rather than forming the head of a valley ; it is really a semicircular recess in one of its walls, between the towers of the Pointe de Tenneverges and the lower summit of the Tete Noire.
The base of the former mountain consists of a vast mass of compact limestone, which also (as in the former case) sweeps round the cirque in a wall of precipices full 1000 feet, and often more, in height. This, in the Pointe de Tenneverges, is surmounted by slopes, marking doubtless the presence of more shaly strata ; and these are capped by another vast mass of limestone with more frequent partings, which is crowned by the actual peak. Above the wall of the cirque, and excavated in the lower part of this limestone and in the subjacent shale, is an upland glen which leads up to the Col de Tenneverges (8154 feet).
In the neighbourhood of the Fer-a-Cheval, as in the Creux de Champs, the strata, though occasionally locally contorted, are on the whole tolerably horizontal ; and it too is remarkable for the number and beauty of its waterfalls. In the spring and early summer, " every notch along the serrated line of crag becomes the birthplace of a waterfall, from the tiny thread of spray which quivers in every breeze and dances irresolutely down the sombre crag, to the furious torrent plunging in one bold leap from top to bottom of the deepest precipice, and announcing its presence with a voice that emulates the thunders of the sky " (Wills, The Eagle's Nest, p. 34)*.
The Croda Malcora. — The cirque of the Croda Malcora, high up among the crags of the dolomitic mass that culminates in the Sorapis, has been termed " another Gavarnie " by Messrs. Gilbert and Churchill†, though to myself it appeared to present the distinctive features of a cirque less conspicuously than the two described above. Its rocky floor is broken into a series of irregular steps, supporting some patches of snow and glacier ; it is, however, enclosed by a magnificent wall of dolomitic crags, probably not less than 1000 feet in height. The cascades here, so far as I remember, can only be conspicuous after heavy rain or in the spring time ; for in summer the upper crags are almost bare of snow, and dry. Time did not allow me to enter it ; but I obtained an excellent view into it from a short distance away. The same district of the Ampezzo offers several instances of glens with a cirque-like formation ; among these are one of no great size but with steep sides, nestling beneath the great peaks of Monte Tofana, and a most singular one, well seen from the summit of that mountain, termed the Croda di Lagazoi, which I can only compare to a rude amphitheatre with walls of rock instead of masonry, through which a complete breach has been made at one of the vertices of the ellipse.
The Creux du Vent (Jura). — The Creux du Vent, near Noiraigue station on the Val Travers railway, is reported to be the finest example of a cirque in the Jura. It is thus described by Mr. Ball : — " a
- The neighbourhood, in which are several magnificent ranges of precipices,
is well described by the same author. Alpine Journal, vol. ii. p. 49.
† The Dolomite Mountains, p. 407.
