TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 155 



they are not so plain is to be accounted for by the fact that 

 such a quantity of snow accumulates on the Moorhouse Eange 

 that avalanches and slips are more numerous, and have swept 

 them away." 



These measurements were reduced to give the daily rate at 

 which this glacier was moving at this place at the time they 

 were made, and show,^ — • 



No. 1 was moving l-16in. per dav, or 35ft. Sin. per year; 



2 „ 2-90in. „" 88ft. 2in. 



3 „ 4-47in. „ 136ft. 



4 „ 5-42in. „ 165ft. 



5 „ 4-51in. „ 137ft. 2in. 



— giving an average daily rate of 4-33iu., which multiplied by 365 

 gives the yearly velocity of 131ft. 8in. ; but this is only an ap- 

 proximation, as Professor Forbes determined from his observa- 

 tions made in 1842 on the Mer de Glace, Chamouni, that the 

 movement of a glacier differs with the season of the year. But 

 omitting No. 1, — which, being on the side of the glacier, is 

 moving very slightly, — the average is, as I have stated, only 

 131ft. 8in. a year. I have worked out this average, which, of 

 course, can only be properly done by observations made at 

 various times of the year, to show at what a very different rate 

 the Hooker Glacier, which is comparatively small, travels com- 

 pared with that of the Mueller or the Great Tasman at the points 

 where these glaciers were measured this season. Owing to a 

 typographical error in the printed copy of Mr. Brodrick's re- 

 port (see appendix 4 to the Surveyor-General's report for 

 1889), the rate 'at which this glacier was moving appears as 

 so many feet and inches, instead of inches and decimals of an 

 inch ; and this led Mr. Mannering, who, unfortunately, got hold 

 of an uncorrected copy, to assume, in a paper he read to the 

 Canterbury Institute, that this glacier was travelling very much 

 faster than is the case. 



I have stated, you will remember, that I had directed that 

 several large stones should be numbered on the Mueller Glacier, 

 and their positions fixed. This glacier is eight miles long, and 

 half a mile wide at its narrovv^est point, extending to nearly a 

 mile in other places. Mr. Brodrick at that time reported that 

 "The rocks were well marked in very large characters and on 

 all sides, so that there is every reason to expect that they will 

 not be lost sight of until they are finally discharged from the 

 glacier. Apparently, after leaving the ice and getting on to 

 the river-bed, the action of the water, by washing the loose 

 gravel from underneath them, gradually buries them. This 

 is especially noticeable at the terminal face of the Tasman 

 Glacier, where huge rocks in great numbers may be seen, the 

 more recently discharged ones just beginning to sink, and so 



