GLACIERS. 
frequently falling and congealing into a 
firm body, though not becoming actual ice, 
which the brilliancy of the projections has 
induced some philosophers to suppose it. 
M. de Saussure having explored Mont 
Blanc, ascertained that the top was en- 
crusted with ice, which might be penetrat- 
ed by a stick, covering a mass of snow on 
the declivities, so chilled and dry as to be 
incapable of coherence. 
The sides of the Alps support a congela- 
tion of half dissolved snow, which is different 
from the pure snow of the summits and the 
ice of the lower glaciers. Two causes 
operate to produce this effect, the first is 
the descent of water from the higher re- 
gions, where a dissolution of the snow 
sometimes occurs; and the second arises 
from the more favourable situation of these 
parts for reflecting the rays of the sun and 
the consequent melting of the snow. From 
hence downwards the ice adhering to the 
cavities becomes gradually more solid by 
the freezing of die snow-water, then 
nearly divested of that air which in the 
less dissolved portions renders the ice, 
formed from it, porous, opaque, and full of 
bubbles. 
Considerable difference of opinion has 
prevailed amongst philosophers, whether 
the masses of ice and snow in these regions 
of endless winter increase, decrease, or 
remain nearly stationary ; Mr. Coxe seems 
inclined to think they vary in their size, 
that gentlemen observes, that the glacier of 
Montanvert is generally bordered with 
trees ; near the base of this vast body of 
frozen matter the ice is excavated into an 
arch, perhaps one hundred feet in height, 
whence the Aryeron rushes with impetuo- 
sity and in a largo sheet of water. As he 
approached the. ice he passed through a 
forest of firs, those near the arch were very 
ancient and about eighty feet high, the 
trees between them and the glacier were 
evidently younger from the inferiority of 
their size and other intrinsic marks, others 
still less, had been enveloped by the ice, 
and many were thrown down ; arguing from 
this gradation in the appearance of the firs, 
he concludes, that the glacier has originally 
extended to the full grown ancient trees, 
and dissolving, young ones haye grown on 
its former site, which have been overturned 
by a fresh increase of ice. 
This inference seems almost conclusive, 
but it is still further supported by the fall of 
large pieces of granite called moraine by 
the inhabitants, which, borne along by the 
ice, sink through it as it dissolves, and fall- 
ing into the plain, form a border along its 
extremity ; those have been urged forward 
by the pressure of new ice, and extend 
even to the place occupied by the large 
firs. 
Exclusive of these circumstances, Mr. 
Coxe discovered, that the glacier of Grin- 
delwald had diminished, at least, 400 paces 
between the dates of his two visits in 1776 
and 1785 ; and in the valley of Chamouny, 
the Muraille de Glace, which he had de- 
scribed as forming the border of the glacier 
of Bosson, in 1776, no longer existed in 
1785, and young trees had grown on the 
site of the edge of the glacier of Mon- 
tanvert. 
In opposition to the evidence thus ad- 
duced, it is argued that the operations ob- 
servable in the vallies arising from the con- 
centration of solar heat, form no data for 
judging of those on more elevated situations, 
where it is asserted a greater quantity of 
snow falls and becomes ice than can possi- 
bly be dissolved annually, and experience 
proves, beyond doubt, that mountains have 
been covered, passages obstructed, pastures 
and habitations destroyed by the ice within 
the memory' of man. In replying to these 
arguments the result obtained is extremely 
satisfactory. The rain and sleet falling 
during summer not only thaws the ice and 
snow, but forms various channels in it, 
the water descending must wear and carry 
along part of the frozen sides and depths, 
and prepare the way for separating and 
throwing down large masses of each, which 
are termed avalanches in some parts of the 
country, and lauwine in others ; those tre- 
mendous bodies accumulating by adhesion 
in their progress, overwhelm every thing in 
their way, and rush to the vallies from the 
highest summits, whence various other 
causes serve to detach them. Here the 
traveller often meets a dreadful and instan- 
taneous fate; but humanity has endea- 
voured to obviate it as far as human abilities 
will permit. Matthison, who visited the 
monastery of St. Bernard, founded for the 
relief qf those who cross the Alps, speaks 
thus of tire lauwine or avalanche, and the 
excellent canons of St. Bernard: “ In 
the very worst seasons, as often as it snows, 
or the weather is foggy, some of these 
benevolent persons go forth with long poles, 
and, guided by their excellent dogs, seek 
the highway, which these sagacious animals 
never miss, how difficult soever to find. 
If then the wretched traveller has sunk 
