THEIR NATURE. 155 



are frequent and heavy, the accumulated masses 

 are many feet deep, especially in places where drifts 

 are gathered sometimes fifteen, twenty, thirty, 

 and even forty feet deep. The summer sun could 

 not melt such drifts entirely. New snow was 

 added each winter, until the valleys of the far 

 north were filled up ; and so they remain filled up 

 to this day. 



In order to understand the nature of glaciers 

 clearly, let us turn back to those remote ages that 

 rolled over this Earth long before man was created. 

 Let us in spirit leap back to the time when no 

 living creature existed, even before the great mas- 

 todon began to leave his huge foot-prints on the 

 sands of time. 



We have reached one of the large valleys of the 

 arctic regions. It is solemn, grand, and still. No 

 merry birds, no prowling creatures, are there to 

 disturb the universal calm. The Creator has not 

 yet formed the living creatures and pronounced 

 them " very good." It is the world's first winter. 

 As we look upward to the sky, we observe the first 

 white snow-flakes falling gently to the ground. 

 They reach it, and, for tLo first time, that valley is 

 covered with a garment of virgin snow. The 

 valley is upwards of two miles broad. It rises from 

 the sea, and goes far back into the mountains, 

 perhaps to the extent of ten or twelve miles. The 

 mountains that flank it are five or six thousand 

 feet high. We have seen such valleys in Norway, 



