y. Don't you remember
that I told you that ages ago there was a vast glacier in the country
which stretches from here to the mountains? Well, sir, the foot of that
glacier must have reached further this way than is generally supposed.
At any rate a portion of it did extend in this direction as far as this
bit of the world which is now yours. This end or spur of the glacier,
nearly a quarter of a mile in width, I should say, and pushing before it
a portion of the terminal moraine on which you live, came slowly toward
the valley until suddenly it detached itself from the main glacier and
disappeared from sight. That is to say, my boy"--and as he spoke Tom
sprang to his feet, too excited to sit any longer--"it descended to
the bowels of the earth, at least for a considerable distance in that
direction, Now you want to know how this happened. Well, I'll tell you.
In this part of the country there are scattered about here and there
great caves. Geologists know one or two of them, and it is certain that
there are others undiscovered. Well, sir, your glacier spur discovered
one of them, and when it had lain over the top of it for an age or two,
and had grown bigger and bigger, and heavier and heavier, it at last
burst through the rock roof of the cave, snapping itself from the
rest of the glacier and falling in one vast mass to the bottom of the
subterranean abyss. Walter, it is there now. The rest of the glacier
came steadily down; the moraines were forced before it; they covered
up this glacier spur, this broken fragment, and by the time the climate
changed and the average of temperature rose above that of the glacial
period, this vast sunken mass of ice was packed away below the surface
of the earth, out of the reach of the action of friction, or heat, or
moisture, or anything else which might destroy it. And through all the
long procession of centuries that broken end of the glacier has been
lying in your terminal moraine. It is there now. It is yours, Walter
Cuthbert. It is an ice-mine. It is wealth, and so far as I can make out,
it is nearly all upon your land. To you is the possession, but to me is
the glory of the discovery. A bit of the glacial period kept in a cave
for us! It is too wonderful to believe! Walter, have you any brandy?"

It may well be supposed that by this time I was thoroughly awakened to
the importance and the amazing character of my friend's discovery, and
I hurried with him to the scene of operation