Danbury Times

Glaciers. The following is from a foreign
paper concerning the observations of M. Agassiz,
the Swiss Naturalist, whose theories concerning
the 'Ice Period' of the world have excited the
attention of scientific men in every country. For
the purpose of conducting his observations on
glaciers with facility, this enthusiastic savant has
established himself on the glaciers of the Aar, in
a hut which he calls the Hotel des Neufchâtelois:

In the Academy of Sciences, at its sitting of
August 29th, one of the first papers read was a
farther communication from M. Agassiz. M.
Agassiz informs the Academy that he continues
to note down the progressive movement of the
glacier, and has ascertained that it is throughout
mined and sapped with water-courses, as he was
convinced was the case from the experiments
which he had performed, and of which he had
given an account. One of the theories of this
gentleman was, that ice, instead of being solid,
as was generally supposed, is porous in a high
degree, and that the motion of glaciers, the reality
of which cannot be denied, although no attempt
has been made to examine the cause, is due to
the infiltrations of water through the mass, thus
undermining the base. The experiments of M.
Agassiz on the glaciers of Aar, have fully estab-
lished the truth of the theory which he had ad-
vanced. In his last communication to the Acad-
emy, M Agassiz mentions a fact which tends to
corroborate what has been stated as to the phos-
phorescence of clouds. He informs us that it
is more easy, on the glaciers at night, to distin-
guish the hands of a watch when the sky is cov-
ered with clouds, than when it is cloudless and
the light of the stars are seen. He also states
that the appearance of a peculiar snow, so well
known to all the visiters of the glaciers, is not a
snow that falls, but merely a modification of the
frozen surface.