Besearches on Existing Glaciers, 247: 



step I made, and I was impatient at seeing Agassiz taking 

 the lead. On no other occasion had I ever felt the slightest 

 jealousy, because I should have had the conviction, that, by 

 means of a little effort, I could have made up to him ; but 

 now, on the contrary, 1 was obliged to confess my weakness, 

 and was therefore deeply mortified. 



*• We could have concluded from the aspect of the gla- 

 cier, as seen from a distance, that no stream escaped from 

 it, or at least that it was not visible externally, owing to the 

 thickness of the snow. We encountered the last traces of 

 water near the hut of the shepherd, iij front of the gorge of 

 the Oberaar, at a place where the snow was moist. Its 

 temperature was at zero, and it proceeded, according to all 

 appearance, from those springs which flow in summer on the 

 polished flanks of the valley, and give rise to small marshes 

 which here occupy the left flank. The cascade of the Triib- 

 tensee and the torrent of the Oberaar had disappeared, and 

 their bed was only indicated by immense stalactites of ice, 

 suspended on the rock. But what interested us most, was 

 the outline and the form of the glacier itself. If the glacier 

 had continued to move and to increase during the winter, it 

 ought to have left traces of that movement ; and as the 

 snow accumulated at its extremity had fallen some months 

 before, it would have been gathered together in a forward di- 

 rection, or at least some swelling would have been perceptible, 

 immediately in front of the terminal edge. In place of that, 

 the snow presented a regular talus, such as is formed by th^ 

 snow where it has been driven by the wind against the flanks 

 of valleys. 



"It was seven o'clock when we reached the edge of the gla- 

 cier, and we had thus taken two hours to accomplish what 

 in summer never occupied more than 40 minutes. I was 

 dreadfully fatigued, and I had had so many and such repeated 

 falls, that my knees were quite galled. I declared to Agassiz 

 that I should proceed no further. If the plain had seemed so 

 difftcult, what would it not be when we should arrive upon 

 the glacier ? But notwithstanding my remonstrances, Agassiz 

 was determined to persist ; and he represented to me, that 

 the crust could not fail to be softened when the sun had acted 



