140 ORIGIN OF GLACIERS. 



of him, that " his knowledge was extensive, his rea- 

 soning close and accurate, and his faculty of observa- 

 tion extraordinary ; " and he early brought his splen- 

 did faculties of mind and his energy of body and 

 profound love of truth to bear upon the elucidation 

 of those natural phenomena which were constantly 

 exhibited in his presence. After many years of con- 

 scientious toil, he gave to the world the results of his 

 systematic investigations in an essay which was pub- 

 lished in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sci- 

 ences of Savoy, entitled, " Theorie des Glaciers de la 

 Savoier 



I will use the information acquired from this source 

 as the basis of my present argument, — to demon- 

 strate, by the law as interpreted to us from the Alps 

 by this learned priest of Annecy, how the Arctic con- 

 tinent receives its cloak of crystals, and how it dis- 

 charges the superabundant accumulation. 



Rendu first observes the piling up of the mountain 

 snows. The snow falling upon the mountains is partly 

 converted into water, which runs away to the river, 

 and through the river to the sea ; and is partly con- 

 verted into ice. The ice thus formed Rendu estimates 

 to equal, in the Alps, fifty-eight inches annually, — 

 "which would make Mont Blanc four hundred feet 

 higher in a century, and four thousand feet higher in 

 a thousand years." 



" Now it is evident," observes he, " that nothing 

 like this can occur in Nature." 



This ice must be removed by the operation of some 

 natural cause ; and observation having shown that 

 this actually takes place, Rendu occupies himself with 

 methods to discover how Nature has performed the 

 task ; and he comes to this very rational conclusion : 



