4 ON THE STRUCTURE AND MOTION OF GLACIERS 
§ 3. On the Regelation of Ice, and its application to Glactal Phenomena. 
In a lecture given by Mr. Faraday at the Royal Institution on the 
7th of June, 1850, and briefly reported in the ‘Atheneum’ and 
‘Literary Gazette’ for the same month, it was shown that when two 
pieces of ice, at 32° Fahr., with moistened surfaces, were placed in 
contact, they became cemented together by the freezing of the film of 
water between them. When the ice was below 32°, and therefore dry, 
no adhesion took place between the pieces. Mr. Faraday referred, in 
illustration of this point, to the well-known experiment of making a 
snowball. In frosty weather the dry particles of ice will scarcely 
cohere, but when the snow is in a thawing condition, it may be 
squeezed into a hard compact mass. On one of the warmest days of 
last July, when the thermometer stood at upwards of 80° Fahr. in the 
shade and above 100° in the sun, a pile of ice-blocks was observed by 
one of us in a shop window, and he thought it interesting to examine 
whether the pieces were united at their places of contact. Laying hold 
of the topmost block, the whole heap, consisting of several large lumps, 
was lifted bodily out of its vessel. Even at this high temperature the 
pieces were frozen together at the places of contact, though the ice 
all round these places had been melted away, leaving the lumps in 
some cases united by slender cylinders of the substance. A similar 
experiment may be made in water as hot as the hands can bear ; two 
pieces of ice will freeze together, and sometimes continue so frozen in 
the hot water, until, as in the case above mentioned, the melting of 
the ice around the points of contact leaves the pieces united by 
slender columns of the substance. 
Acquainted with these facts, the thought arose of examining how 
far, in virtue of the property referred to, the form of ice could be 
changed without final prejudice to its continuity. It was supposed 
that though crushed by great pressure, new attachments would be 
formed by the cementing, through regelation, of the severed surfaces ; 
and that a resemblance to an effect due to viscosity might be 
produced. To test this conjecture the following experiments were 
made :—Two pieces of seasoned boxwood, A and B, fig. 2, 4 inches 
square and 2 deep, had two cavities hollowed out, so that when one 
was placed upon the other, a lenticular space, shown in section at C, 
was enclosed between them. A sphere of compact, transparent ice, of 
a volume rather more than sufficient to fill the cavity, was placed 
between the pieces of wood, and subjected to the pressure of a 
small hydraulic press. The ice broke, as was expected, but it soon 
