460 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



results of observations upon the glaciers which they enjoy such re- 

 markable facilities for examiiiinor. About 175 miles in a direct line to 

 the northwest of Christiania (which is not only the capital of Norway, 

 but the seat of one of the best universities of Europe) is a spur of the 

 principal range included between the two inlets of Sogne and Nord 

 fiords. Upon its top is the largest snow-field of Norway, which bears 

 the name of Justedal (Jostedalsbraeen). Its superior magnitude and 

 its comparative nearness to Christiania have led to its selection by 

 two of the most eminent geologists of the country as a subject of spe- 

 cial study. In 1869 Prof. Sexe published, as the "Programme" of the 

 university for the first semester of the preceding year, a paper on the 

 great glacier of Boium ; and, in 1870, M. C. de Seue, of the Meteoro- 

 logical Institute, gave to the world, as the " Programme " for the 

 second semester of that year, a more extended account of his obser- 

 vations under the title of " Le Neve de Justedal et ses Glaciers." 

 Some of the results of the researches of these gentlemen may be of 

 interest even to those who would soon grow weary of purely scientific 

 details. 



This immense field of snow and ice measures over forty miles in 

 length from northeast to southwest, and from four to seven miles or 

 more in breadth, covering, with its dependencies, according to M. de 

 Seue's calculations, not less than some 550 square miles. The weue, or 

 snow-field proper, is by no means a dead level, but the inequalities 

 of the rocky crags are, for the most part, concealed by the thick de- 

 posit of snow, which is supposed to be at least 150 feet deep on the 

 average, while in places it certainly fills up depressions of twice that 

 depth. Here the snow is granular, lying in distinct layers, the prod- 

 uct of the storms of successive seasons, and rent with frequent fis- 

 sures. The glaciers spring from the edge. Wherever the jagged 

 clifts with which that edge bristles fall away and leave ravines, there 

 the snow-field seeks an outlet. The glaciers are, as it were, the rills 

 by which the great perennial reservoir discharges into the valleys 

 below. So numerous are they, that their exact number has never 

 been ascertained. Of glaciers of the first class, or those which pour 

 their icy streams quite down into the valley, there are twenty-four ; 

 but, if we also include in the enumeration the glaciers of the second 

 class, or those which remain suspended on the mountain-sides, the 

 number is counted by hundreds. Some of the second class, it may be 

 noticed, seem almost entitled, by reason of their breadth and depth, 

 to be included in the higher class. 



Each glacier presents many of the same phenomena as all the rest. 

 From the moment it leaves the parent nme,^ or snow-field, the consti- 

 tution of the mass is difierent from that of recently-fallen snow. Com- 

 pressed by the immense weight of tlie superior strata, that lower por- 

 tion of the 7iev'e which feeds the glacier is, at the very start, trans- 

 formed into a solid ice, whose particles are cemented by the alternate 



