76 THE WORLD OF ICE.

the meaning of the explanation, “’ow very hodd. But
can you tell me, Mr. Saunders, ’ow it is that them ’ere
hicebergs is made? Them’s wot I don’t comprehend
no ow.”

“Ay,” replied Saunders, “there has been many a
wiser head than yours puzzled for a long time about
icebergs. But if ye’ll use yer eyes you'll see how they
are formed. Do you see the high cliffs yonder away
to the nor’-east ? Weel, there are great masses 0’ ice
that have been formed against them by the melting
and freezing of the snows of many years. When these
become too heavy to stick to the cliffs, they tumble
into the sea and float away as icebergs. But the big-
gest bergs come from the foot of glaciers. You know
what glaciers are, Mivins ?”

“No, sir, I don’t.”

The second mate sighed. “They are immense ac-
cumulations of ice, Mivins, that have been formed by
the freezings and meltings of the snows of hundreds
of years. They cover the mountains of Norway and
Switzerland, and many other places in this world, for
miles and miles in extent, and sometimes they flow
down and fill up whole valleys. I once saw one in
Norway that filled up a valley eight miles long, two
miles broad, and seven or eight hundred feet deep; and
that was only a wee bit of it, for I was told by men
who had travelled over it that it covered the moun-
tains of the interior, and made them a level field of
ice, with a surface like rough, hard snow, for more than
twenty miles in extent.”