THE LAW OF CIRCULATION. 141 



That the glacier and the river are in effect the same ; 

 that between them there is a resemblance so com- 

 plete that it is impossible to find in the latter a cir- 

 cumstance which does not exist in the former ; and 

 as the river drains the ivaters which fall upon the hill- 

 sides to the ocean, so the glacier drains the ice which 

 forms from the snows on the mountain-sides down to 

 the same level : 



And he closes his argument with declaring the 

 Law^ : — 



" The conserving will of the Creator has employed 

 for the permanence of His work the great Law of Cir- 

 culation, which, strictly examined, is found to reproduce 

 itself in all parts of Nature." 



And, in illustration of this law, we see that the 

 waters circulate from the ocean to the air by evapora- 

 tion, from the air again to the earth in the form of 

 dew^s and rains and snows, and from the earth back 

 again to the ocean through the great rivers which 

 have gathered up the little streams from every hill- 

 side and valley. 



. Now^ this law of Circulation is, in the icy regions of 

 the Alps, of the lofty Himalayas, of the Andes, of the 

 mountains of Norway and of Greenland, the same as 

 in the lower and warmer regions of the earth, where 

 the rivers drain the surface-water to the sea. 



A glacier is in effect but a flowing stream of frozen 

 water ; and the river systems of the Temperate and 

 Equatorial Zones become the glacier systems of the 

 Arctic and Antarctic. 



We have now seen that a part of the snow which 

 falls upon the mountains is converted into ice, and 

 this ice, strange though it seems, is movable. By 

 what exact principle of movement has not yet been 



