engaged in passing across an arm of the sea, on sledges drawn by dogs. The first alarm was given by some passing Esquimaux, and afterwards by their own attendants; but the approach of danger was at first scarcely perceptible, except on lying down, and applying the ear close to the ice, when a hollow grating noise was heard ascending from the abyss. By and by the wind rose to a storm, and the swell had increased so much, that its effects on the ice were extraordinary, and really alarming. "The sledges, instead of gliding smoothly along, as on an even surface, sometimes ran with violence after the dogs, and sometimes seemed with difficulty to ascend a rising hill. Noises, too, were now distinctly heard, in many directions, like the report of cannon, from the bursting of the ice at a distance. Alarmed by these frightful phenomena, our travellers drove with all haste towards the shore; and, as they approached it, the prospect before them was tremendous. The ice, having burst loose from the rocks, was tossed to and fro, and broken in a thousand pieces against precipices, with a dreadful noise; which, added to the raging of the sea, the roaring of the wind, and the driving of the snow, so completely overpowered them, as almost to deprive them of the use both of their eyes and ears. To make the land was now the only resource that remained; but it was with the utmost difficulty that the frightened dogs could be driven forward; and, as the whole body of the ice frequently sank below the summits of the rocks, and then rose above them, the only time for landing was the moment it gained the level of the coast-a circumstance which rendered the attempt extremely nice and hazardous. Both sledges, however, succeeded in gaining the shore, though not without great difficulty. Scarcely had they reached it, when that part of the ice from which they had just escaped, burst asunder, and the water, rushing up from beneath, instantly precipitated it into the ocean. In a moment, as if by a signal, the whole mass of ice, for several miles along the coast, and extending as far as the eye could reach, began to break and to be overwhelmed by the waves. The spectacle

was awfully grand. The immense fields of ice, rising out of the ocean, clashing against one another, and then plunging into the deep with a violence which no language can describe, and a noise like the discharge of a thousand cannon, was a sight which must have struck the most unreflecting mind with solemn awe. The brethren were overwhelmed with amazement at their miraculous escape; and even the pagan Esquimaux expressed gratitude to God for their deliverance.”*

TWELFTH WEEK-TUESDAY.

V. FROST.ITS AGENCY IN MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS.

I HAVE already mentioned, that water suddenly expands in the process of freezing; now the force with which the expansion takes place is immense, as has been proved by various experiments. The barrel of a gun, and even the body of the strongest cannon, when filled to the muzzle with water, and tightly screwed up, have been found to burst under this process in a hard frost; and, indeed, there does not appear to be any known power in the material world strong enough to resist it. This property seems to be one of the most active agents in breaking down rocks and diminishing the height of mountain ranges, particularly in regions distant from the equator. The water which penetrates the fissures of the rocks during the early part of the winter, is converted into ice, and, by the sudden expansion which then takes place, rends the solid rocks asunder, with a noise which is heard at the distance of many miles; and, where the surface happens to be precipitous, and the equilibrium is destroyed, the detached masses, on the melting of the ice, by the return of spring, fall over with a tremendous

* Brown's History of the Propagation of Christianity among the Heathen, vol. ii. p. 51.

crash, and, in the fearful avalanche, sometimes overwhelm whole villages and fields, carrying sudden and inevitable destruction to their inhabitants.

Most distressing occurrences from this cause take place every year in those lofty and rugged districts where Nature has formed so strong a barrier against the encroachments of hostile armies, and where freedom so long maintained her throne, and religion her purity and independence, in the midst of enslaved and degraded kingdoms. In the narrow valleys of the Swiss Cantons, and along the ravines formed by those tributary streams which supply the ample currents of the Rhine and the Rhone, winter has terrors altogether unknown to the inhabitants of less Alpine territories. Sometimes an avalanche blocks up the channel between two mountains, till the accumulated waters of weeks or months force for themselves a passage, and, rushing forward with a tremendous flood, carry far-spread inundation and death over the smiling and wellpeopled valleys below. In other places, year after year, on the breaking up of the winter storms, rocks and stones, rolling down the sides of the mountains, gradually but surely overwhelm whole districts, which the industry of man had rendered fertile, and cause them to be abandoned to the eagle, the marmot, and the chamois. These encroachments are fearful, while others, of a description scarcely less formidable, occur in different situations. of the same interesting ranges. Not unfrequently, the majestic glacier, undermined by some mountain stream, or rendered unstable by the accumulating snows and frosts of ages, gives way in an instant, and, toppling over from its giddy height, tumbles headlong to the lower grounds; not only bearing extensive destruction in its fall, but chilling, for many years, the climate of all the surrounding district with its wintry breath.

Such calamitous events remind us, that we live in a world, among the conditions of which are desolation and suffering; and they carry our thoughts upward to that happy land where there is no death, no calamity, no change; where trials are past, and tears are wiped away; and where the dark valley, and the narrow path, have

ended in a boundless and glowing paradise of eternal sunshine and unfading bloom.

In one point of view, the events I have adverted to, are of importance in the controversy with him who dreams of the eternity of matter, and an eternal succession of uncreated beings. The process of decay which is so actively going on in our mountain ranges, is an undeniable proof of the comparatively recent formation of these rugged elevations, and, by a necessary consequence, of the present surface of the globe, of which they form so extensive and so essential a feature. It is impossible that they could have existed from eternity, or even for any period to which the power of calculation cannot easily extend. Had the earth endured without disruption for a million of years, for example, long ere now the power of frost, and other causes of decay, would have crumbled to dust the hardest projecting rocks, levelled the highest mountains, and reduced the whole surface of the globe to a marshy and unwholesome plain. Our world has neither existed from eternity, nor is it formed for eternal existence. While the frost rends asunder matter subjected to its influence, the air decomposes it, the storm scatters it, the rain washes it away, rivers and overwhelming torrents carry it to the valleys and the ocean; the formation of downs, the fall of forests, and the decay of vegetation, are continually altering the relative depth of the low grounds by their accumulations. "Ages on ages might indeed pass away before these agents could produce their extreme effects, yet that their action is neither inconsiderable nor very slow, innumerable observations have rendered incontestable."*

Now, long before the earth had arrived at the point to which it is so evidently tending, the fall of the mountains would render it a comfortless and noxious habitation. Our springs and rivers would be absorbed and disappear in fetid swamps; the winds and rains, on which mountainous districts produce such salutary effects, would cease to be equably dispersed; in one extensive region,

* Bushnan's Study of Nature.

the stagnant atmosphere, loaded with poisonous vapors, would spread pestilence and death; and in another, winds, blowing continually and violently from one point of the compass, would shed a blight over both the vegetable and animal world. The wide-spread and desolate Steppes of Russia, in short, where nothing is seen on every side but a cheerless and level waste, and where, from horizon to horizon, a deathlike silence reigns, would be but a faint picture of the miserable scene, which a decayed world would present to its last sickly and dying inhabitants.

But the earth is not destined to arrive at this state of feeble and decrepit age. Thousands of centuries before that period would arrive, its task will be accomplished, and its race run; for the irreversible decree of the Creator is, that, at no distant period, "the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat;""the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up." Yet how cheering is the promise with which that decree is accompanied, that there shall be the creation or developement of "new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness ;" and how appropriate is the exhortation of the apostle, "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless."

TWELFTH WEEK-WEDNESDAY.

VI. HOAR-FROST.-FOLIATIONS ON WINDOW-GLASS.

THERE are some beautiful appearances which frost frequently assumes, to cheer us, as it were, and give an agreeable exercise to our taste, in the absence of that loveliness, which the hand of an indulgent Creator sheds so profusely over our fields and gardens, in the genial

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