810 Glaciers of the Pindur and Kuphinee Rivers. [Aug. 



Motion. — The existence of the glacier in such comparatively warm 

 situations, can only be accounted for by supposing, that its daily waste 

 is supplied by its daily descent, and that its terminal face which ap- 

 pears unmoveable is in fact perpetually changing. Therefore when the 

 total waste exceeds the total motion the glacier appears to recede up 

 the valley ; when the converse happens, the end of the glacier advances; 

 when the two are exactly the same it remains in the same position. 



Rivers rising from Glaciers. — The waste of the glacier from the 

 action of the sun and rain, gives rise to a stream of turbid water, which 

 issues from the extremity of the ice, out of a cave. 



General form of glaciers. — Glaciers vary in their dimensions, up to 

 3 miles in width and 12 in length. The lower portion is usually very 

 steep ; the middle has only a moderate slope ; the upper again is more 

 inclined. The sides when exposed are also very steep. The surface 

 is more or less undulating, the irregularities in a great measure arising 

 from the action of the water, that collects from the surface drainage, 

 and forms streams of considerable size. 



Crevasses. — The ice is considerably broken up, by fissures or rents, 

 called crevasses ; these are usually vertical in their direction, and of 

 widths varying from a few inches to many feet, sometimes extending 

 almost from side to side of the glacier. 



Moraines. — The rocks and debris, that fall upon the ice from the 

 cliffs that usually bound the glacier, instead of accumulating where 

 they fall, as they would do if the ice were stationary, are carried down 

 as it advances, and form continued lines along the sides of the glacier. 

 Their stony borders are called moraines. 



Lateral Moraines. — Those moraines that are formed on the sides of 

 the glacier, as just described, are called lateral moraines. 



Medial Moraines. — When two glaciers from different sources meet, 

 the inner moraines of the two unite, and continue to move on together 

 down the compound glacier, which but for this mark would at a short 

 distance below the point of union be undistinguishable from a simple 

 one. Such a moraine, having clear ice on both sides of it is said to be 

 a medial moraine. 



Elevation of Moraines. — From the protection given to the ice below 

 by the rocks of the moraine, it appears to rise gradually above the 

 general surface of the glacier, which on the other hand is constantly 



