ICE AND GLACIERS. 129 



food of plants. The fruitful layers of fine loam which extend 

 along the whole Rhine plain as far as Belgium, and are 

 known as Loess, are nothing more than the dust of ancient 

 glaciers. 



Then, again, the irrigation of a district, which is effected by 

 the snow-fields and glaciers of the mountains, is distinguished 

 from that of other places by its comparatively greater abundancy, 

 for the moist air which is driven over the cold mountain peaks 

 deposits there most of the water it contains in the form of snow. 

 In the second place, the snow melts most rapidly in summer, 

 and thus the springs which flow from the snow-fields are 

 most abundant in that season of the year in which they are 

 most needed. 



Thus we ultimately get to know the wild, dead ice- wastes 

 from another point of view. From them trickles in thousands 

 of rills, springs, and brooks the fructifying moisture which 

 enables the industrious dwellers of the Alps to procure succulent 

 vegetation and abundance of nourishment from the wild moun- 

 tain slopes. On the comparatively small surface of the Alpine 

 chain they produce the mighty streams the Rhine, the Rhone, 

 the Po, the Adige, the Inn, which for hundreds of miles form 

 broad, rich river-valleys, extending through Europe to the 

 German Ocean, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and the Black 

 Sea. Let us call to mind how magnificently Goethe, in ' Maho- 

 met's Song,' has depicted the course of the rocky spring, from its 

 origin beyond the clouds to its union with Father Ocean. It 

 would be presumptuous after him to give such a picture in other 

 than his own words : 



And along, in triumph rolling, 

 Names he gives to regions ; cities 

 Grow amain beneath his feet. 



On and ever on he rushes ; 

 Spire and turret fiery crested 

 Marble palaces, the creatures 

 Of his wealth, he leaves behind. 



