Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-02-24

Prof. Guyot, of Hazard University, in his lec-
lures before the Mercantile Library Association of
this city, on the above subject, has delighted large
and respectable audiences by the nature of the
subject, and the knowledge displayed by the lecturer.
He said he had been led to select this subject
for two reasons: first, because the phenomena Of
the Glaciers was not known in this country; and
second, because he delighted to recall the memo
ries and associations of his native land, which such
a subject could not fail to suggest.
The system of the Alps, he said, was not one
continuous and unbroken chain, like our Ale
ghanies, but an irregular zone or circle, the base
of which, at its narrowest part, was q hundred
miles broad, though its altitude seldom exceeded
three miles. The traveller passing along the COM
mon road that leads from France to Switzerland,
when he enters the nights of theJura, can embrace
in one view an amphitheater of mountains of
nearly three hundred miles in length, the central
SUBMITS of which are covered with perpetual
snow. On passing through three hundred miles
vailies that cut through these lofty ranges, the
traveller is at once struck with the physical differ.
ences between the valleys he leaves behind him
and that into which he enters. In the lower val
leys the bottom is scarcely twelve feet above the
sealevel the heat is so intense and so concen-
trated that the climate during the Summer is al
most tropical in its warmth. The vine grows on
the sides of the hills at the enormous hight Of three
thousand feet above the sea level.
Visitors to Switzerland, after arriving Mt the
limits of the forest lands, which lie furthest down,
enter upon the large pasture region, which offer a
contrast the more striking from the fact that it
presents an entire new Flora. Rhododendrons,
c%reepinw willows, and other shrub-like plants, are
here found in innumerable varieties. Still further
onward lies the region of flowers, characterized by
their short stems, their brilliant hues and the larg5-
ness of tn eir roots. The ground is here some
times literally covered with them the grass is
short and thick, of a beautiful emerald color, and
elastic to the tread, and in tn summer season pre-
SCENTS the appearance of q magnificent green car
net StIrdlad with the most haautiful AovarS -
These flowers are very hardy in their nature: the
.eommon blue torget-me-not are found to flourish
5000 feet above the sea level. The peculiarities of
the Alpine Flora are easily accounted for. The
stunted stems are owing to the shortness of the
summer, the heat of the soil, and the GOODNESS of
the air, whilst their remarkable brilliancy of hues
is attributable to the pureness of the atmosphere,
and the intensity and directness of the suns rays.
The general absence of vegetation in the snowy
regions is not caused by the excessive cold, but by
the. absence Of soil. The snow line in the Alps
begins about 5000 feet above the sea level, as in
the Monte Rosa, but its height varies with the
quantity of the snow and with the temperature Of
the entire year. The warm winds blowing on the
southern slopes from Italy raise the temperature
there, and plants grow on that side Of the range!
which would be looked for in vain on the other
In the Pyrenees the snow line is almost invisible
owing to the greater dryness Of the air and il
the Caucasian range it is much higher thai
in the Alps, for the same reason. The glacier
descend down to the mountains and settle at ab0a
5000 feet above the sea level, in the bottoms of tn,
valleys. These glaciers are generally little les
than a thousand feet in thickness, and sometime
present o surface of many miles in length. The
bhow down the mountains like rivers, following tn,
windings of the valleys; but their movements sci
dom exceed a few feet in the year. Their motion!
ARE not uniform the sizes move less rapidly thar
their ~eenters, and their tops bend downwards anC
advance more rapidly than the bottoms. The re
tardation Of the lower part is accounted for by tn,
raafnF nth and h nlCNa IL - 49, III 4.
the surface over which it has to pass. One of
most noticeable phenomena which a glacier pre-
sents, Is the distractions it meets with in its pro
gress, passing through other masses of ice witbou
being split up, filling up the projections and crev
ices of rock on either side of its course, and adapt
ing itself to the valley in which it finally rest
like so fnuchNpaste. The action of the heat on tn,
sui lace )ofr the glaciers converts some of il int
water, which percolates through tie assures an,
the body of the glacier, and finally accumulate
into reservoirs in the bottom, from which in pro
gress of time it makes its escape, and issues out il
streams that, gathering greater bulk as they q
Onward, become large rivers. and finally max
their way 10 the sea. The Rhone, the Rhine, tn
Arve, aud the Ticino have their origin in glaciers
aud most of the rivers which water that region
are formed in the same way. The greatest DANCE
encountered BY travellers is that of being lost i
the chasms of the glaciers which are sometime
concealed by falls of snow. Not only traveller
hot guides and chamois hunters, are frequentl
swallowed up in these abysses and never afte
heard OF. The mode by which cautious traveller
guard against these accidents is TO tie a rope to on,
OF the guides, and at intervals along its length
hasten the rest OF the travellers to il, so that SHOULD
one lose his footing or make o false step, he ma,
be held up by the others.-Scientifc Americaa.