III.—The Motion of Land-ice

Extract

Amongst the many useful tables given in Prof. Prestwich's “Geology”is one on the expansion and contraction of ice under variations in temperature (vol. i. pp. 139 and 183). The table in question is abbreviated from one of greater length, which was published in the year 1845 by Carl Brunner von Wattenwyll in the Annales de Chimie et de Physique, 3^me ser. tome 14, pp. 369–378, under the title of “Expériences sur la densité de la glace à différentes températures.” The author of the paper referred to made an extensive series of observations upon the contraction of ice under various temperatures below the freezing-point; and he proved conclusively that, under these circumstances, the contraction of ice exceeds that of all other solid bodies that had (up to the date of the paper) been studied in this connection.