July 12, 1894] 



NATURE 



-^45 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



j \lhe Editor aoes not hold himselj resfionstble for opinions ex- 



I pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 



to return, or to correspond -vith the writers of, rejected 



manuscripts intended for this or any other part u/Nature. 



No notice is taken of anonymous communications. '\ 



New Army Regulations. 



It appears, from the letter in the daily papers of yesierday, 

 signed by the Headmaster of Eton, that the headmasters are 

 beginning to cry out under the smart of the rod they have made 

 for their own backs. When, five or si.x years ago, Latin was 

 made a compulsory subject for the Army ICnlrance Examina- 

 tions, I for one, as a schoolmaster, welcomed it in that 

 capacity, from its value as a mental discipline, and as a remedy 

 to some extent for a certain illiterateness and incapacity for 

 accuracy of expression, which one met with too often in Army 

 candidates. But it was soon found that the position assigned 

 to it was taken advantage of by men of non-scientific education, 

 as a pretext for driving science into the background, and making 

 it contemptible in the eyes of boys and parents, by a consider- 

 able curtailment of the time previously given to it, and then, 

 with Egyptian logic, wondering that the marks fell off. 



I do not say that the headmasters were altogethei to blame 

 lor this. The spirit of the cram-shop has invaded the public 

 schools, and is utterly spoiling their intellectual life ; and, when 

 this spirit allies itself with other motives, the pressure may be too 

 strong for the most noble-minded headmasters. But they, like 

 other mortals, must reap as they sow, and accept the results of 

 their policy. Their intellectual incapacity as a body to appre- 

 ciate the value of scientific training per se is the fault, not so 

 much of themselves, as of the traditions, which still hold the 

 <lominant place in this country, among those in whose hands 

 their appointment rests. I sincerely hope that all will be done, 

 that can be done, to minimise the mischief with regard to Latin, 

 which is deprecated in the circular ; but I do trust that, for the 

 public weal, the military authorities, having " put their foot 

 down," will remain firm in insisting upon all candidates for the 

 scientific bianches of the Army bcin^ trained, not crammed, in 

 Experimental Science. This they will doubtless do with their 

 hands strengthened by the strong Committee which has, been 

 dealing with the matter in its relation to Woolwich during the 

 last two years. 



When we recollect that back in the '70's and the earlier '8o's, 

 though Latin was a voluntary subject, classical scholarship con- 

 tinued to llourish in the public schools, it is difficult to read 

 without a smile the alarmist predictions contained in Dr. 

 Warre's letter, as to what is likely to ensue from what he calls 

 " the degrading of Latin from Class I., and making it a voluntary 

 subject." The headmasters have had their opportunity, and had 

 they, in the spirit of their intellectual ancestors of the sixteenth 

 century, shown more magnanimity towards the " New 

 Learning" of the nineteenth century, this rude shock to their 

 intellectual consciousness might have been unnecessary. 



Looking at the matter now from the outside, one can perhaps 

 see the true perspective of the whole better than one could while 

 in the thick of the fray. A. Irving. 



Hockerill Vicarage, Herts, July. 6. 



before it can be accepted we must be satisfied that the data are 

 reliable and beyond question. 



Dr. Wright unfortunately gives no particulars of the method 

 adopted of sampling the sub-glacial waters, or the number of 

 specimens taken, or the times and circumstances under which 

 they were taken, all of which form material elements in the 

 calculation. He contents himself with the bare statement that 

 — " The amount of sediment contained in each United States 

 gallon (231 cubic inches) of water collected from the sub-glacial 

 streams is, as determined by the analysis of the late Prof. H. C. 

 Foote, of Cleveland, 7oS'4S grains. 



This proportion of sediment is nearly eighty-five times the 

 mean of that from the sub-glacial rivers of the Norwegian 

 glaciers descending from the snow and ice field of Jusiedals- 

 brjeen, and nearly twenty times the mean of the sediment from 

 seven of the sub-glacial rivers of Greenland (Q. f. G. S., 

 18S7, p. 158), as observed and recorded by Amund Helland. 



It will be seen from these bare figures that this prodigious 

 calculation requires some explanation. It is certainly a wonder- 

 ful amount of " work " to credit a glacier with that only moves 

 2555 feet per annum at the surface in its central position, and of 

 course at a considerably less average rate on its bed. 



The American geologists have supplied us with so much and 

 such accurate information on many points which could not be 

 investigated in this country, that I trust those who are able will 

 help to correct this little sum. T. Mellard Reade. 



Park Corner, Blundellsands, June 7. 



Erosion of the Muir Glacier, Alaska. 



Dr. Wright, in his " Ice Age in North America," has 

 calculated that the Muir Glacier erodes its bed annually to the 

 depth of one-third of inch (p. 64). and Prof Harry Fielding 

 Keid, in his very interesting ".Studies of the Muir Glacier" 

 (A meri, an National Geographical Afagazine, March 21, 1S92, p. 

 51), arrives at the still more startling result of three-quarters of an 

 inch per annum. As one who has paid some attention to rates of 

 denudation by various eroding agencies, I felt some curiosity to 

 know in what way these figures were arrived at. I find that these 

 two calculations are substantially the same, the difference arising 

 from Prof. Keid crediting the whole of the erosion to the glacier 

 bed which occupies only half of the watershed of 700 square 

 miles. 



As this rate of erosion is nearly 244 times that of the glaciers 

 of Norway descending from the Justedalsbrieen, calculated from 

 the observations of Prof. Amund Helland (('._/. G. S., 1877, 

 vol. xxxiii. p. 158), and is altogether an abnormal and unprece- 

 dented rate of erosion of any agency we know of that acts over 

 so large an area, I think most geologists will agree with me that 



NO. 1289. VOL. 50] 



In resDonse to the questions contained in the communication 

 by Mr. Reade, I would say that the estimations, both of Prol. 

 Reid and myself, concerning the erosion of the Muir Glacier 

 are based upon a specimen of water collected by me from a 

 large sub-glacial stream issuing from near the south-east corner 

 of the glacier at a height of about 150 feet above tide-level. 

 This stream is only one of many which issue from the ice- 

 front ; but it is practically the only one from which any cal- 

 culations could be safely made. .\t two or three places where 

 the front of the glacier is pushed out into tide water, powerful 

 sub-glacial streams issue, boiling up at low tide with great force 

 just in front of the ice, and discolouring the water of the inlet 

 for miles beyond. The head of the inlet is a mile and a half 

 wide, enlarging very soon to nearly twice that distance. The 

 water in the middle is more than 100 fathoms deep. 



The appearance and everything else indicated that the stream 

 chosen for examination was truly representative. It was a 

 rushing torrent from ten to fifteen yards wide, which could be 

 waded with difficulty. The specimen was collected about the 

 middle of August 18S6, when the melting upon the surface of 

 the glacier was proceeding at its maximum rapidity, so that the 

 volume of water was probably much larger than the average 

 through the year. Prof. Foote had a high reputation for ac- 

 curacy, and kindly analysed the water for me, evaporating the 

 entire amount and distilling it, so that after he had weighed 

 the sediment the identical elements were reunited, and, a-^ I 

 write, it stands before me as characteristic a specimen of glacial 

 milk as one can anywhere find. 



As stated in my " Ice Age in North America " (p. 64), the esti- 

 mates of erosion are based upon the supposition that the total 

 rainfall in the drainage basin of the Muir Glacier is the same 

 as at Sitka, namely, 100 inches, and that a certain proportion 

 of this passes off as icebergs and in evaporation, and that the 

 b.alance which is carried away bv suhglacial streams is properly 

 represented by this specimen. Of course it there is any serioas 

 error in either of these data it will affect the result. But I can 

 scarcely believe that the error can be so great as to account for 

 all the difference between our calculations and those made con- 

 cerning the erosion of glaciers in Norway and Greenland ; for 

 the conditions are very difierent in the Muir Glacier from those 

 either in Norway or in Greenland, as observed by Helland. The 

 glaciers of Norway have a very slow movement as compared 

 even with Prof. Keid's ejtimale of the movement of Muir 

 Glacier ; while in Greenland the continental proportions of 'he 

 ice and the unknown conditions of the country upon which 

 it rests quite preclude comparison ; for it is evident that 

 the best of the Muir glacier has a rapid gradient, while it is 

 not certain that the best of many of the Greenland glaciers has 

 any gradient at all. Judging from Helland's description of the 

 appearance of the sea-water in the fiords of Greenland, I should 

 think it was much less milky than that of the .Muir inlet in 

 Alaska. 



