ICE AND GLACIERS. 



A LECTURE DELIVERED AT PRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAJff, AND AT 



HEIDELBERG, IN FEBRUARY 1865, 



THE world of ice and of eternal snow, as unfolded to us 

 on the summits of the neighbouring Alpine chain, so 

 stern, so solitary, so dangerous, it may be, has yet its own 

 peculiar charm. Not only does it enchain the attention of 

 the natural philosopher, who finds in it the most wonderful 

 disclosures as to the present and past history of the globe, 

 but every summer it entices thousands of travellers of all 

 conditions, who find there mental and bodily recreation. 

 While some content themselves with admiring from afar 

 the dazzling adornment which the pure, luminous masses 

 of snowy peaks, interposed between the deeper blue of 

 the sky and the succulent green of the meadows, lend to 

 the landscape, others more boldly penetrate into the 

 strange world, willingly subjecting themselves to the 

 most extreme degrees of exertion and danger, if only 

 they may fill themselves with the aspect of its sublimity. 



I will not attempt what has so often been attempted in 

 vain to depict in words the beauty and magnificence of 

 nature, whose aspect delights the Alpine traveller. I 

 may well presume that it is known to most of you from 

 your own observation ; or, it is to be hoped, will be 

 so. But I imagine that the delight and interest in the 

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