The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-11-30

nations, the glaciers descend short dis
tance at the approach of spring. Their
course is soon interrupted, not, however,
without determining the direction of the
assures, which are accompanied by loud
noises re-echoed from mountain to noun
tain. The effects, however, of this slight
movement of the glacier are far reaching
and remarkable. The violent shock given
to the air communicates itself to the snow
1t too is shaken, and some portions de-
tached and rolling down the mountain
side, increase in bulk, and occasionally
overwhelm habitations, villages, and for
ests. Thus in the glacier we find the
cause of the avalanche, and we doubt not
the even more ruinous landslide, which,
like that of Ulm, oft destroys prosperous
villages. This great natural movement,
the handspring of all the perilous phe-
nomena of Switzerland, is tame enough
to the traveller. We have heard of mo-
tion that was quicker than sight. The
motion of the glacier, however, is slower
than sight. Science has actually deter
mined that the descent of the ice into
the ducts of the glaciers in one year
amounts to about twenty feet. The snail
is Derby winner in comparison to the
glacier. At this rate it amounts to nearly
three miles in nine hundred years, and
the stray rocks which are thought by
geologists to have been dragged by gla-
ciers over inclined plains thirty miles
long, would not, therefore, require a
longer period than nine thousand years.
in which calculation there is not so vast
a discrepancy from the Biblical record.
Thus the immensities of Geology dwindle
one by one.
Perhaps the best description extant of
the flow of the Alpine ice-river, is that
of an eye witness-the clergyman of
Grindelwald, who happened with few
friends to be present at the fortuitous
moment when the famous glacier in the
nelghborhood of his village was on the
actual move. My friends and l had sat
down to rest ourselves" says the clergy
man, "when we witnessed that singular
phenomenon, the grolVth or 81Oelling of
the glacier. 1t was accompanied by a
tremendous noise, and every object around
us seemed to move of its own accord
guns, sticks, and game bags all were over
turned; rocks, apparently fixed in the
ice, were detached and dashed against
each other; crevices from ten to twenty
feet were opened, others closed as sud
denly, and the water contained in them
was thrown to a great height. The
whole glacier thus agitated with so much
violence, had advanced few PAGES, but
ere long tranquility was restored and the
usual stiffness was only interrupted by
the screams of the wildfowl and the cries
of the marmot."
tO tha Crlo 11-a bo1ro o1r
had a hankering to see
The Chamois on His Native Alp,
but the nearest we have been permitted
to approach this spectacle has been the
chamois-skin laid by our bedside in the
mountain-inn to protect the feet from the
cold, bare floor The inn-keeper assured
us that the chamois are rapidly disap-
pearing, and the adventurous hunter now
secures his game only in the most dan
gerous and inaccessible localities. But
l. is not man who is most responsible for
this disappearance. The chamois have
to escape from the large eagle of the
Alps. The king of birds discovers the
swift quadruped and forces it by feigned
attacks to fly to the highest SUBMITS.
The timid chamois too often makes for
the brink of a precipice, it's place of shell
ter from the hunter. But such position
is most favorable for its adversary, the |
one attacks, the other is compelled to re-
sist; the eagle strikes it with its wings
and throws it headlong from the preci-
pice into the valley, where it feeds on its
carcass
Descending from the mountains, we
skirt for many miles the Lake of Geneva
with its beautiful shores celebrated by
Byron and many other writers. The
peaceful lake, with its contrasted color
caused by the flow of the Rhine through !
1.-THE sloping lands, covered with or
chards, vineyards, villas, and villages, all |
bounded by the rampant Of everlasting
hills-leave upon the mind the impress
sion of finished and restful picture.
The level of the lake is said to change at
times, rising five to seven feet above its |
former height. Scientists have as yet
assigned no adequate explanation-th |.
more common one given being changes of
atmospheric pressure. In that case this |
is but another phenomenon referable to
the glacier We would, however, the |.
rather refer this curiosity Of nature to
gentle earthquakes changing the level of
the land. That such quakings of the
earth occur, this year has abundantly
vr,ifpoeso1 rUropor,r,v~