x.J ALPINE TRAVELS, 1840. 327 



du Geant, which, by keeping well to the right, we managed 

 to mount without any particular difficulty until we were 

 at the foot of the " Petit Rognon," and quite on a level 

 with the upper plateau of the Glacier du Ge'ant. Here, 

 however, the tumultuous confusion of the crevasses was so 

 great that we were unable to proceed further, . . in fact, 

 we were entangled in a maze of vast polygonal blocks, 

 divided from each other by huge crevasses with perpen- 

 dicular sides, and yet of dangerously soft consistence. 

 For three or four hours we persistently laid siege to these 

 ; acles, but after expending all our ingenuity on them, 

 \\ ere obliged to give it up as hopeless. Without a 

 ladder we could not have proceeded, so I was most 

 reluctantly compelled to mount the most accommodating 

 piece of ice within reach, in order to take the angles I 

 required. . . . 



1 1 had an excellent opportunity of examining a pheno- 

 menon, the existence of which I had suspected before, 

 namely, that the wrinkles, and probably the dirt-bands 

 also, of the Glacier du Gdant take their rise in the great 

 ice-fall below its upper plateau, and in the following 

 manner : It is quite certain that the ice falls in festoons 

 of alternate masses and vacancies, in the most striking 

 and un m istakeable manner, as I pointed out to my guide, 

 and tried to sketch. Seen with the afternoon shadow, 

 the eli'eet was beautiful, showing bands of fallen pyramids, 

 and tables of ice, alternating with bands of ice crushed 

 and pulverised. Different causes may be assigned in 

 explanation of this phenomenon, but the most probable, 

 I think, is the effect of the summer velocity, which shoves 

 {.it ion of the plateau beyond the limit of its 

 stability, thus producing a succession of rapid ice-falls. 

 (Query, <!<< - this exist elsewhere, and can it produce the 

 phenomena of the dirt -bands ?) It accounts, at least, for 

 of tin- intervals bet wren them corresponding 

 with the annual motion of the glacier, or nearly so. ... 

 An<>i t I observed was the small depth to which the 



hori/ontal layers of th- nd, and the emnpl< te 



annihilation of structun throughout the mass generally, 



