Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-01-23
[From the New York Timos.l.o q.
The Glaciers Of. Switzerlnnd.

"
g1 Owing to the inclemency of,the weather,
only small audience gathered last evening
in the chapel of the Rutgers Institute,
Fifth-avenue. to listen to lecture by Prof.
A. Guyot The learned Professor prefaced
the lecture with brief allusion TO the cir
cumstance of his recent visit, in company
with other tourists, to the mountains of
Switzerland. After dwelling for few
minutes upon the floral beauties of the re-
gion, he passed on to notice his subject
proper, "The Glaciers of Switzerland" A
glacier, he said, is q field or immense mass
of lee. filing grand valley, to the thick
ness of from 200 to LOCO feet, and extend
ing often as far as o miles from the place of
itsipception. From the great height above,
when we look down upon these valleys OF
ice, they appear to be great frozen streams,
and such, indeed, they are. Ii we follow
them upward, we shall find that they meet
the great snow line that tverlastingly
keeps its place upon the tops of the cloud
bathed mountains Of the Alps. Go below
them upon the mountain side, and you will
find at your feet in many places, great frag-
ments of transparent ice that have fallen
off from the glaciers above and woe to the
traveller who ineautiouslY ventures near
such spots when whole fields of ice are
separated from the main, body, and come
tumbling over the craggy sides of the great
mountans! Many, very many, have thus
suddenly been cut OIL, and forever buried
from the sight oftheir fellows by the massive
fragments of the glacieF.--SO tremendous
Is the pressure of air caused by theirfall
that very often the houses of the inhabit-
ants OF the mountain slopes aud villages
are lifted from their places, and carried un-
injured to spots several hundred feet from
where they originally stood. This is the
case where there has been no contact with
the ice-the simple pressure of the air be-
ing sufficient to produce the resnlt I'm
meHse trees, that would seem by their cir
cumference to be able to Withstand the tor
nado almost, are often found literally
broken into ortlengths by thismotion of
the air caused by the falling ice. We have
thus commenced OuFacquaintance with the
glacier; let us follow it to its source.
This, we will invariably find, is a huge
vault of ice, from 20 to 30 feet high, from
which pOurs out living stream Ofyellow-
ish water. Trace the rivers Rhine Rhone,
Adr, and others of Switzerland, to their
orieiu, and youwill find their birthplace
in just such vaults as the one just mem
toned, From these ice vaults, the cOltentS
of which are continually repenished by
the melting snow that caps the mountain
tops, we may trace the glacier down to Its
final resting place. marking its everyary-
ing cOurse--now extending in a direct line
for thousands of feet, and then descending
steep precipice, which breaks It's surface
into countless openings or cavities which
reach to the very bottom of the ice. The
action of the sun upon this broken, surface
has the effect of sharpening the edges, mn
til they appear at a distance like a vast ar.
ray of bright needle points, But thow, the
question is asked, do these immense fields
of ice, reaching an altitude OF 5000 feet
above the level of the. sea, subsist year af-
ter year, and upon almost exactly the same
spots? Notwithstanding the fact that vast
rivers of water flow off from these glaciers
at their base, they never appear tJ have
wasted away!iitAs already intimated, the
supply comes from the snow above
the glacier When iOthis 1supply is
full, 1.-THE glacier increases in d size;
that is to say, It progresses oaors iex-i
tends IN the direction of its lowesb base.
When the supply is insuficicnt the size of
the body of cedeereases, and appears to
retreat. But this retreat is ionlyapparent,
andlquite unreal. During the night the.
traveller may sleepupon thesurfaceDt the
glacier with very little grass -gatheredI
from the adjoining clefts of the mountain-ac
beneath him and not feel any moisture. - In
the morning, at about'7 o'clock, there isla
slight melting of the ice; at,S'or 9lo'el0clDa a.
few rivulets may beseen cOursiDg down the
direction of the valley; by the hour OF noon,
immense rivers. of water are to be, observed
running to the foot of the glaciers. The
surface OF these ice-v.lleys Is perforated
with vertical Holes, whichreac downward
until often they. find an ending place at the
bottom Of the glacier These holes, are
. 4 81 ~ ~ ILL.,