264: FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



glacier. The opinion appears to be prevalent that it is the 

 snout of a glacier that must act the part of plowshare; and 

 it is certainly an erroneous opinion. The scooping power 

 will exert itself most where the weight and the motion are 

 greatest. A glacier's snout often rests upon matter which 

 has been scooped from the glacier's bed higher up. I 

 therefore do not think that the inspection of what the end 

 of a glacier does or does not accomplish can decide this 

 question. 



The snout of a glacier is potent to remove anything 

 against which it can fairly abut; and this power, notwith- 

 standing the slowness of the motion, manifests itself at the 

 end of the Morteratsch glacier. A hillock, bearing pine- 

 trees, was in front of the glacier when Mr. Hirst and my- 

 self inspected its end; and this hillock is being bodily 

 removed by the thrust of the ice. Several of the trees are 

 overturned; and in a few years, if the glacier continues 

 its reputed advance, the mound will certainly be plowed 

 away. 



The question of Alpine conformation stands, I think, 

 thus: We have, in the first place, great valleys, such as 

 those of the Ehine and the Ehone, which we might con- 

 veniently call valleys of the first order. The mountains 

 which flank these main valleys are also cut by lateral val- 

 leys running into the main ones, and which may be called 

 valleys of the second order. When these latter are exam- 

 ined, smaller valleys are found running into them, which 

 may be called valleys of the third order. Smaller ravines 

 and depressions, again, join the latter, which may be called 

 valleys of the fourth order, and so on until we reach streaks 

 and cuttings so minute as not to merit the name of valleys 

 at all. At the bottom of every valley we have a stream, 



