258 Professor Agassiz o7i the Glacier Theo/y. 



As, however, the thickness of glaciers is generally estimated 

 at from 80 to 100 feet, I hoped to reach the bottom of that 

 of the Aar with this boring apparatus. In order not to be 

 stopped by miforeseen difficulties, I took with me M. Koehli's 

 foreman, who was entrusted with the direction of the bor- 

 ing operations. The piercer was composed of ten bars, an 

 inch in diameter and fifteen feet long ; the cutting portion of 

 the various fleurets was three inches, three inches and a half, 

 five inches, and six inches in diameter. All the bars, as well 

 as the other instruments connected with the piercer, such 

 as the keys, cuiUers, ropes, &c., were carried by men from 

 Meyringen to the Hospice, and thence^ to our hut on 

 the glacier, that is to say, to a distance of ten leagues from 

 Berne. I established myself, along with my companions, un- 

 der the same block which had sheltered us the preceding year, 

 and which is now known to the scientific world by the name 

 of the Hotel des Neuchatelois. It is a large block of mica-slate, 

 forming a part of the moraine which descends from the flanks 

 of the Schreckhorn, at a league higher up. Its length is 41 

 feet, its breadth 30 feet, and its height 19 feet. One of its 

 angles projects in the form of a roof on the south-west sidie. 

 It was this place which we again chose on this occasion as a 

 shelter. I had sent some days previously two of my guides 

 to the glacier to prepare our abode. They found the walls 

 which had been constructed the previous year completely dis- 

 located by the movement of the glacier. The space, however, 

 which they contained, would not have been sufficiently large 

 for our encampment of this year. The hut was therefore re- 

 built, and arranged in such a manner as to shelter eight per- 

 sons. The kitchen was prepared in front of the entrance to 

 the hut, and the store-room at the side, under another block. 

 The guides constructed for themselves a second hut on the 

 left side of the glacier, at the distance of half a league. It 

 was not, like our own one, built on the ice, and, in this respect, 

 it was more solid and less precarious ; but ours had the advan- 

 tage of being situated in the middle of the glacier, at the most 

 favourable point for our observations. 



As soon as we were fairly settled in our hut, I commenced the 

 boring operations. In the previous year I had tried two kinds 



