Hot a7id Thermal Springs. 373 



in the Alps that on the whole the glaciers increase. Thus Ebel* 

 mentions in several places that, according to tradition, many 

 elevated valleys, which are now quite filled with glaciers, were 

 formerly fruitful. t 



Whether these traditions, themselves not sufficiently confirm- 

 ed, are enough to prove the increase of the glaciers to be a 

 general phenomenon, is very doubtful.:}: 



This, however, is certain, that there are two causes which 

 operate uninterruptedly in the Alps, and act in opposition to 

 the increase of the glaciers. These causes are the wearing away 

 of the earth beneath the glaciers, caused by their progress down- 

 wards, and by the continual running of the streams under them ; 

 and, secondly, the falling down of ridges and of high masses of 

 rock. 



When we consider that there is always a great quantity of 

 stones and blocks of rock beneath the glaciers,§ which must sus- 



• Part II. 302 ; III. 173 ; IV. 109, &c. 



t BufFon, Epoques de la Nature, Ceme edit. Note justif. 31 Bourrit, des 



glaciers de Savoie, Geneve, 1773, p. 111. The same in hisDescrip. des aspects 



du Mont Blanc, Lausanne, 177fi, p. 8. 62 Bergman, physikal. Erdbeschreib. 



Pari II. p. 5. c. 2. § 157 Altmann's Versnch einer historisch phys. Beschreib. 



der Helvet. Eisgebirge. Ziirich. 175 J. 141 — Schultes ueber die Tvroler 

 Gletscher in Gilb. Annal. xx. 243; von Buch on those of Norway ir the same, 



vol. xli. p. 22 — Pontoppidan, Nat'url. Historic v. Norwegen, i. 56 Hansteen 



in the Edinburgh Philos. Journ. x. 213. Against this, see Naumann in Leon- 

 hard's Taschenbuch Jahrgang, xvii. p. 163 — Scoresby ueber die Gletscher in 

 Spitzbergen. Gilbert's Annal. vol. Ixix. j). 142 — De Luc in the same, p. 149. 

 — Charpentier in the same, vol. Ixiii. p. 408 — Biselx in the same, vol. Ixiv. 

 p. 191. — Pictet in the same, p. 200. — Anmerk the same, vol. Ix. p. 334. 



+ Von Welden (der Monte Rosa, Vienna, 1824, 78. 81 ;) Kastbofer (in his 

 prize BIssay in ZschockeUeberlieferungen, 1820, 505 and 574;) Hegetsch- 

 weiler (Ileisen in den Gebirgsstock zwischen, Glarus, and Graubiinden in den 

 Jahren, 1819, 1820, and 1822, ZUrich. 1825, pp. II, 12,41,54, 103;) and 

 Hugi (Naturhistorische Alpenreisen, Solotburn, 1831) mention indeed many 

 examples of periodical advances and retreats of glaciers, but found no proofs 

 of their absolute increase within thousands of years — Venefz (see Kastner's 

 Archiv fur Chemie und Me'teorologie, ii. 225) thinks himself entitled to con- 

 elude, from various geognostical phenomena, such as the occurrence of large 

 loose blocks of rock on extensive plains, &c. &c. that the glaciers are in the 

 act of retreating. 



§ The immense heaps of detritus (Gandecken, Moraines) which arc found 

 below the glaciers, as well as at their sides, are a proof of this ; besides which, 

 we are told by the innkeeper at Grindelwald, who has become so celebrated by 



B b2 



