248 



FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



Morteratsch Glacier, Line C. 



Ho. of Stake 



1 . 



2 . 



3 . 



10 

 11 



Hourly Motion. 

 0-05 inch. 

 0-09 

 0-18 

 0-20 

 0-25 

 0-27 

 0-27 

 0-30 

 0-21 

 0-20 

 0-16 



Comparing the three lines together, it will be ob- 

 served that the velocity diminishes as we descend the 

 glacier. In 100 hours the maximum motion of the 

 three lines respectively is as follows : 



Maximum Motion in 100 hours. 



Line A 56 inches 



B 45 



, . ,30 



This deportment explains an appearance which 

 must strike every observer who looks upon the Mor- 

 teratsch from the Piz Languard, or from the new 

 Bernina Road. A medial moraine runs along the 

 glacier, commencing as a narrow streak, but towards 

 the end the moraine extending in width, until finally 

 it quite covers the terminal portion of the glacier. 

 The cause of this is revealed by the foregoing measure- 

 ments, which prove that a stone on the moraine where 

 it is crossed by the line A approaches a second stone 

 on the moraine where it is crossed by the line C with a 

 velocity of twenty-six inches per one hundred hours. 

 The moraine is in a state of longitudinal compression. 

 Its materials are more and more squeezed together, 

 and they must consequently move laterally and render 



