12 
GLACIAL PERIOD. 
I actually found, a number of feet below the 
present level of the ice, the paved road along 
which these hardy people travelled to church 
with their children, and some traces of which 
are still visible. It has been almost com¬ 
pletely buried, although here and there it 
reappears; but at this day it is completely 
impassable for ordinary travel. 
Evidence of a like character is found in a 
number of facts cited by Venetz in his cele¬ 
brated paper upon the variations of tempera¬ 
ture in the Swiss Alps, drawn from the parish 
and commune registers of the Canton of Valais. 
Among these are acts concerning the right 
to roads which are now either entirely hid¬ 
den by ice or rendered nearly useless by the 
advance of the glacier, a lawsuit respecting 
the use of a forest which no longer exists 
but the site of which is covered by a glacier, 
and other records of a similar character. The 
only document so far as I know, previous to 
this century, which furnishes the means of 
delineating with any accuracy the former 
boundary of a glacier, is a topographical plan 
of the environs of the Grimsel, including the 
extremity of the Aar, making a part of Alt- 
