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210
The Fairy-Land of Science
·
Arabella B. Buckley
106
And
now,
what
has
Ice
got
to
do
with
the
sculpturing
of
the
land?
First,
we
must
remember
how
much
the
frost
does
in
breaking
up
the
ground.
The
farmers
know
this,
and
always
plough
after
a
frost,
because
the
moisture,
freezing
in
the
ground,
has
broken
up
the
clods,
and
done
half
their
work
for
them.
But
this
is
not
the
chief
work
of
ice.
You
will
remember
how
we
learnt
in
our
last
lecture
that
snow,
when
it
falls
on
the
mountains,
gradually
slides
down
into
the
valleys,
and
is
pressed
together
by
the
gathering
snow
behind
until
it
becomes
moulded
into
a
solid
river
of
ice
(see
Fig.
29,
Frontispiece).
In
Greenland
and
in
Norway
there
are
enormous
ice-rivers
or
glaciers,
and
even
in
Switzerland
some
of
them
are
very
large.
The
Aletsch
glacier,
in
the
Alps,
is
fifteen
miles
long,
and
some
are
even
longer
than
this.
They
move
very
slowly
-
on
an
average
about
20
to
27
inches
in
the
centre,
and
13
to
19
inches
at
the
sides
every
twenty-four
hours,
in
the
summer
and
autumn.
How
they
move,
we
cannot
stop
to
discuss
now;
but
if
you
will
take
a
slab
of
thin
ice
and
rest
it
upon
its
two
ends
only,
you
can
prove
to
yourself
that
ice
does
bend,
for
in
a
few
hours
you
will
find
that
its
own
weight
has
drawn
it
down
in
the
centre,
so
as
to
form
a
curve.
This
will
help
you
to
picture
to
yourselves
how
glaciers
can
adapt
themselves
to
the
windings
of
the
valley,
creeping
slowly
onwards
until
they
come
down
to
a
point
where
the
air
is
warm
enough
to
melt
them,
and
then
the
ice
flows
away
in
a
stream
of
water.
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