solution of a host of problems which still defy the intellect of man. Circulation is the law of life, the method of action employed by Providence in the administration of the universe. In the insect, as in the plant, as in the human body, we find a circulation, or rather several circulations,--blood, humours, elements, fire, all which enter into the composition of the individual.” However fanciful may be some of the amiable prelate’s speculations, it is certain that the glaciers obey this law of circulation. The snow-accumulations in the upper regions are to some extent reduced by the descent of the avalanches,--that is, of masses of snow and ice which detach themselves from the mountain-sides and dash headlong into the valleys below, where they are rapidly melted by the warmer atmosphere. But this would, in itself, be wholly insufficient. Another movement, at once more efficacious and more regular, is necessary; a movement which embraces the entire system of the ice-masses, and which carries the glaciers below the perpetual snow-line, so that every year they may give up a portion of their terminal extremities. The discovery of this general progression is one of the most fertile with which, of late years, the physics of the globe have been enriched. Professor Tyndall rightly observes that there are numerous obvious indications of the existence of glacier-motion, though it is too slow to catch the eye at once. The crevasses change within certain limits from year to year, and sometimes from month to month; and this could not be if the ice did not move. Rocks and stones also are observed, which have been plainly torn from the mountain-sides. Blocks seen to fall from particular points are afterwards noticed lower down. On the moraines rocks are found of a totally different mineralogical character from those composing the mountains right and left; and in all such cases strata of the same character are found bordering the glacier higher up. Hence the conclusion that the foreign _boulders_ have been _floated_ down by the ice. Further, the ends or “snouts” of many glaciers act like ploughshares on the land in front of them, overturning with irresistible energy the huts and châlets that lie in their path. Facts like these have been long known to the inhabitants of the High Alps, who were thus made acquainted in a vague and general way with the motion of the glaciers. But Science cannot deal with generalities: it requires precise and accurate information; and this information, so far as the progression of the glaciers is concerned, has been obtained through the patient labours of Rendu, Charpentier, Agassiz, Desor, Vogt, Professor Forbes, Bravais, Charles Martins, Hopkins, Professor Tyndall, Colomb, John Ball, and Schlagintweit. Their experiments and observations have established the truth of certain immutable principles, and proved the existence of a general law of movement.