Ice-needles to Ice-mountains 



lower end of the glacier — sooner or later to reach 

 the ocean. 



Switzerland's grandest glaciers dwindle into 

 insignificance beside the enormous ice-rivers of 



o 



the frozen north. When the "Humboldt Glacier" 

 of Greenland gets to the ocean it is about forty- 

 five miles in width. A generous gift of water 

 indeed, from land to ocean. Another monster 

 glacier ends in a cliff of solid ice, rising in parts 

 to four hundred feet of height. Greenland lies 

 under one unbroken shield of snow and ice ; and 

 the weight of this tremendous ''ice-cap" presses 

 out numberless rivers of ice from its shores into 

 the sea. 



These do not, like Alpine glaciers, end in 

 rivers of water, flowing through milder climates 

 to the ocean. The Greenland glaciers themselves 

 reach the sea, each thrusting an enormous *' foot " 

 far into deep water. For a while, as it does so, 

 the glacier-ice holds firmly together in a solid 

 mass, gliding slowly over the ocean-bed, getting 

 deeper and deeper, till only a small part of it 

 shows above the surface. 



But ice naturally floats. The upward pressure 

 of the sea becomes increasingly great, fighting 

 against the tenacity of the ice, and in the end 

 old Ocean has the best of the contest. A huge 



85 



