252 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1883. 



the gathering together of melted water into small pools or lakes, 

 or over where dark stones had sunk by the agency of the sun's 

 warmth ; but in no ease had the holes or cavities penetrated 

 wholly through the iceberg, except on its thinnest outer edges. 

 The temperature necessary for melting was reduced with the 

 depth, till at length there was not heat enough to melt further. 

 The focts all tended to show that very little water would 

 pass through a glacier by wa^^^ of its surface. Some may pass 

 over to the sides, and get beneath in that way, but the outer 

 ledges of ice seemed to rest very firmly on the ground, as it neces- 

 sarily must from its arch-like form, owing to the river beneath 

 and the immense weight pressing on the edges of this arch ; only 

 .occasionally can water be admitted that way, and scarcely could 

 anywhere the volume so acquired be described as flowing from the 

 side of the main glacier. What becomes of the melting snow on 

 the snow-cap of the glacier, the continual and almost imper- 

 ceptible meltings under the sun's influence at these heights ? A 

 prevailing impression is that glacier-ice is but snow which has 

 become ice by the enormous pressure of so thick a body. If this 

 be so, water thawed out from the snow by the sun's rays could 

 not percolate far below the surface of the snow, and there seems 

 no way left to account for the river beneath. If this be not so, 

 then the way would be clear. With no ice below the snow, with 

 the thermometer at the ground above the freezing-point, through 

 the natural warmth of the earth protected by the'snow-cap from 

 escaping, the percolating water would descend to the surface of 

 the mountain-top, part entering to furnish fountain-heads for 

 springs and underground streams, running often hundreds of miles 

 away, and the balance running down under the ice-channel formed 

 by the glacier. 



It seems such a fair assumption that this may be so, that it is 

 worth while to consider the evidence offered for the belief that 

 glacier-ice is snow under the pressure of its own weight. Snow 

 has been artificall}' brought under pressure to ice, but such ice is 

 not translucent, as is ordinary crystallized ice. The ice of the 

 Alaska glaciers is i-emarkably clear, and, when in the proper 

 position against the atmosphere, presents the most lovely cerulean 

 tints imaginable. One of the speaker's pleasantest experiences 

 was a wandering among the wrecks of icebergs strewn all along 

 the shore, in Hoona or Bartlett Bay.' 



No crystal could possibly be clearer than the fragments strewn 

 everywhere along the beach. The only difference observed 

 between this and the ordinary ice of every-day experience was 

 that, melting in the mouth, it would divide into pieces of the size 

 of peas before wholly uncongealed. Again, from the vessel 



' At page 187, Proceedings of the Academy, 1883, Hood's Bay was 

 inadvertently used for Hopna Bay, Hood's Bay is some hundred miles 

 south of this point. 



