LIQUID FLOWERS IN LAKE ICE.
103. And the ice itself may be employed to concentrate them. With an ice-lens in the polar regions Dr. Scoresby has often concentrated the sun's rays so as to make them burn wood, fire gunpowder, and melt lead; thus proving that the heating power is retained by the rays, even after they have passed through so cold a substance.
104. By rendering the rays of the electric lamp parallel, and then sending them through a lens of ice, we obtain all the effects which Dr. Scoresby obtained with the rays of the sun.
[§ 12.] The Source of the Arveiron. Ice Pinnacles, Towers, and Chasms of the Glacier des Bois. Passage to the Montanvert.
105. Our preparatory studies are for the present ended, and thus informed, let us approach the Alps. Through the village of Chamouni, in Savoy, a river rushes which is called the Arve. Let us trace this river backwards from Chamouni. At a little distance from the village the river forks; one of its branches still continues to be called the Arve, the other is the Arveiron. Following this latter we come to what is called the "source of the Arveiron"—a short hour's walk from Chamouni. Here, as in the case of the Rhone already referred to, you are fronted by a huge mass of ice, the end of a glacier, and from an arch in the ice the Arveiron issues. Do not trust the arch in summer. Its roof falls at intervals with a startling crash, and would infallibly crush any person on whom it might fall.
106. We must now be observant. Looking about us here, we find in front of the ice curious heaps and ridges of débris, which are more or less concentric. These are the terminal moraines of the glacier. We shall examine them subsequently.
107. We now turn to the left, and ascend the slope beside the glacier. As we ascend we get a better view, and find that the ice here fills a narrow valley. We come upon another singular ridge, not of fresh débris, like those lower down, but covered in part with trees, and appearing to be literally as "old as the hills." It tells a wonderful tale. We soon satisfy ourselves that the ridge is an ancient moraine, and at once conclude that the glacier, at some former period of its existence, was vastly larger than it is now. This old moraine stretches right across the main valley, and abuts against the mountains at the opposite side.
