The Forms of Water in Clouds and Rivers, Ice and Glaciers

by John Tyndall

SOURCE OF THE ARVEIRON.

108. Having passed the terminal portion of the glacier, which is covered with stones and rubbish, we find ourselves beside a very wonderful exhibition of ice. The glacier descends a steep gorge, and in doing so is riven and broken in the most extraordinary manner. Here are towers, and pinnacles, and fantastic shapes wrought out by the action of the weather, which put one in mind of rude sculpture. Annexed is a sketch of an ice-pinnacle. From deep chasms in the glacier issues a delicate shimmer of blue light. At times we hear a sound like thunder, which arises either from the falling of a tower of ice, or from the tumble of a huge stone into a chasm. The glacier maintains this wild and chaotic character for some time; and the best iceman would find himself defeated in any attempt to get along it.

ICE-PINNACLE.

109. We reach a place called the Chapeau, where, if we wish, we can have refreshment in a little mountain hut. We then pass the Mauvais Pas, a precipitous rock, on the face of which steps are hewn, and the unpractised traveller is assisted by a rope. We pursue our journey, partly along the mountain side, and partly along a ridge of singularly artificial aspect a lateral moraine. We at length face a house perched upon an eminence at the opposite side of the glacier. This is the auberge of the Montanvert, well known to all visitors to this portion of the Alps.

110. Here we cross the glacier. I should have told you that its lower part, including the broken portion we have passed, is called the Glacier des Bois; while the place that we are now about to cross is the beginning of the Mer de Glace. You feel that this term is not quite appropriate, for the glacier here is much more like a river of ice than a sea. The valley which it fills is about half a mile wide.

111. The ice may be riven where we enter upon it, but with the necessary care there is no difficulty in crossing this portion of the Mer de Glace. The clefts and chasms in the ice are called crevasses; we shall make their acquaintance on a grander scale by and by.