GEOLOGY. 675 



The first geologists who announced that glaciers move 

 like rivers^ though much more slowly, found their views 

 very ill received by their colleagues. 



However, this phenomenon had been suspected ever 

 since it had been noticed that a small stone hut, situated 

 on the side of the Lower Aar Glacier, in the Upper Aljis, 

 had descended towards the valley. 



Desirous of clearing up this mystery, Agassiz had 

 the courage to go thither, and for two years to confine 

 himself to a residence on this glacier in a hut sheltered 

 by a fragment of rock — a rude abode which, since the 

 sojourn there of the illustrious naturalist, has enjoyed a 

 certain celebrity, and which is now known only as the 

 Hotel of the Neufchatelese. What a hotel! A room 

 excavated in the ice, and a bed of stone covered with 

 a mattress of hay ! 



Soon after he had been installed in this frightful desert, 

 Agassiz discovered the hut we have spoken of; it had 

 descended about 4930 feet in thirteen years, showing that 

 the annual movement of the glacier was about 380 feet. 



But notwithstanding their aspect of grandeur and 

 terror, notwithstanding the too frequent sacrifice of life 

 they occasion, what are the glaciers of the Alps in ap- 

 pearance and extent when compared to the congealed 

 deserts of the polar regions, as for instance the glaciers of 

 Spitzbergen, and especially the Humboldt Glacier, which 

 presents to the traveller an impenetrable barrier twenty- 

 five leagues in length? 



In one or two days' travel we cross our most redoubt- 

 able glaciers; we pass the Col du Geant, or we climb 

 Mont Blanc. But in fact, despite the majestic splendour 

 of their cold realms and charming passes, the picture of 

 their perils and their extent is diminished in effect when 



