95 



ICE AND GLACIERS. 



A Lecture delivered at Frank fort-on-t he-Main, 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 magnificence of those scenes will make you 

 the more inclined to lend a willing ear to the remarkable results 

 of modern investigations on the more prominent phenomena of 



