POWER OF THE GLACIER. 731 



all the Swiss glaciers, is greater than the lat- 

 eral, the ice being pushed forward in the mid- 

 dle faster than on the sides. But there would 

 seem to be more than one axis of progres- 

 sion in this broad mass of ice; for though 

 the centre is pushed out beyond the rest, the 

 terminal wall does not present one uniform 

 curve, but forms a number of more or less 

 projecting angles or folds. A few feet in 

 front of this wall is a ridge of loose mate- 

 rials, stones, pebbles, and boulders, repeating 

 exactly the outline of the ice where it now 

 stands ; a few feet in advance of this, again, 

 is another ridge precisely like it ; still a few 

 feet beyond, another ; and so on, for four 

 or five concentric zigzag crescent-shaped mo- 

 raines, followed by two others more or less 

 marked, till they fade into the larger mo- 

 rainic mass, upon which stands the belt of 

 wood dividing the present glacier from the 

 bay. Agassiz counted eight distinct moraines 

 between the glacier and the belt of wood, and 

 four concentric moraines in the wood itself. 

 It is plain that the glacier has ploughed into 

 the forest within some not very remote pe- 

 riod, for the trees along its margin are loos- 

 ened and half uprooted, though not yet alto- 

 gether decayed. In the presence of the glacier 



