Researches on Existing Glaciers, 263 



It results from this table, that the quantity of water accumu- 

 lated in the two bores was not only different, but was propor- 

 tional to the surfaces of the bores ; whence we conclude that it 

 is by no means introduced from the opening at the top, but that 

 it is exuded by the sides. If it were otherwise, the small bore 

 would not on every occasion have contained a quantity of 

 water so small compared with that accumulated at the same 

 time in the large bore. The contrary would even have taken 

 place, because the small bore was narrower than the large. 

 The fact of the quantity of water being unequal on the diffe- 

 rent days is also not without its importance, for it proves to 

 us that no fissure or canal existed which could place the bores 

 in communication with any reservoirs of water ; for, in that 

 case, the accumulation of water would have been proportional 

 to the interval of time comprised between the observations. 

 There ^s only one conclusion to be drawn, which is, that the 

 glacier imbibes water in unequal proportions at different hours 

 of the day, at different external temperatures, and according 

 as the air is dry or humid ; or, in other words, that the glacier 

 should be regarded as a spongy body of ice, which has imbibed 

 a larger or smaller quantity of the water that circulates in 

 its interior. 



It is true, that, during the five days when the above observa- 

 tions were made, the temperature fell only once below 

 (32° F.) during the night, and that it remained most frequently 

 above 0. We have had other nights during which the mini- 

 mum has been at + 2° (35°.6 F.). We must not, however, pro- 

 ceed too rapidly to draw from this inferences adverse to the 

 theory of dilatation, and above all we must not thence con- 

 clude that the glacier only imbibes as much water as there is 

 at the surface. The state of the atmosphere no doubt influ- 

 ences the quantity of water which circulates in the glacier, 

 but this influence is not such as to prevent water existing in 

 the interior of the mass even when the temperature falls tem- 

 porarily under (32° F.). During the night of the 4th and 

 5th September, the temperature of the air fell to — 4° ( + 24.8 

 F.) ; on the evening of the 4th it snowed, and on the morning 

 of the 5th the glacier was covered with six inches of snow, and 

 nevertheless we have seen that, notwithstanding the cold, the 



