Hot and Thermal Spring's. 349 



about 33°.01 above the mean, the mean temperature of that 

 spring must have been about 36°.81. 



However, as these springs rise out of the limestone rocks, 

 which are there so enormously fissured, and therefore probably 

 rise from a great depth, it is to be supposed that they are ther- 

 mal, and that the coldest of them bears a higher temperature 

 than the mean temperature of the place where it rises. If this 

 is the case, it is very possible that the mean temperature of the 

 soil on the Spital Matte does not exceed S2°.92, as was sup- 

 posed in Chap. XVIII. 



Now, if the mean temperature of the soil near the Lammein 

 glacier is below 32°, it must be one of those glaciers which can- 

 not melt from underneath. 



I was enabled to assure myself of the correctness of this opi- 

 nion in another manner. The brook which flows from this 

 great and broad glacier was on the 5th September so small, that 

 one might easily walk through it. Besides, even that small 

 quantity of water seems for the most part to have proceeded 

 from a waterfall, which precipitates itself into the glacier on the 

 north side, and reappears at the lower extremity ; for during my 

 stay there the temperature of the air was only 38°. 7, so that but 

 very little could have melted away even from the upper surface. 

 The water which trickled down from the surface of the glacier 

 was also very inconsiderable. 



I learned from my guide, a well-informed chamois hunter from 

 the Baths qf Lenck; that the water of this glacier-stream de- 

 creases as the seasons advance, and that in winter no more water 

 flows out of the glacier. The same is the case with two small 

 brooks, which fall in cascades from a small glacier, stretching 

 down from the Daubenhorn. There can be no doubt that these 

 also only result from the melting of the ice on the upper surface 

 of the glacier by the heat of the atmosphere. 



My guide also related to me some remarkable facts concern- 

 ing the ice-cold, periodical spring of the Leibfraw, mentioned 

 by Ebel,* situated 200 paces distant from the Baths qf Leuck, 

 which are also corroborative of the above opinions ; namely, 



• Anlcituiig die Schweiz zii bercisen Ziirich, 1810. 3(1 edition. Part iii. 

 ]). 333. 



