Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/179

 It was not difficult to read in the immense deposit over which I had walked whence came the suggestion of dilatation to Scheuchzer, or of sliding to De Saussure; or, in the steady progress of knowledge and discovery, the principles of action that are illustrated by the terms vitrious and viscous and differential motion, as applied to the Alpine ice by eminent explorers of later date.

The subject of Greenland ice is one about which there exists much popular misapprehension. As before stated, I do not here propose to enter into a minute discussion of the manner of its formation and movement, but will content myself with simply recognizing the fact, and with drawing such comparison as may be needful between the mountain ice of Greenland and similar deposits in other quarters of the world. Under this head I trust that the reader may find sufficient interest in the line of argument to follow me through a few pages, in a general review of the whole field. At a later period I will recur to some more specific details of information and discussion, as the narrative carries us to other objects of inquiry.

In order to make the subject clear, I cannot do better than to cite my illustrations from the region of the Alps, where, through a long period, earnest explorers have laboriously pursued their inquiries. One of the most important and gifted of these was M. Le Chanonie Rendu, Bishop of Annecy. This excellent and worthy man, and sincere devotee as well of science as of religion, died some seven years ago. A lifetime spent among the rugged crags and ice-cliffs of the Alpine Mountains had familiarized him with every phase of Nature in that region of sublimity and home of the wonderful. Professor Tyndall says truly