264 Professor Agassiz on the Glacier Theory. 



small bore collected that night 1 foot 8 inches, and the large 

 bore 4 feet of water. The snow was perfectly dry, and did 

 not begin to melt until 6 o'clock p.m. 



If these facts were not sufficient to prove that water circu- 

 lates in a liquid state in the interior of the glacier, I could 

 cite others not less conclusive. 1 have often seen water ex- 

 uding along the smooth walls of the crevasses ; and it sufficed 

 to wipe the moist place, to see a little drop of water rise to 

 the spot over which I had passed my handkerchief. Lastly, 

 it will afterwards be seen, that, on my descent to the bottom 

 of a crevasse 120 feet deep, I found the walls of ice bristled 

 in a multitude of places with small icy stalactites, four or five 

 inches long, which evidently proceeded from the drops of water 

 exuding at all these points. 



It appears to me to be demonstrated, that water is diffused 

 in four ways in a glacier : — 



1. By hollows open at the surface, to which numerous rills 

 of water resulting from the melting of the superficial ice con- 

 tribute their supply. These hollows, opening widely to the 

 surface, are crevasses, apertures of cascades, haignoires, and 

 vertical tubes, at the bottom of which there are small frag- 

 ments of rock. It is not necessary to give any other proof of 

 this mode of difi'usion than the following fact : Whenever the 

 night has been very cold, the surface of these pools of water 

 is frozen, but the water beneath is lowered by two or three 

 inches, and covered by a second and thinner crust of ice re- 

 posing immediately on the water ; sometimes, indeed, the 

 water of cavities of small extent has entirely disappeared, 

 although the plates of horizontal ice which cover these hollows 

 indicate that there must have been water to the depth of a 

 foot and even more. I have never, however, seen large bath- 

 shaped hollows {baignoires), full of water, lower their level 

 more than a few inches in the course of a night. I ought to 

 add, that I have never met with a crevasse which went to the 

 bottom, except at the extremity of the glacier. 



2. By internal canals which circulate in the whole mass, 

 like arteries of very various sizes, and which are seen termi- 

 nating here and there on the walls of the crevasses and on the 

 terminal edge of the glacier, where they sometimes form little 



