VII. of a Letter from William Burnet Efq-^ 
F. 5(. 5. to. Dr. HanSrSloane, R. S. Sccr. con* 
cernlng the Icy Mountains of Switzerland. 
FTER I had been at Zjirich^ I refolved to go my 
felf and fee the Mountains of Ice. in Switz;erUnd, 
Accordingly I went to the GrmMmdd^ a Mountain two 
Days Journey from Bern. There I faw, between two 
Mountains, like a River of Ice, which divides it fclf in 
two Branches, and in its way from the top of the Moun- 
tains to the bottom fwells in vaft Heaps, fome bigger 
than St. P^’s Church. The Original of which feems to 
have been this. Thefe Mountains are covered all the 
Year with Snow on their Tops ; this Snow has been 
melted in the Summer, and has fallen to the Bottom 
where the Sun never reaches: There it has Frozen, 
which every Body knows happens more-eahly to melted 
Snow than ordinary W ater. 'Thus every Year it has in- 
creafed, till it has' touched the very Top. 'The reafon 
why the Water has always frozen, tho’the Sun in tlie 
middle of the Mountain, and higher, fliines upon it fomc 
part of the Day, is that the .melted Water goes under 
'the Ice ‘already formed and there Freezes, and fo ex- 
panding it felf raifes the Ice above it, and fometimes 
makes Cracks in it, that frighten the whole Neighbour- 
hood : The reafon appears plainly, becaufe the upper 
Surface being folid, cannot be dilated without making 
great Chinks, and that with a terrible node. They told 
Bie^ upon the Place, that every feven Years the Moiin- 
Geneva, 06lober 12 , ijoS, 
SIR, 
. tain 
