Henry Martyn Baird

“ Both M. de Seue and Prof. Sexe reject the theory of expansion as failing to account for the phenomenon of the glacier's progression, and both virtually agree in ascribing that progression to the combined influence of the enormous pressure exerted by the glacier's weight and the melting produced by the air. Unfortunately for the former theory—of expansion—it is difficult to see how it will explain the greater motion of the glacier in precisely that part of the year and of the day when the heat is the greatest, and the influence of expansion by freezing must necessarily be least operative. ”

“ Norway may, in fact, be styled with good reason the country of the glacier. True, the height of its mountains does not approximate to that of the Alps. Only one or two summits exceed 8,000 feet in altitude, and this elevation is not much more than half that of Mont Blanc. But almost the entire country stands high above the level of the ocean, while its situation so far toward the north enables the snowfields, which are the feeders of the glaciers, to retain their vast accumulations with little loss though rain or thaw. ”

“ It must not, however, be concluded too hastily that the climate of Norway is cold and inhospitable; for no greater contrast can be found between countries lying in the same latitude, than between Norway and Greenland. ”

“ Against the theory of weight as the motive power is urged the fact that occasionally the glaciers are not strictly adjacent to the superior snowfield, but separated from it by an intervening space of bare rock. When once it has emerged from the névé, the glacier becomes a stream of ice chiefly distinguished from a fluid river by the greater sluggishness of its current. How, it may be asked, can a mass of solid ice move in a fixed channel? ”

“ Each glacier presents many of the same phenomena as all the rest. From the moment it leaves the parent névé, or snow-field, the constitution of the mass is different from that of recently-fallen snow. ”

“ Indeed, it is the remarkably equable temperature of Norway which, while it prevents the harbors from being closed by drifting ice, like those of the opposite shores of Greenland, yet, allows the line of perpetual snow to come down as low as 4,000 or 5,000 feet above the sea-level. ”

“ The very valleys that break up their continuity are unperceived by the eye, being overlooked on account of their narrowness; and the view is interrupted, only by slight undulations, or by occasional mountains of no great size. ”

“ M. de Seue, on the other hand, emphasizes the peculiar constitution of the ice of glaciers, that is, the ice which is formed by the compression and metamorphosis of snow "The ice of the glacier," he says, "is, as already remarked, composed of distinct particles. From a piece of this ice you can, as a general thing, easily remove the particles, one after the other, without injuring the surrounding ones; and, if you should find a particle which cannot be taken out without afflicting the rest, you will still notice that you can move it a little relatively to the others without harming them. ”

“ It is unnecessary to say that the difficulty of taking observations during half the year, on account of the temperature, and the glacier being covered over with deep snow, can scarcely be exaggerated. ”