The Valley of the Chamonix (or Chamounix) lies to the west of Mont Blanc, in the Alps Mountain Ranges. The valley was covered by glaciers in the early seventeeth century, which buried houses and cultivated land. Ruskin 's visits to Chamonix included those made in 1833, 1835, 1842, 1844, 1846, 1849, 1851, 1854, 1856, 1858, 1859, 1863, 1869, 1874 and 1888. Chamonix is the focus for much of Ruskin's work in Switzerland. The studies of 1849 and 1854 provided much of the basis for the discussion of aesthetic emotion in the third and fourth volumes of Modern Painters. He continued his geological and cloud studies there in 1856. 'L'Esterelle', the penultimate chapter of Praeterita, was largely written at Chamonix. Ruskin drew the valley of Chamonix with Mont Blanc and the Aguilles in 1844 and La Cascade de la Folie in 1849. In the fourth volume of Modern Painters he discusses the stones of Chamonix and in 1863 he made unrealised plans to build there.