Observations on the Glaciers of the Alps. 083 



^^Hiifch'he had made on that interesting country, in a memoir 

 %hich at first had been read to the Society of Natural History 

 *6f Soleuro, of which Mr Huo;i is President, and which had af- 

 terwards been printed. The excursions of the author hare been 

 'principally in the eastern part of the chain which separates the 

 Canton of Berne from the Vallais, and farther from the Grisons- 

 "They reach to the summitof the Finstcraarlwrn, the most elevated 

 4f)ieak of the chain, and which does not yield to any among the 

 'Alps except Mont Blanc and Mont Rosa. The narrative of this 

 attempt and some others analogous, will furnish matter for an in- 

 teresting article in another number of this Journal ; but we shall 

 confine ourselves for the present to record some observations on 

 the glaciers. The subject has been treated by Saussure in the first 

 volume * of his Travels among the Alps, with the perspicuity and 

 correctness which always distinguish this celebrated geologist; but 

 new documents will not be useless. The attention of De Saus- 

 sure, at the period when he published this part of his work, had 

 been particularly directed to the chain of Mont Blanc, and con- 

 sequently to the Glaciers of Savoy. The observations of Mr 

 Hugi have been made concerning a different region, perhaps 

 still richer in glaciers. It is interesting to compare the latter 

 with the former. 



The author established at first, as had been done by De 

 Saussure, a distinction between two kinds of glaciers, for which 

 the German language possesses two different expressions {Jim 

 and glctscher)^ and which, in French, are confounded under the 

 denomination of glacierst. The former is that stratum of gi-ai 

 nular and permanent snow, which covers the summits and the 

 declivities of very high mountains ; the latter is that of those 

 large rivers of ice, more or less opaque, which descenii from 

 those mountains by lateral valleys, and often over an extent of 

 many leagues, even to the heart of the inhabited valleys; they 

 are also sometimes named mcrs de glace. Among the latter, 

 tlie most remarkable are those which surround Mont Blanc, 

 Mont Cervio, andPiDdteraarlioFtL - All the otbeiis^ fVom Savoy 

 .,r . u.> / f-i'tov/ <>Ifl.vnfR7 YUiiiii y_(l nwofiyl vbuyila ^itjuH iM 

 ^^•■:^ditioniD4vols.quarto>Neucha^lgji ^,.„„hi1 h'.uin.i \nn. <jw.ij\c[ 



t Having had freciucnt opportihiiti^^ o^^ejffip^ifil^ fl»j^,g|f^ 

 Bernese Alps, we can voiuli In tl.e accuracy of Prof. Hugi*8 statements. 

 Tram. -, -.if -^rH r;! h-,*M.f>'.' j • 



