OF THE VALLEY OF THE RHINE.
89
being found at many different levels on the slopes that flank the
Rhine valley, far better than that of a hypothetical partial submer-
gence of the country which converted a large part of the valley into
a kind of freshwater estuary. Thus the Jurassic hills between Her-
holz and Ettenheim on the right bank are partly covered by these
old river-deposits to heights of about 200 feet above the river, while
lower down, as at "Worms, the Loess rests on river-gravel close to the
great plain

and at Eltville the Loess covered with vineyards descends
to the level of the Rhine. As the river by degrees lowered the level
of the plain, it left its finer detritus at these and many other levels.
While this plain still retained its original high level, and the
Rhine, as already stated, flowed through the upland slopes formed
of Devonian rocks now lying between Bingen and Konigswinter,
it first began to form the gorge

and as this work of watery
erosion went on, the water, constantly deepening its channel, at
length scooped it to its present depth.
The traces of its temporary levels as the river cut its way down,
may still be seen on the cliffs high above the present surface of the
water. Thus on the hill behind Bingen, called the Rochusberg,
on the spur of Devonian quartz rock on which the Hotel Hartmann
stands, there is a chapel, called St. Roche, standing on the relics of a
plain 341 feet above the river, and which a little further west rises
to a height of nearly 400 feet. This plateau, also in a fragmentary
shape, is continued further down the Rhine. Where the gorge
begins, going down the river, it presents the outline shown in fig. 4.
Fig. 4. — Section across the Rhine Valley, showing the present and old
Levels.
1. The present level of the Ehine. 2. Part of an old level of tbe river.
3. Part of the hilly ground beyond, that formed the original river-bank.
Lower down the river, below Mederheimbach, the left bank, looked
at in front, presents the aspect shown in fig. 5.
The plain, 3, slopes gently to the north

and numerous gullies or
minor valleys, which open out just above the present bank of the
Rhine and end in the plain above, have been produced by atmospheric
decomposition and rain and snow during the time that the river
has been cutting its way from 3, its higher, to 1, its present level.
At Wellmich, looking down the river, the general appearance of
the high banks is given in fig. 6, which shows the terraced plain on
the left bank receding to the north in a gradual perspective, the
more hilly ground to the right and left that bounds these terraced
plains not being visible from this point of