GLACIER QUARRIES.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13645, 10 February 1913, Page 3

GLACIER QUARRIES.

Quarrying glaciers:and commercialis ing tlie product in a wholesale manner, are adding to Switzerland's, wealth, at the risk of ruining some great scenic effect®. The Fronch city of Lyons is the most important' consumer of this glacier ice, which, owing to its purity and transparency, commands a higher price- than that .cut from lakes or rivers, Tho. ice- is, blasted '■' out of , the glacier by mean* of black ■ powder;

which it has been found does not discolour the ioo as giant powder does. Much ingenuity, is. shown in : , building the chutes which carry the blocks of ice down the mountain sides. Curves are introduced to impede the velocity of the great ice blocks.