into it. Its bed is a steep valley, commencing far up among the mountains in a region of everlasting ice and snow, and ending in some warm and pleasant valley far below, where the warm sun beats upon the terminus1 of it, and melts the ice away as fast as it comes down. 2. It flows very slowly, and not usually more than an inch in an hour. The warm summer sun beams upon the upper surface of it, melting it slowly away, and forming vast fissures and clefts3 in it, down which you can look to the bottom, if you only have courage to go near enough to the slippery edge. 3. If you do not dare to do this, you can get a large stone and throw into it; and then, if you stand still and listen, you hear it thumping and thundering against the sides of the crevasse until it gets too deep to be any longer heard. You can not hear it strike the bottom; for it is sometimes seven or eight hundred feet through the thickness of the glacier to the ground below. 4. The surface of the glacier above is not smooth and glassy like the ice of a freshly frozen river or pond; but is white like a field of snow. This appearance is produced in part by the snow which falls upon the glacier, and in part by the melting of the surface of the ice by the sun. From this latter cause, too, the surface of the glacier is covered, in a summer's day, with streams of water, which flow, like little brooks, in long and winding channels, which they themselves have worn, until at length they reach some fissure, or crevasse, into which they fall and disappear. 5. The waters of these brooks-many thousands in all-form a large stream, which flows along on the surface of the ground under the glacier, and comes out at last in a wild, and roaring, and turbid3 torrent, from an immense archway in the ice at the lower end, where the 1 Têr' mi nus, the end, or boundary.- Fis sures (fish' yers), cracks or openings.3 Clefts, open spaces made by splitting.—1 Cre våsse', a deep and wide crack.-- Tur bid (têr' bid), thick; muddy; not clear. glacier terminates among the green fields and blooming flowers of the lower valley. 6. The glaciers are formed from the avalanches1 which fall into the upper valleys, in cases where the valleys are so deep and narrow, and so secluded2 from the sun, that the snows which slide into them can not melt. In such case, the immense accumulations3 which gather there harden and solidify, and become ice; and, what is very astonishing, the whole mass, solid as it is, moves slowly onward down the valley, following all the turns and indentations of its bed, until finally it comes down into the warm regions of the lower valleys, where the end of it is melted away by the sun as fast as the mass behind crowds it forward. 7. It is certainly věry astonishing that a substance so solid as ice can flow in this way, along a rocky and tortuous bed, as if it were semi-fluid; and it was a long time before men would believe that such a thing could be possible. It was, however, at length proved beyond all question that this motion exists; and the rate of it in different glaciers, at different periods of the day, or of the year, has been accurately measured. 8. If you go to the end of the glacier, where it comes out into the lower valley, and look up to the icy cliff's which form the termination of it, and watch there for a few minutes, you soon see masses of ice breaking off from the brink, and falling down with a thundering sound to the rocks below. This is because the ice at the extremity is all the time pressed forward by the mass behind it; and, as it comes to the brink, it breaks over and falls down. 9. On each side of the glacier, quite near the shore, 3 'Avalanches (av a lånsh' ez), vast slips of snow and ice.- Se clůd'ed, shut out from other things. Ac cu mu là' tions, heaps.—1 So lid' i fy, to become hard, or solid. In den ta' tions, deep places or recesses in Tort' u ous, twisted.—” Sêm' i-flù id, a thing, as if made by teeth. half fluid. Cliffs, steep banks. there is usually found a ridge of rocks and stones, extending up and down the glacier for the whole length of it, as if an immense wall, formed of blocks of granite, of prodigious magnitude, had been built by giants to fence the glacier in, and had afterwards been shaken down by an earthquake, so as to leave only a confused and shapeless ridge of rocks and stones. 10. These long lines of wall-like ruins may be traced along the borders of the glacier as far as the eye can reach. They lie just on the edge of the ice, and follow all the bends and sinuosities' of the shore. It is a mystery how they are formed. All that is known, or rather all that can be here explained, is, that they are composed of the rocks which cleave off from the sides of the precipices and mountains that border the glacier, and that, when they have fallen down, the gradual movement of the ice draws them out into the long, ridge-like lines in which they now appear. 11. Some of these moraines are of colossal magnitude, being in several places a hundred feet broad and fifty or sixty feet high; and, as you can not get upon the glacier without crossing them, they are often greatly in the traveler's way. In fact, they sometimes form a barrier which is all but impassable. JACOB ABBOTT. A 59. THE TWO MEN AND THEIR BARLEY. NUMBER of years ago, two neighbors, in a newly settled part of the country, were traveling together, each with a load of barley to carry to the malt-house. At that place the barley was to be inspected, and, if found good, to be ground into malt for the making of beer. Sin u ôs'i ties, recesses caused by the bendings of the shore.'Prêc'i pic es, very steep descents.- Co los' sal, very large. Colossus was a statue of Apollo, so large that it is said ships might sail between its legs. 2. For a considerable distance these travelers found their ride more pleasant than they had expected. They conversed, in a social manner, on different subjects, as the various streams, cleared farms, and cottages they passed; and among other things, related the various opinions they had heard concerning the malt-house to which they were going. 3. As they advanced, doubts began to arise in their minds respecting the course they should take; for the country was hilly, and different paths were seen, which appeared to lead in the same general direction. The travelers had examined the geography and maps; but neither of them had ever passed that way before. 4. After the best information they could get, they came, at last, to a fork in the roads, where they found themselves unable to agree. One said the right hand, and the other said the left was the proper course; and finally, each took his own way, in the firm belief that his neighbor was wrong. 5. As it happened, both men arrived at the malthouse nearly at the same time. Their meeting was very unexpected to both; and they still wished to know which of the two ways was best; but, on inquiry, they found that, though there were different roads, and it was of some consequence for travelers to make a wise choice, yet the main question at that place was, not which one of a dozen ways they come, but whether their barley was good. 6. We may learn from this story, that if people agree, in the main points, they should not get angry and abuse each other, as they sometimes do, because they can not think alike in trifling things; or that if two persons, both meaning to do right, should differ in opinion respecting very important affairs, it would be proper for each to enjoy his own way of thinking, and not quarrel about it. W. S. CARDELL. 60. "LOOK NOT UPON THE WINE.' LOOK not upon the wine when it 1. Lo ༽ Is red within the cup! Though clear its depths, and rich its glow, 2. They say 'tis pleasant on the lip, They say it stirs the sluggish3 blood, Let not its curse be thine. "Tis red and rich-but grief and woe Are in those rosy depths below. WILLIS. A 61. THE FOSTER-CHILD. POOR woman entered the parlor of a lady for whom she had sometimes worked. She led by the hand a little boy, poorly clad, and of a sad countenance. 3 1 Blak' er, a cup.—2 Spåll, a charm consisting of words of hidden power; something which works mysteriously. —3 Slug' gish, slow; lazy ; indolent. Brim' ming, filled to overflowing. |