by
their supremacy. When the escaped stream is feeble, it steals
quietly away down the steepest part of the slope; that is to say,
close under the promontory, at _i_. If it is stronger, the
impetus from the hill above shoots it farther out, in the line
_k_; if stronger still, at _l_; in each case it curves gradually
round as it loses its onward force, and falls more and more
languidly to leeward, down the slope of the debris.

_r s_. A line which, perhaps, would be more properly termed of
limitation than of escape, being that of the base or termination
of the heap of torrent debris, which in shape corresponds exactly
to the curved lip of a wave, after it has broken, as it slowly
stops upon a shallow shore. Within this line the ground is
entirely composed of heaps of stones, cemented by granite dust
a