2 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 76 



line, forming a retaining wall which almost completely incloses it. 

 The ice discharges through a gorge-like valley to the northeast in a 

 single tongue three-quarters of a mile wide and three miles long, 

 buttressed on both sides by mountain masses over 10,000 feet high. 

 Excepting this valley, there is no real break below 9,000 feet in the 

 entire sweep of the rim. The area of the ice and neve in the Freshfield 

 system proper is approximately 22 square miles, bvit adjacent con- 

 nected, or nearly connected, glaciers on the outer slopes of the basin 

 bring the total area of ice in the group up to about 40 square miles. 

 The trunk glacier from its most distant source to the tongue is 

 almost exactly nine miles long. 



In the summer of 1922, the writer in company with Dr. J. Monroe 

 Thorington and Edward Feuz, Swiss guide, visited the Freshfield 

 group mainly for the purpose of ascending some of the unclimbed 

 peaks. At the same time, however, it was felt that advantage should 

 be taken of the opportunity to make such observations on the glacier 

 itself as conditions might permit. Accordingly the writer brought 

 along a small light telescopic level reading to 5' of arc on both 

 vertical and horizontal circles, a prismatic compass, a clinometer, a 

 loo-foot steel tape for base-line measurements, white paint for 

 marking stations, white cotton cloth and wire for erecting signals, etc., 

 in addition to the usual aneroids and thermometers employed in 

 mountaineering. As it turned out, we were able to spend only eleven 

 days at the glacier, and of these only three were exclusively devoted 

 to observations on it, so that the results presented herewith cannot 

 claim to be more than of a preliminary and tentative nature. We 

 did, however, familiarize ourselves with nearly every part, for in the 

 course of our five ascents (Mts. Gilgit, Nanga Parbat, Trutch. Bar- 

 nard, and Freshfield) we travelled, on the ice itself, some forty miles 

 besides obtaining excellent views from the summits. 



The work attempted falls under the following headings : ( i ) 

 measurement of the rate of surface velocity of the ice; (2) instru- 

 mental "triangulation for the location and measurement of a line of 

 stones and for effecting connection with the government map; (3) 

 observations on the tongue and its retreat; (4) observations on gen- 

 eral features of the glacier. 



I. MEASUREMENT OF THE RATE OF SURFACE VELOCITY 



We established our base camp 683 yards from the forefoot on 

 July 10, altitude 5,300 feet. The site, on the top of a high bank, 

 commands an excellent view of the broad flat tongue completely fill- 



