98 



THE FORMS OF WATER 



Fia. 5. SKETCH-PLAN, SHOWING THE MORAINES a, b, c, d, o, or THE MER DE GI.ACE. 



Lechaud. and from their point of junction 

 also a, stripe of d6bris (d) runs downward 

 along the Mer de Glace. Beyond this again 

 we notice another stripe (e), which seems to 

 begin at the bottom of the ice-fall, rising as 

 it were from the bodv of the glacier. Beyond 

 all of these \ve can notice the* lateral moraine 

 of the Mer de Glace. 



131. These stripes are the medial moraines 

 of the Mer de Glace. We shall learn more 

 about them immediately. 



l':J2. And now, having informed our 

 minds by these observations, let our eyes 

 'wander over the whole glorious scene, the 

 spHn lured peaks and the hacked end jagged 

 crests, the far-stretching snow-fields, Ihe 

 smaller glaciers which nestle on the heights, 

 the deep blue heaven and the sailing clouds. 

 T-* it not worth some labor to gain command 

 of suHi a scene ? But the delight it imparts 

 is heightened by the fact that we did not 

 come expressly to see it ; we came to instruct 

 ourselves about the glacier, and this high en- 

 1 >yment is an incident of our labor. You 

 will find it thus through life ; without hon- 

 est labor there can be no deep joy. 

 $ 17. THE TALEFRE AND THE JARDIN. 



WOUK AMONG THE CBEVASSES. 



1P>.>. And now let us descend to the Mer 

 de Glace, for I want to take you across the 

 Clacitr to that broken i-e-fall, the origin of 



which we have not yet seen. We aim at the 

 farther side of the glacier, and to reach it we 

 must cross those dark stripes of debris which 

 we observed from the heights. Looked at 

 from above, these moraines seemed flat, but 

 now we find them to be ridges of stones and 

 rubbish, from twenty to thirty feet high. 



134. We quit the ice at a place called the 

 Couvercle, and wind round this promontory, 

 ascending all the time. We squeeze ourselves 

 through the Ecjralets, a kind of natural stair- 

 case in the rock, and soon afterward obtain 

 a full view of the ice-fall, the origin of which 

 we wish to find. The ice upon the fall is 

 much broken ; we have pinnacles and towers, 

 some erect, some leaning, and some, if we 

 are fortunate, falling like those upon the 

 Glacier des Bois ; o nd we have chasms f torn 

 which issues a delicate blue light. With ihe 

 ice-fall to our right we continue to ascend, 

 until at length we command a view of a 

 huge glacier basin, almost level, and on the 

 middle of which stands a solitary island, en- 

 tirely surrounded by ice. We stand at the 

 edge of the lacier du Talefre, and connect 

 it with the ice-fall we have passed. The 

 glacier is bounded by rocky ridges, hacked 

 and torn at the top into teeth and edges, and 

 buttressed by snow fluted by the descending 

 stones. 



135. We cross the basin to the central 

 island, and find grass and floweis at tii 



