Travels Through the Alps of Savoy and Other Parts of the Pennine Chain: With Observations on the Phenomena of GlaciersA. and C. Black, 1843 - 424 páginas |
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Términos y frases comunes
Agassiz Aiguille Allée Blanche Alps already amongst angle appears Argentière ascended bands blocks breadth Brenva called cause centre châlets Chamouni Charmoz Charpentier Col du Géant Courmayeur crevasses crossed d'Erin Dent Blanche descending dilatation direction distance doubt English feet Evolena fact farther fissures foot friction Glace Glacier de Léchaud Glacier du Géant glacier motion glacier moves Grande Jorasse granite height higher inches length limestone lower Macugnaga marked mass medial moraine Mer de Glace Miage Mont Blanc Mont Cervin Montanvert Monte Rosa moraine mountains nearly névé observations parallel passed Pralong precipice present promontory remarkable Rhone ridge rock Saussure Saussure's season seen side sketch slope snow station steep stone stream Studer summit surface Tacul temperature theory tion traveller traversed Val de Bagnes Val Ferret valley Valpelline veined structure velocity vertical village walk weather whilst Zermatt Zmutt
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Página 367 - A GLACIER is AN IMPERFECT FLUID, OR A VISCOUS BODY. WHICH IS URGED DOWN SLOPES OF A CERTAIN INCLINATION BY THE MUTUAL PRESSURE OF ITS PARTS.
Página 388 - Poets and philosophers have delighted to compare the course of human life to that of a river ; perhaps a still apter simile might be found in the history of a glacier. Heaven-descended in its origin^ it yet takes its mould and conformation from the hidden womb of the mountains which brought it forth.
Página 43 - ... to the action of water. A glacier which fills up valleys in its course, and which conveys the rocks on its surface free from attrition, is the only agent we now see capable of transporting them to such a distance, without destroying that sharpness of the angles so distinctive of these masses.
Página 271 - Euitor, are spread out in the distance, and beneath we have the exceedingly deep valley of Ollomont, communicating with the Val Pelline, which is itself a tributary of the Val d'Aoste.
Página 128 - De Charpentier, so far as I recollect, offers no opinion in his work on glaciers as to what is to be considered as their rate of motion. I was not, therefore, wrong in supposing that the actual progress of a glacier was yet a new problem, when I commenced my observations on the Mer de Glace in 1842.
Página 35 - ... bed of uneven rock, and through a channel so sinuous and irregular, that a glacier is often embayed in a valley whence it can only escape by an aperture of half its actual width ? On all mechanical principles, we answer, that it is impossible. We may add, that many small glaciers are seen to rest upon slopes of from 20° to 30°, without taking an accelerated motion : and this is conformable to the known laws of friction. It is known, for instance, to architects, that hewn stones, finely dressed...
Página 198 - Its immense extent, however, deceives the eye as to its inequalities, and I scarcely ever remember to have had a more laborious or rougher walk than the traverse of the lower part of the Glacier de Miage, which I followed down its centre to the spot where, as will be seen by the eye-sketch, it divides into two branches. This icy torrent, as spread out...
Página 266 - ... our front. Before leaving the subject of chalets, I may observe that the character of the inhabitants is not undeserving of notice. I have always received, both in Switzerland and Savoy, a gentle, and kind, and disinterestedly hospitable reception in the chalets, on the very bounds of civilization, where a night's lodging, however rude, is an inestimable boon to a traveller. These simple people differ very much (it has struck me) from the other inhabitants of the same valleys — their own relatives,...
Página 237 - Our embarrassment was still further increased by the very small distance to which it was possible to command, by the eye, the details of the labyrinth through which we must pass. The most promising track might end in inextricable difficulties, and the most difficult might chance ultimately to be the only safe one. ' The spectacle gave us pause. We had made for the north-western side of the glacier, near the foot of the Petit...
Página 199 - ... that the fall of a pebble, or the pressure of a passing foot, will shove it into one or other abyss, and the chances are, may carry him along with it. Let him beware, too, how he treads on that gravelly bank, which seems to offer a rough and sure footing, for underneath there is sure to be the most pellucid ice, and a light footstep there, which might not disturb a rockingstone, is pregnant with danger. All is on the eve of motion. Let him sit awhile, as I did, on the moraine of Miage, and watch...