On the Physical Geography of the Alps. 361 
The glaciers of the Alps are mostly assembled in extensive groups 
in the neighborhood of the most considerable elevations. Ac- 
cording to their extent and the regularity of their forms they have 
been divided into the first or second order of glaciers, or primary 
and secondary ; there is, however, a natural series of intermediate 
degrees. Those glacier groups that lie on the. declivities beside 
a larger one, constituting glaciers of the second order, as well as 
forming the sources of the larger glacier, have been also termed 
lateral glaciers. The glaciers of the first order, on account of 
w 
characters and external forms, illustrated with colored lithographic 
Sketches and numerous wood-cuts, their sources, and moraines, 
and observations on single and compound glaciers, the origin of 
rock- and firn-moraines, &c. The results arrived at are :—1. the 
formation of glaciers is a very general phenomenon in great 
Mountains, and is not only brought about by certain conditions 
of temperature and atmospheric moisture, but also by the peculiar 
formation of the valleys :—2. the least mean inclination of a 
acier is 3°; for glaciers of the first order 5° to 72 is the inclina- 
tion from their lower to their upper extremity, including their 
“firn-meer :”—3. in an alpine valley occupied by a glacier, the 
following conditions obtain: the glacier proper—hard ice; the 
Widely-extended “ firn-meer”—granular snow ; both are slightly 
inclined, and are intimately connected together. The sides of 
the surrounding mountains are covered with summit-ice and 
summit-snow [{Hocheis and Hérnerschnee, forms peculiar to very 
great elevations], which are really separated from the firn-meer 
y deep circular crevasses [‘ Bergschrunde” and “ Rimayes 
every larger glacier has several sources, the separations o 
which are marked by superficial lines of stones (stone-moraines), 
or by extended deposits of masses of ‘firn”-ice. — 
In chapter iv, (pp. 77-101) M. H. Schlagintweit describes the 
Intimate Structure of Glaciers, noticing the arrangement of the 
ines and bands on the surface and in the interior, also the dirt- 
, and the crevasses and ravines in the ice ; and in the fifth 
* ae 
be 
