GLACIERS. 689 



Mt. Blanc, and the Mt. Rosa or Zermatt district ; and the latter, one 

 of equal extent, though its peaks are less elevated, that of the Bernese 

 Oberland. There is another district of glaciers at the head-waters of 

 the Rhone, and others farther eastward. 



Glaciers occur also iu the Pyrenees, the mountains of Norway, 

 Spitzbergen, Iceland, the Caucasus, the Himalayas, the southern ex- 

 tremity of the Andes, in Greenland, and on Antarctic lands. One 

 of the Spitzbergen glaciers stretches eleven miles along the coast, and 

 projects in icy cliffs 100 to 400 feet high. The great Humboldt 

 glacier of Greenland, north of 79° 20', has a breadth at foot, where it 

 enters the sea, of forty-five miles ; and this is but one among many 

 about that icy land. Nordenskiold states that passing toward the in- 

 terior of Greenland, not a plant or stone or patch of earth is seen over 

 the great ocean of ice and snow, 1,200 miles in extent from north to 

 south and 400 miles in breadth. Some American glaciers are alluded 

 to on page 536. 



3. Many Glaciers from one Glacier District. — The following map 

 (Fig. 1100) represents the Mt. Blanc glacier-region excepting a small 

 part at its southwestern extremity from a manuscript map by Pro- 

 fessor Guyot. The vale of Chamouni along the river Arve bounds it 

 on the northwest, and the valley of the river Doire on the southeast. 

 This mountainous area, though one vast field of snow, gives origin to 

 numerous glaciers on its different sides, — each principal valley having 

 its ice-stream. The series of dotted curves show the courses of the 

 several glaciers. B is Mt. Blanc ; bs., the Glacier des Bois, or Bois 

 Glacier (so named from a village near the foot of the glacier) ; m, 

 the Mer de Glace, an upper portion of this glacier. The river Ar- 

 veiron issues from the extremity of the glacier, and, after a short 

 course, joins the Arve near the village of Chamouni. The glaciers 

 "du G<knt" (#), '-du Talefre" {to), and "de Lechaud " (/), are the 

 three largest of the upper glaciers which combine to form the Mer de 

 Glace. The Glacier du Talefre heads in two valleys ; and at J, on 

 the ridge between, is the Jardin, a spot with some verdure, often vis- 

 ited by travellers. The depth of the Mer de Glace is about 350 feet. 



4. General Appearance. — Fig. 1105 is a reduced copy of a sketch 

 in Agassiz' great work, representing the Glacier of Zermatt, or the 

 Gorner Glacier, in the Mt. Rosa region. This grand glacier receives 

 some of its tributaries from the right, but the larger part from beyond 

 the Riffelhorn, the near summit on the left. The dark bands on the 

 glacier are lines of stones and earth, called moraines. The longitudi- 

 nal lines on Fig. 1101 represent moraines on the Mer de Glace; the 

 bands correspond to different tributaries of this glacier, and the broad- 

 est one to the right is that of the Geant Glacier. The ice of a glacier 



