Central Europe . tain tract, whose outline earlybecame irregular. The connection between various partsof the ancient valley system has been reconstructed bygeologists from the separated elements. One old courseof the Rhine is indicated by the succession of valleysfrom Sargans by the lakes of Wallenstadt and Zurich tothe Limmat. An old middle course of the Reuss passesfrom Brunnen, where the delta of the Muotta interruptedit, past Schwyz to the lakes of Lowerz and Zug. Towardsthe same basin, too, goes the valley whose upper part iscrossed by the Briinig railway, and whose lower part is THE ALPS
Central Europe . tain tract, whose outline earlybecame irregular. The connection between various partsof the ancient valley system has been reconstructed bygeologists from the separated elements. One old courseof the Rhine is indicated by the succession of valleysfrom Sargans by the lakes of Wallenstadt and Zurich tothe Limmat. An old middle course of the Reuss passesfrom Brunnen, where the delta of the Muotta interruptedit, past Schwyz to the lakes of Lowerz and Zug. Towardsthe same basin, too, goes the valley whose upper part iscrossed by the Briinig railway, and whose lower part is THE ALPS AND THE GERMAN DANUBE 29 filled by the transverse arms of the Lake of lakes of Baldegg and Hallwyl, too, as well as that ofSempach, lie in the bed of similar valleys. The closingof these valleys and the transformation of some of theirparts into lakes are due in part to subsequent structuraldisturbances, in part to later deposits and more especiallyto the influences of the Glacial Periods. There was a. Fig. 6.—Ancient Valleys of the Four Forest Cantons. (After Albert Heim.) time when the Alpine valley glaciers covered the wholeland up to the Jura without a break: when they after-wards divided and began to retreat, they left behind, notmerely occasional erratic blocks, but whole ridges ofimmense moraines and broad strata of rubble. It isamazing to see how freshly preserved—like the skin fromwhich a snake has just slipped out—are the amphitheatresof moraine left by the Rhone glacier at Wangen on the 3o CENTRAL EUROPE Aar, and by the Reuss glacier at Mellingen. The terraces,by which many of the more deeply cut modern riversare bordered, are also made of boulders and pebblesbrought down by old glacier streams. Sometimes therewill be several such terraces, one above another: atSchaffhausen there are as many as five. These are dueeither to several glacial periods, or to the repeated advance,during the same period, of a glacier, always travellingdown a furrow of eros
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