All 3 Uses of
glacier
in
Moby Dick
- In the fireside narrative of Captain Sleet, entitled "A Voyage among the Icebergs, in quest of the Greenland Whale, and incidentally for the re-discovery of the Lost Icelandic Colonies of Old Greenland;" in this admirable volume, all standers of mast-heads are furnished with a charmingly circumstantial account of the then recently invented CROW'S-NEST of the Glacier, which was the name of Captain Sleet's good craft.†
Chpt 34-36 *
- …in this crow's-nest, with a small compass he kept there for the purpose of counteracting the errors resulting from what is called the "local attraction" of all binnacle magnets; an error ascribable to the horizontal vicinity of the iron in the ship's planks, and in the Glacier's case, perhaps, to there having been so many broken-down blacksmiths among her crew; I say, that though the Captain is very discreet and scientific here, yet, for all his learned "binnacle deviations,"†
Chpt 34-36
- So suddenly seen in the blue plain of the sea, and relieved against the still bluer margin of the sky, the spray that he raised, for the moment, intolerably glittered and glared like a glacier; and stood there gradually fading and fading away from its first sparkling intensity, to the dim mistiness of an advancing shower in a vale.†
Chpt 133-135
Definition:
-
(glacier) a large mass of ice that moves over land like an exceedingly slow river
The form glacial, in addition to meaning relates to a glacier, can mean:- moves very slowly (like a glacier)
- relates to a geological time period when much of the earth was covered with glaciers
- relates to ice or cold (often metaphorically) -- as in "She gave me a glacial stare."
editor's notes: Glaciers are thought of as moving very slowly and slow ones may move as little as a foot or two a year, but there are also fast-moving glaciers that can move as much as ninety feet per day.