The Tarns of the Canton Ticino (Switzerland)

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Abstract
I. Introduction The study of lakes, so long neglected by geographers in the past, has of recent years received a great impetus from the investigations of Prof. Forel, M. Delebecque, Prof. Penck, and other workers on the Continent, and of Prof. Russell, Prof. Gilbert, and Prof. W. M. Davis in America; while in our own country, Dr. Mill, Dr. Marr, Sir John Murray, Mr. Pullar, and others have aroused our interest in this fascinating subject. In his exhaustive ‘Handbook of Limnology,’ Prof. Forel remarks:— ‘Each lake is an organism in itself, each has its peculiarities, its special history in the past and in the present, each deserves a special description. Hence the charm and also the scientific value which attach to the study of lakes in general and to that of each lake in particular.’ Of all the numerous interesting branches of study connected with lakes, that of the origin of the hollow in which the lake occurs is the one that must especially appeal to the geologist; while of these hollows, those basins that are entirely surrounded by solid rock are certainly the most interesting and the most difficult to explain. The theory, originally advanced by the late Sir Andrew Ramsay, and supported by Tyndall, Gastaldi, and de Mortillet, which would have us regard the majority of the large Alpine lakes as due to the direct erosive action of ice, has gradually given rise to a detailed consideration of the genesis of each individual lake. At the present day

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