Excerpt from The Journal of Geology, 1905, Vol. 13
The study of river action has been very much advanced in the Alps, whose torrents give magnificent examples of the destructive and constructive action of running water. But the surface features of this great European mountain chain do not all correspond to those which we might expect after a careful study of river action. Rivers seek to establish a normal curve, which grows continually gentler down-stream. The valleys of the Alps, however, do not show such a regular grade. The floors of the headwaters show many irregularities, and gentle grades alternate with steep ones. Instead of a slope curve, there is a succession of descending steps. Farther down we find for several miles a valley floor sloping normally; this floor has been aggraded by the river and often ends in a lake basin, where the normal slope is changed into a reversed one. Most of these features are not produced, but rather are destroyed, by river action. Indeed, we see how the rivers intrench themselves in the steep parts of the stair slope, and how they fill up the lakes, which generally occupy the lower part of their valleys in the Alps. In short, their action is directed toward removing the irregularities of their courses.
There is still one other important point in which the slope of Alpine valleys does not obey those rules which control normal valleys; the law of Playfair is not applicable to them.
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