452 OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 



chaotic snows which descend from the Piz Bernina and 

 its companions. The mountains themselves were with- 

 out, a cloud, and, set in the blue heaven, touches of 

 tenderness* were mingled with their strength. We 

 spent some hours of perfect enjoyment upon this fine 

 ice-plain, listening to the roar of its moulins and the 

 rush of its streams. 



Along the centre of the Morteratsch glacier runs a 

 medial moraine, a narrow strip of debris in the upper 

 portions, hut overspreading the entire glacier towards 

 its end. How is this widening of the moraine to be 

 accounted for ? Hirst and I set out three different rows 

 of stakes across the glacier ; one of them high up, a 

 second lower down, and a third still nearer to the end 

 of the glacier. In 100 hours the central points of these 

 three lines had moved through the following distances : 



No. 1, highest line, 56 inches. 

 2, middle 47 

 3, lowest 30 



Had we taken a line still lower than No. 3, we should 

 have found the velocity still less. 



Now these measurements prove that the end, or as 

 it is sometimes called the snout, of the glacier moves 

 far less quickly than its upper portions. A block of 

 stone, or a patch of debris, for example, on the portion 

 of the glacier crossed by line No. 1 , approaches another 

 block or patch at No. 3 with a velocity of 26 inches 

 per 100 hours. Hence such blocks and patches must 

 be more and more crowded together as the end of the 

 glacier is approached, and hence the greater accumu- 

 lation of stones and debris near the end. 1 



1 Above the Margelin See the centre of the Aletsch glacier moves 

 at the rate of 19 inches a day. A mile or so above the Bel Alp 

 the velocity is 16 inches a day. Opposite the Bel Alp Hotel it 



