GENERAL VIEW OF GLACIAL PHENOMENA. 233 



XXI. ON GLACIERS IN GENERAL.* 



GLACIER is a name given to masses of ice which descend from 

 snowy mountains into the adjacent valleys, where they attain a 

 level often far below the upper limit of the surrounding vegeta- 

 tion. The following are the synonymes for a glacier in some 

 different languages and dialects. In French, glacier / German, 

 gletscher ; Italian, ghiacciaja ; Tyrolese, fern; in Carinthia, 

 kass ; in the Vallais, biegno ; in part of Italy, vedretto ; in 

 Piedmont, ruize / in the Pyrenees, serneille ; in Norway, iisbrce 

 or iisbrede ; in Lapland, geikna or jegna ; in Iceland, jokull or 

 fall-jokull. 



The characteristic appearance of a glacier can be nowhere 

 better studied than in Switzerland and Savoy. The icy mass 

 of the glacier of Bossons at Chamouni which descends imme- 

 diately from the highest part of Mont Blanc, but lies, summer 

 and winter, in the valley at a height above the sea of no more 

 than 3500 English feet (the height of perpetual snow being about 

 9000 feet), where it is embosomed amongst luxuriant wood, and 

 is almost in contact with corn-fields exhibits a spectacle which 

 none who have once seen it can forget, and which attracts more 

 interest and curiosity the more carefully it is considered. The 

 lower glacier of Grindelwald, descending to 3400 feet, is another 

 familiar example of the same phenomenon. In the Arctic 

 regions true glaciers also exist, which, descending the valleys 

 (often of great width and little inclination), enter the sea, and, 

 breaking off, supply the floating ice-islands or icebergs which 

 frequently drift into comparatively low latitudes. These glaciers 

 do not essentially differ from those of alpine countries. 



* Being the article "Glacier'' in the 8th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica, published in 1855. 



