THEIR EXTENT. 157 



river, which, while raging down to the sea with all 

 its curling rapids and whirling eddies, had been 

 arrested in an instant by the ice-king and frozen 

 solid, in fact, it has all the graceful lines and 

 forms of fluidity, with all the steady, motionless 

 aspect of solidity. It really moves, this vast body 

 of snow ; but, like the hour hand of a watch, its 

 motion cannot be recognised, though we should ob- 

 serve it with prolonged, unflagging attention. We 

 have called it a vast body of snow, but this is only 

 comparatively speaking. It will be vaster yet 

 before we have done with it. At present it is but 

 a thick semi-fluid covering, lying at the bottom of 

 this ancient arctic vale. 



The brief summer ends. Much of the winter 

 snow has been melted and returned to the sea ; but 

 much, very much more, is still lying deep upon the 

 ground. The world's second winter comes. The 

 first frost effectually puts a stop to all the melting 

 and moving that we have been describing. The 

 snow-river 110 longer moves it is arrested. The 

 water no longer percolates through the snow it is 

 frozen. The mass is no longer semi-fluid it is 

 solid ice; and the first step in the process of a 

 glacier's formation is begun. 



Thereafter this process is continued from year to 

 year, each winter adding largely to its bulk, each 

 summer deducting slightly therefrom. The growing 

 mass of ice ascends the mountain-sides, swallows 

 the rocks and shrubs and trees in its progress, 



