You see, and so is it with our Grossglockner! He is also a very large moist stone in the far-reaching farmlands of a continent and draws therefore from far and wide the superfluous airborne moisture unto itself. If, however, this moisture remained in a dripping state on his stone-walls, they would soon escape again in large streams from this giant stone and devastate many properties round about. In order to prevent this from happening, he causes through his height and the peculiarity of the rock that the absorbed moisture quickly turn into snow, hail and ice. – The Grossglockner, Chapter 1, Paragraph 29