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232 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
the morning and evening of a hot summer’s day, and
found that in the evening there passed by the church of
Justedal 1,860 cubic feet, or 116,250 lbs., of water per
second more than passed in the morning.
Glaciers frequently descend in this manner so far
below the snow-line as to reach the boundaries of the
corn-fields ; and of course the lower they come the more
rapid must be the thawing. To compensate for this
thawing below there must be a continuous supply of ice
from above : the glacier must, in fact, be perpetually
advancing. Careful observation has proved that such
is the case: these great ice slopes move gradually
downwards, with a velocity varying with the slope of
the ground, the heat of the weather, &c. ; the middle
moving faster than the sides, as in the case of a river.
The Mer de Glace moves at an average rate of about
sixteen inches daily. This glacier with its tributaries is
about twenty miles long, and a block of stone would be
about 200 years travelling from the top of the glacier
to the end. Such a block now discharged at the bottom
would therefore have started at. about the time of
Cromwell’s death, and have been travelling ever since.
Such blocks are continually falling on the glaciers from
the precipitous walls of the sides of the valley through
which they flow ; and at the foot of such precipices,
where there is no glacier, there is usually a talus or
heap of stones, the accumulation of ages. When a
stone falls upon the glacier, it moves on; the next
takes its place behind this one, and thus a line, instead
of a talus or heap, is formed. According to the nature of
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