288 In and Around the Morteratsch Glacier : 



Shrinkage of the Morteratsch Glacier in the last few years. 



The studies in and around the Morteratsch glacier which 

 I have carried on continuously since the year 1906 enable me 

 to illustrate the wastage of ice which this glacier has suffered 

 in the years since that date. For this purpose I have chosen 

 two photographs, Figs. 5 and 6, which represent the entrance 

 to the grotto in September 1907 and 1911 respectively. The 

 camera used was a 5" x 4" Kodak, and the exposures were 

 made by hand, the camera being held in the ordinary way. 

 Both photographs are taken from the same spot at an angle 

 of the foot-path and 375 metres nearer the glacier than a 

 rather dilapidated cairn or Steinmannchen. The comparison 

 of these views shows well both the vertical shrinkage of the 

 ice and the apparent horizontal retreat of this part of the 

 western flank of the glacier. The latter strikes the eye at 

 once by the perspective of the figures, and it has been 

 confirmed by exact measurement. The vertical shrinkage 

 in the interval between the autumns of 1907 and 1911 is 

 shown in a striking way by the great increase of the amount 

 of the slope of Hunt Pers uncovered by the subsidence of 

 the upper surface of the glacier owing to the liquefaction 

 of its mass. 



By far the greatest annual subsidence took place in the 

 very hot summer of 1911, but in each of the years the loss 

 was considerable. The average annual amount was from 

 2'5 to 3 metres and in the summer of 1911 it was between 

 4 and 5 metres. 



The apparent horizontal retreat of the ice-foot under the 

 centre of the gnotto between the dates at which the two views 

 were taken was 3 5 '6 metres, or at the average rate of about 

 9 metres annually. From this it is evident that the western 

 flank of the glacier near its lower extremity has lost in each 

 of these summers on an average a shell of ice 9 metres thick, 

 while the maximum loss on the upper surface of the glacier 

 has not been greater than 5 metres and the average not more 

 than 3 metres. In summer the ice on the surface always 

 receives a very full day's direct insolation ; the ice on the 



