30 WALKS AND TALKS. 



average rate of 250 feet per annum. Hugi's hut according 

 to Agassiz, had been carried 5,900 feet in thirteen years. A 

 record bottled up by Hugi, stated that it had traveled 197 feet 

 in three years and 2,345 feet in nine years. The great conti- 

 nental glacier would not have traveled at rates so rapid ; but 

 if it moved 20.0 feet a year, the time required to transport a 

 bowlder 250 miles would be 6,600 years. 



These interesting Chamonix glaciers are but the stumps of 

 what they have been. Once they were noble tributaries of a 

 greater glacier which filled the valley of Chamonix. Out 

 of this valley it passed along the valley of the Arve, all the 

 way to Geneva. As we ride along the highway, the rocky 

 bounding walls rise on either hand, smoothed and scored after 

 the same fashion as the rock-walls of the valley of the Mer de 

 Glace. Evidently, the Chamonix glaciers have long been in 

 process of shrinkage. Evidently, they once existed under an 

 enormous development. When that period was passing, we may 

 well believe our northern states were extensively glaciated, 

 and a work was in progress very nearly like that which we 

 have already reasoned out. With these facts before us, we 

 shall be prepared to appreciate the picture of continental 

 glaciation that will be presented as we trace the later history 

 of the world. 



V. THE HiivLsiDK SF>RINO AND ITS \VORK. 



SUBTERRANEAN WATERS AND THEIR DEPOSITS. 



WHERE goes the rain which falls upon the earth ? If the 

 surface were completely level, and all the water should stand 

 which comes from the clouds in the form of rain and snow, 

 it would be everywhere about forty inches deep. In some 

 parts of the United States it would be more, and in others 

 less than this. Such an amount of water would be 34,480 

 barrels on every acre. What becomes of all that water? 



Part of it runs off, you say ; and part of it soaks in the 

 ground. True, and part of it evaporates, and is afterward 



