GLACIERS. 
Glaciers are among the most sublime and wonderful features of 
Alpine countries. They are vast collections of ice which fill up the higher 
valleys and occupy the slopes of lofty mountains. They originate in the 
partial melting of the snows on the higher mountains and valleys. Dur- 
ing summer, the heat of the sun by day melts a portion of this snow : the 
water thus formed trickles through the mass, and becoming frozen at 
night, it serves to bind and consolidate it. It is thus repeatedly thawed 
by day and frozen at night, until at length the whole becomes converted 
into ice, which differs from common ice in being coarser in grain, and less 
compact. ^ The Glacier thus becomes a river of ice, filling the valleys, 
and pouring down its mass into the valleys yet lower. 
The extent of the Glacier depends greatly upon the slope of the moun- 
tain on which it is formed. Where the declivity is steep, the Glacier is 
small, but on a gradual slope Glaciers have been known to extend twenty 
miles, protruding a frozen torrent into the midst of warm and pine-clad 
slopes, and even invading the huts of the peasantry. Professor Forbes 
remarks that many persons now living, have seen the full ears of corn 
touching the Glacier, or gathered ripe cherries from the tree with one 
foot standing on the ice. 
The upper part of the Glacier is covered with snow, beneath which 
are numerous rents or fissures, which extend nearly across it. These fis- 
sures, which are also of great depth, are the chief source of clanger to 
those who cross the Glacier, and many a hunter has perished in them. 
The middle portion of the Glacier is more or less covered with blocks of 
stone, which are borne down upon its surface. These stones serve to 
mark the progress of the Glacier, for " they may be watched from year to 
year descending the icy stream, whose deliberate speed they mark as a 
floating leaf does that of a current of water." At the lower part of the 
Glacier the ice is generally of an exquisite blue colour, which in many 
places passes into green. At the extremity of the Glacier, the stones and 
rubbish brought down by it form a transverse ridge, sometimes eighty 
or a hundred feet high, called the terminal moraine. The Glacier is 
closed in at the side by icy walls, mingled with masses of rock. Some- 
times huge blocks of stone, supported by a column of ice, are found on 
the Glacier. They are called Glacier-tables. 
As the Glacier is constantly renewed by the melting of the snow in 
the upper regions, so it is constantly being wasted by evaporation, and 
by the natural heat of the earth, which thaws the under surface. This 
thawing produces an under-flowing current, the action of which, aided 
by fragments of ice and stones which it bears along, is sufficient to hollow 
out a lofty cavern or channel beneath the Glacier. From this channel 
there issues forth an ice-cold stream of turbid water, which makes its 
way towards one of those vast rivers which traverse our continents. 
Thus it is that by a wise and bountiful arrangement of our Creator, 
the summer heat, which dries up other sources of water, exerts its mild 
influence upon the hidden stores of the Glacier, and pours them out 
with a measured hand,, to diffuse gladness and fertility over the lower 
region of the plains. 
No. 5.] 
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