6^2 THE UNIVERSE. 



Glaciers are met with most frequently in the valleys of 

 hi^h mountains. From thence they are sometimes seen to 

 descend to a considerable dejDth, far below the hne of 

 eternal snow, and display themselves in the midst of a lux- 

 uriant vegetation, among the forests of conifers and the 

 flowers of the valleys which surround them. In the Arctic 

 seas, as at Spitzbergen, they even launch their gigantic 

 crystaline masses into the waves of ocean (Fig. 300). 



These icy plains, sometimes formed of obtuse and 

 nodulated blocks, sometimes bristling with immense crys- 

 tals, the azure of Avhich contrasts with the dead white 

 of the snow when they are heaped up in the mountain 

 gorges, appear to our eyes like oceans, the waves of Avhich 

 have been solidified by magic, in the midst of their most 

 frightful commotions, and destined to eternal immobility. 

 They are really seas of ice, six to eight leagues long, 

 which climb the valleys and clear the elevated passes of 

 mountains in order to cross from one side of a mountain 

 chain to the other. Frecpiently vast blue and diaphanous 

 grottoes open at their bases, from which spring fountains, 

 which soon become impetuous streams or rivers. 



During fine nights, Avhen the silvery gleams of the 

 moon light up the glaciers which wind along the gorges 

 of the Alps, these resemble long and imposing opal 

 shrouds spread silently over the mountain sides, while 

 their mnnerous crystals here and there sparkle pale and 

 luminous. 



Notwithstanding their apparent immobility, these seas 

 of ire, as they are called, possess a very decided move- 

 ment of their own, the force of wdiich no power can stop. 

 They constantly tend toAvards the base of the valleys, 

 Avhere the milder temperature transforms their mass into 

 the water Avhich forms our river-sources. 



