Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1867-02-16
eIasiers-rhe Ice Fields Of switzerland.

Prof. Guyot delivered a lecture IN
New York, last week, on the "Glaciers
of Switzerland" of which the following
is brief abstract:
A glacier, he said, is field or i'm
mense mass of ice, filling grand val
ley, to the thickness of from 200 to
], 900 feet, aud extending often as far
as nine miles from the place of its in
ception. From the great hight above,
when we look down upon these valleys
of ice, they appear to be great frozen
streams, and such, indeed, they are:
If we follow them upward, we shall
find that they meet the great snow line
that everlastingly 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, fragments of transparent
ice that have fallen off from the glaciers
above, and woe to the traveller who in
cautiously 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
mountains. Many, very many, have
thus suddenly been cut off and forever
buried from the sight of their fellows
by the ma siye fragments of the glacier.
So tremendous is the pressure of air
caused by their fall, that very often the
houses of the inhabitants of the noun
tain slopes and villages are lifted from
their places and carried uniDjured to
spots several hundred feet from where
they originally stood.
From these ice-vaults, the contents
of which are continually replenished
by the melting snow that caps the
mountain tops, we may trace the gla-
cier down to its final resting place,
marking its ever varying course-now
extending in direct line for thousands
of feet, and then descending steep
precipice, which breaks its 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, until they appear at distance
like vast array of bright needle points.
But how, the question is asked, do
these immense fields of ice, reaching
an altitude of 5000 feet above the level
of the sea, subsist year after year, and
upon almost exactly the same spots?
This is the case where there has been
no contact with the ice-the simple
pressure of the air being suffi cient to
produce the result. Immense trees
that would seem by their circumference
to Withstand the tornado, are often
found literally broken into short
lengths by this motion of the air caused
by the falling ice. We have thus COM
menced our Acquaintance with the gla-
cier, let us follow it to its source. This,
we will invariably find, is huge vault
of ice, from twenty to fifty feet high,
from which pours out living stream of
yellowish water Trace the rivers
Rhine, Rhone, Aar, and others of Swift
zerland, to their origin, and you will
find their birthplace in just such vaults
as the one just mentioned.
Notwithstanding the fact that vast
rivers of water flow off from these
glaciers at their base, they never ap-
pear to have wasted away. AS already
intimated, the supply comes from the
snow above the glacier. When this
supply is full, the glacier increases in
size-that Is to say 1t progresses or ex-
tends in the direction of its lowest
base. When the supply is insufficient
the size OF the body of ice decreases,
and appears to retreat, But this re-
treat is only apparent, and quite unreal.
During the night the traveller may
sleep upon the surface of the glacier,
with very little grass-gathered from
the adjoining clefts of the mountains
beneath him, and not feel any mois-
ture.
In the morning, at about seven
o'clock, there is a slight melting of the
ice; at eight or nine o'clock few rivu-
let's may be seen coursing down in 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 val
legs are perforated with vertical holes,
which reach downward until often they
find an ending place at the bottom OF
the glacier. These holes are usually
filed with water, and if we follow them
downward we shall find invariably small
stones and pebbles, which have been
forced through the ice from above by
the action of the sun upon them-these
bodies being darker than the ice, alb
sorb more of the suns rays, and be-
coming heated, melt an opening before
them.
The contrary is true, of large stones
or boulders, which are precipitated up
ON the glacier from above. Their
thickness makes it impossible that they
should, within the short hours of day q
sunshine, become heated through, and
hence they act as a protection for the
ice beneath them, from the burning
rays of Sol. Very often there will be
found vast numbers of these boulders
standing upon sharp pinnacles of ice,
several feet high, bearing the appear
ance of having been lifted by some
means to their present elevation.
Tyranny of Women In America.
A writer in Blackwood's for January