196 ELEMENTARY GEOLOGY 
importance than if we had merely to consider the 
rare glaciers of the present. 
Valley or Alpine Glaciers. — Location. These are 
often called alpine because they have been carefully 
studied in the Alps, where they are numerous and 
Fie. 103. 
An Alpine glacier, showing snow field, ice stream, and medial moraine. 
well developed. In this range of mountains, there are 
no less than two thousand different glaciers (Fig. 103). 
As geographical knowledge has been obtained from 
remote parts of the world, valley glaciers have been. 
found in many of the mountains of the earth. On the 
North American continent, small valley glaciers exist 
