GLACIERS. Those vast piles of eter nal ice, with which it has pleased the au thor of nature to crown the immense chasms between the summits of the Alps, objects more grand, sublime, and terrific, than are any Others of the phenomena of nature which remain stationary. These tremendous spires and towers, of uncer tain and brittle fabric, seem to forbid the attempts of travellers to explore the depth between them, or even the rocks and rich vallies around them ; but courage and perseverance have been attended with commensurate success, and we are ena bled by their labours to learn previously concealed wonders,andtoreason upon the causes which produced them. In treating on this subject, it must be remembered, with satisfaction, that great part of our in formation is derived from the exertions of several gentlemen distinguished for pati ent investigation and intrepid exploration.
M. Bourrit, Precentor of the Cathedral Church at Geneva, mentions, in the rela tion of his journey to the glaciers of Sa voy, the enterprise of Messrs. Windham and Pocock, in 1741, who, inspired by the artless relations of the peasants, descrip tive of the sublimity of their country, when they descended with honey and chrystals for sale,determi n ed to visit those frightful regions of ice which had receiv ed the appellation of Les Montagnes Maudites, or the accursed mountains; the gentlemen alluded to took every precau tion for securing their safety ; but enter taining many well-grounded fears, natu rally arising from a first attempt, they did not reach any considerable distance be yond the edge of the ice in the valley of Montanvert, yet their example operated so powerfully as to induce several others to imitate them, and proceed to the boun dary whence they returned; at length M. de Saussure had the resolution and cou rage to penetrate across the ice to the very extremities of the values; Mr. Coxe followed soon after ; and every possible information may be obtained from their publications which the nature of the sub ject will permit.
The most astonishing phenomenon at tending the glaciers is their near ap proach to the usual vegetation of sum mer ; for what can be more wonderful than to view wheat ready for the sickle, parched brown by the rays of the sun, separated only by the intervention of a few feet from the chilling influence of an endless bed of ice, which seems impene trable to its rays.
Many systems and theories have been ingeniously suggested to ascertain the first cause of the glaciers, their main tenance, and whether they increase or di minish in extent, of which Grunner's, im. proved and illustrated with actual obser vation by M. de Saussure, is the most ra tional and probable, and Mr. Coxe impli citly adopts it. Admitting that a person
could be raised sufficiently above the summits of the Alps of Switzerland, Sa voy, and Dauphine, to comprehend the whole at one view, he would observe a vast chaos of mountains and vallies, with several parallel chains, the highest of which are situated 'n the centre, and the remainder gradually lessening as they re tire from it. The central chain he would find to be surmounted by stupendous fragments of rock, towering in rude masses, which bear vast accumulations of snow and ice, where they are not deci dedly perpendicular, or do not overhang their bases ; on each side he would see the intervening chasms and gulphs, filled with ice, descending thence even into the verdant valfies rich with foliage and cul tivation. The inferior ranges of moun tains, next the central, present the same appearance in a lesser degree, but in those more remote the snow and ice is confined to the most elevitied points; and others, still further removed, are covered with grass and plants, which, in their turn, give place to the hills and vallies common in any part of the world.
Mr. Coxe divides the glaciers, in the above general survey, into two classes ; the first occupy the deep yanks situated in the bosom of the Alps, and the second adhere to the sides and summits of the mountains. Those in the vallies are far more extensive than the upper glaciers, some are several leagues in length, and that of Des Bois is three miles broad and fifteen long ; but they do not communi cate with each other, and there are few parallel to the central chain ; their upper extremities are connected with inaccessi ble precipices, and the lower proceed, as already mentioned, quite into the vales ; the depth of these astonishing accumula tions of frozen fluid vary from eighty to six hundred feet, and they generally rest on an inclined plane ; urged forward by their own enormous weight, and but weakly supported by the pointed rocks inserted in their bases, they are univer sally intersected by yawning chasms, of dreadful aspect to the curious investiga tor, who beholds fanciful representations of walls, towers, and pyramids, on every side of him ; but upon reaching those parts where the glacier rests upon an ho rizontal plane, his progress is seldom im peded by considerable fissures, and he walks in safety over a surface nearly uni form, and not so perfectly polished as that of ponds and rivers suddenly and violently frozen. The absence of trans parency, the various marks of air bub bles, and the general roughness, so per fectly resemble the congelation of snow, when half restored to fluidity, That M. de Saussure was immediately led to form the following probable theory of the forma tion of the glaciers.