MONTE ROSA, a mountain of the Pennine Alps, on the borders of Switzerland and Piedmont, is a union of several mountain chains rather than a single summit. Four mountain chains radiate from a centre point, N., S., E., and W., respectively. A ridge of inaccessible mountains extends E. and W., from the Cime de la Pisse on the E. to the Col du Mont Cervin on the W.; and this is intersected at right angles by another chain, extending northwards as far as the Cima di Jazy, and southwards as far as the Col d'Ollen. The centre where these branches unite, called the Signal Kuppe, is not the most elevated point, there being three of greater height on the northern range. The first of these is called the Zumsteinspitze, and is the only one of the three which has been ascended; the second is the Hückelste Spitze, or highest of all, which is connected with the former by a narrow and sharp ridge, descending steeply on one side into a tremendous abyss; and the third
is the "Nord-End," which, like the highest, has not yet been ascended. The difference of the height of these four peaks is not, however, more than 200 feet between the highest and the lowest. The height of the highest is 15,158 feet above the sea. The four branches of Monte Rosa inclose between them four glaciers,—viz., that of Macugnana on the N.E., that of Gorner on the N.W., that of Lys on the S.W., and several of less size in the valley of Sesia on the S.E. The geological formation of Monte Rosa is gneiss and mica-slate; and it separates the waters flowing to the Rhone from those which join the Po. (See Alps.)