20 



THAT S IT: 



from the mountains, and by pres- 

 sure gaining size and weight as 

 they proceed. Sliding avalanches 

 are those in which, from the 

 warmth of the earth, masses of 

 snow are detached at the earth's 

 surface, and glide downwards, 

 starting other masses in their 

 course. Glacier avalanches are 

 those in which the snow, after 

 partial melting, becomes frozen 

 into solid blocks possessing great 

 hardness and density. Some- 

 times entire villages, together 

 with their inhabitants, are de- 

 stroyed by these avalanches. 

 Upon the commencement of an 

 avalanche a low, rumbling sound 

 is heard, and the inhabitants who 

 hear the warning endeavour to 

 escape. The noise increases, un- 

 til it becomes as loud as thunder, 

 then, overwhelming everything 

 that opposes them, * the vast 

 masses descend, and spread death 

 and desolation. Stationary gla- 

 ciers are great accumulations of 

 ice, occupying the levels and 

 slight declivities of mountains. 

 Those of Tyrol, Switzerland, Pied- 

 mont, and Savoy occupy alto- 

 gether a superficial extent of 

 1484 (nearly 1500) miles. Even 

 more terrible than these ava- 

 lanches and glaciers are the land- 

 slips, to which the same coun- 

 tries are liable. The snow melt- 

 ing by day, runs into the crevices 

 of the mountains, 8, and there 

 freezing, splits off by its expan- 

 sion enormous masses of stone. 

 The cracking of the rocks sounds 

 like the firing of artillery. These 

 land-slips frequently occur by 

 night, and so rapidly as to leave 

 no hope of escape, should they 



fall in the direction of an inha- 

 bited spot, 9. 



Such are the most remark- 

 able of the phenomena to which 

 the land is liable. Happily 

 for man, there are places where 

 he may dwell free from the 

 alarms of these terrible visita- 

 tions — where, when his days of 

 toil are over, he may sit down in 

 peace, and contemplate the won- 

 ders of the world in which God 

 has given him a dwelling ! 



The various aspects of the land 

 in connection with the sea give 

 rise to interesting definitions of 

 coast geography. A broad recess 

 in the shore, with expanse of sea 

 before it, is a bay, 10. But the 

 term bay is sometimes applied to 

 a great arm of the sea, as the Bay 

 of Biscay and the Bay of Bengal. 

 Baffin's Bay and Hudson's Bay, 

 both on the eastern coasts of 

 North America, are larger divi- 

 sions of the ocean than is com- 

 monly understood by the term 

 bay ; they are, properly, large 

 inland seas. — Amoderate distance 

 from the shore, where a ship en- 



