A MINIATURE GLACIER. 29S 



may readily be conceived. In scarcely a single instance 

 ■did we see the gneiss beds still in situ, and in only one 

 or two exceptions some giant wedge seemed to have 

 -driven them asunder.,, Yet none of the blocks were 

 rounded. Attrition of no kind had influenced them to 

 any perceptible extent, neither had atmospheric influ- 

 ■ences altered the color, hardness, and composition of their 

 -exteriors ; it was simply a wilderness of unchanged 

 blocks of the gray gneiss. 



" There was a puzzle. Whence came these broken 

 Tocks ? There was no higher spot whence they might 

 have fallen. The slight protrusion of the uptilted beds 

 ■of gneiss in situ, to which I have referred, alone seems 

 to have been permitted to remain for the purpose of 

 instructing us. Clearly, that force which had riven its 

 beds asunder, no other than the frost, had broken the 

 Test from their foothold and prepared them for removal 

 by another coming into play at a later season— the thaw- 

 ing down-gliding snow. Many of the blocks were prob- 

 ably but slightly removed from their original position, 

 perhaps barely turned over or merely forced a little out 

 -of place. Yet the effect to the eye of the beholder 

 would be as great as if they had been transported hun- 

 dreds of miles. 



"When we descended from the mountain we crossed 

 over a broad patch of snow, deeply packed (twenty feet 

 ■deep), which clearly taught us how the blocks were 

 moved. In truth, this was a miniature glacier, and a' 

 regular moraine was piled up along its edges. It is im- 

 possible for us to form any estimate of the amount of 

 snow which may fall per square foot in a winter, but 

 from the fact that such quantities were still remaining 



