My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY WORK 215fact of direct observation. Every future tour toScotland, to the lake district, or to Switzerlandbecame doubled in interest. I read a good deal ofthe literature of the subject, and have, I believe,in my later writings been able to set forth theevidence in favour of the glacial origin of lakebasinsmore forcibly than it has ever been donebefore.In 1867 I spent the month of June in Switzerlandwith my wife, staying at Champery, oppositethe beautiful Dent du Midi, where at first we werethe only visitors in a huge new hotel, but for thesecond week had the company of an English clergyman,his wife, and son. We greatly enjoyed thebeautiful subalpine flowers then in perfection.We then went by Martigny over the St. Bernard,reaching the hospice after dark through deep snow,and next day walked down to Aosta, a place whichhad been recommended to me by Mr. WilliamMathews, a well-known Alpine climber. It was avery hot place, and its chief interest to us was anexcursion on mules to the Becca de Nona, which tookus a long day, going, up by the easiest and descendingthe most precipitous road—the latter a mere staircaseof rock. The last thousand feet of the mountain Iwalked up alone, and was highly delighted with thesummit and the wonderful scene of fractured rocks,ridges, and peaks all around, but more especially withthe summit itself, hardly so large as that of Snowdonand exhibiting far grander precipices and rock-masses,all in a state of visible degradation, and showing howpowerfully the atmospheric forces of denudation arein constant action at this altitude — 10,380 feet.Hardly less interesting were the charming little alpineplants in the patches of turf and the crevices in the