THE CREVASSES ARE OF SECONDARY IMPORTANCE. 
195 
are, (and I might almost include the fundamental and most important inquiry of all, 
that of ascertaining the velocity of its parts,) I should have been much longer 
in seizing the general truth of the individual character of a glacier, the import- 
ance of the fluid-like connection of its parts, the perfectly secondary importance or 
unimportance of the fissures by which it is often traversed. The traveller who 
winds his tortuous and sometimes perilous path amongst these crevasses, forgets, in 
the fatigue of his circumventions, in the wonder of his curiosity at their beauty and 
seemingly unfathomable depth, in the appalling steepness of their sides and the com 
parative insecurity of his own footing — he forgets, I say, in the midst of all these 
claims upon his attention, his curiosity, and his strength of mind, the comparatively 
large surfaces of unbroken ice over which he heedlessly walks, and the small, the very 
small depth at which most of the yawning crevasses which make such an impression 
on his imagination, dwindle into mere slits ; — and when his walk is finished, he 
imagines that a glacier is a mere network of fissures interlacing in all directions. 
But let him gain a bold height above its surface, 800 to 1000 feet at least*, so that 
the whole may be spread somewhat like a map before him, yet not too distant to 
prevent his seeing the number and forms of the crevasses, and estimating their area 
compared to that of the unbroken ice, his opinion is first shaken and then changed. 
He sees in the glacier a whole, which, regarded as such, is merely scarred, not dis- 
sected by these fissures ; — he sees a mass as capable at least of conveying strains as 
thrusts; of which the cohesion is no more destroyed than (to use a comparison 
which I long ago employed) a parchment sieve is incapable of being stretched, be- 
cause it is covered with fine slits. 
I am confident that this will be plain to every unprejudiced person who will make 
the observation which 1 have recommended, and I have no hesitation in stating my 
belief that it will be found to be fully confirmed by M. Wild’s map of the glacier of 
the Aar, should it ever be published ; I say so without having any recollection how 
the matter stands, although I once had an opportunity of seeing that fine work for 
a few minutes ; and the verification of this remark, by positive measurement, will, so 
far as I see, be the chief result likely to flow from the patient and disinterested 
labour of that competent surveyor. 
But if this be true in a merely superficial plan, how much more true would it be 
if we could pare off the upper stratum of the glacier, and view a horizontal section 
of it at a depth of a hundred feet ! The depth of the crevasses has, I am persuaded, 
been as much exaggerated as the thickness of the ice of the glacier has been under- 
rated. In how few cases (where a glacier does not descend tumultuously) can we 
* I may mention, as the very best stations which I am acquainted with, the summit or higher slopes of 
the hill of Charmoz above Montanvert, Station G*, above Trelaporte, and a point directly above the Couvercle 
at least 1200 feet higher than the Mer de Glace, which may easily be reached from the glacier of Talefre. 
Other glaciers offer of course similar points, but few so advantageous ; the glacier of the Aar from the Schnee- 
bighorn, the lower glacier of Grindelwald from the slopes of the Mettenberg, the glacier of the Rhone from near 
the Mayenwand, and that of Zermatt from the Riffelberg, are examples. 
