This huge mass of sludge, more or less mixed with sand,
stones, and perhaps timber, is frozen to a considerable depth, and much
sun-heat is required to thaw it. Some of these unfortunate lakelets are
not clear of ice and snow until near the end of summer. Others are never
quite free, opening only on the side opposite the entrance of the
avalanches. Some show only a narrow crescent of water lying between the
shore and sheer bluffs of icy compacted snow, masses of which breaking
off float in front like icebergs in a miniature Arctic Ocean, while the
avalanche heaps leaning back against the mountains look like small
glaciers. The frontal cliffs are in some instances quite picturesque,
and with the berg-dotted waters in front of them lighted with sunshine
are exceedingly beautiful. It often happens that while one side of a
lake basin is hopelessly snow-buried and frozen, the other, enjoying
sunshine, is adorned with beautiful flower-gardens. Some of the smaller
lakes are extinguished in an instant by a heavy avalanche either of
rocks or snow. The rolling, sliding, ponderous mass entering on one side
sweeps across the bottom and up the opposite side, displacing the water
and even scraping the basin clean, and shoving the accumulated rocks and
sediments up the farther bank and taking full possession.
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