Hot and Thermal Springs. 359 



As water of 41% according to Rumford's* experiments, when 

 left for 30 minutes in contact with ice of 32°, melts away about 

 g'j of its own weight from the ice, and becomes 3° colder, it will 

 melt about one-eighth of its weight by the time that it reaches 

 32°. This will give an approximate measure of the increase of 

 a spring, of the above temperature, which flows under a glacier. 



The springs at Leiickerbad,-\ which rise in such enormous 

 quantities, and with a temperature between 115°.2 and 124°.0at 

 a height of 4295 feet above the level of the sea, render it very 

 probable that hot springs may also come up under glaciers.j 



* Gilbert's Annal. vol. i. p. 334. 



t Besides the large or Lorence spring, which rises like a brook in the front of 

 the Bath-house, and is the warmest, I found twelve others at a little distance 

 from the village, on the north-east side, which are all unused except two, and 

 run into the Dala. 



X Many a warm spring may perhaps lie concealed in the deep valleys of the 

 Alps. And as, in general, such springs rise according to the laws of hydrosta- 

 tics, at the lowest part of the valley, we must expect to meet with them in the 

 bed of the glacier streams. But there they can only be seen during the winter. 

 Thus, in the winter of 1831, some fishermen for the first time discovered a 

 warm spring of 113° in the bed of the Rhone, near the village of Lavey, to 

 the south-east oi Bej:, which the government of the canton Waadt caused to 

 be enclosed, and which has been raised since then to a watering-place. *(See 

 Ann. de Chim. et de Phys. vol. Iviii. p. 109, and Journ. fiir Pract. Chemie, 

 vol. ii. p. 82.) The fissures certainly descend to a great depth in some places 

 into the interior of the rocks. This is evident from the water which oozes out 

 at the foot of the high and naked cliffs of limestone. A most striking example 

 of this is presented by the mountain over which the wonderful pass of the 

 Gemmi leads, and which rises perpendicularly to the height cf about 2000 feet. 

 From all points of this cliff, from top to bottom, drops of water are seen to 

 exude, and for the most part to unite below into a small brook. As when I 

 crossed this pass, it had not rained during the last five days, this water must 

 have come out of the interior of the rock. This is also very strongly corro- 

 borated, by the fact that the Daubiiuee on the Gemmi, which measures one- 

 half a league in length, has no visible outlet, although it receives the water 

 which comes from the great Lammerr glacier, as well as all the rain and snow 

 which falls upon the surrounding high mountains ; further, that several small 

 streams which come from the Dauheahorn gradually lose themselves in the 

 earth ; and, lastly, that on the Gemmi (as in the limestone rocks of Grain, es- 

 pecially near Triste and Fiume ; see Gilb. Ann. vol. xlvi. p. 40i!, and on the 

 Wurtemberg Alp, see Kastner's Archiv. v. 34) are found funnel-shaped holes, 

 4iito which the rain-waters disappear. But waters thus sinking here and in 

 other places through high mountains into the interior, will become heated, 

 and will return to the surface in tiie valleys as warm springs. Kxaniples of 



