Decrease Of The Alps

A mouorn Wríter on Nature anO Art has spoken üf tho gradual but sure decrease of body in the Alpa mountuins ; bis tboughts and observations t!ie travelorniay casily verify. It a u ritten of men that thoy all do fade as a loaf. Tbo hills, also, are wastiug ond wearing awuy, and slowly ruauiug down to tho sea. Tho valley is a witnefs to tho mouDtaiu'b weakne.-ss. Tho glacier pulvoiizes thw rock, and every luouataiu streanilot carries down its coatí ibutiou to tho plain, perliaps oaob drop a 8andgrain. Tba waste of tho uiountaius is forniing new éarth. Noarly cvery Alpiuo lake íb a proof of this. Tho Ruine deposita in Lake Coustanco bavo formed a largo delta. What was lbrmerly a, largo bay iu Lake Lucerna is now a mursb ; aud iu acothur part tbe rocks that onc üttlo broofc has brtuglit dtwu have nearly sto'pped navigatioa. Tho earth that tbo Kbouo bus gathored has shorteocd tbu s'u:her!) boro of Lak-.i Geneva niño miles. By obiorving aud weighing the fitnoutit of sediment iu a oeríain quauti'y water taken froin a glacier streamlet, fue uumber of tons wbicb Mont Blaro annually loses waa at once estimated. It tbus bjcomos a matter iilmost vvithin thc raníe of nwthetnatioal calculation to compute tho nummer üf yeai-B wheu tho niountains shall iave yieldsd their strotigth, aud vvhea tho " bilis shnl! have bcvu ma'lj 1 '