Dr. Du Riche Preller — Ice- Avalanche, Gemmi Pass. 103 



II. — The Ice-Avalanche on the Gemmi Pass (Switzerland). 

 By C. S. Du Riche Preller, M.A., Fh.D., M.I.E.E., F.G.S., F.C.S. 



IT is a noteworthy fact that, although Alpine glaciers have, during 

 the last few years, not shown any very marked oscillations, 1 the 

 Central Alps have, since the year 1892, been annually visited by 

 a disaster caused, directly or indirectly, by the bursting or falling of 

 a glacier. Thus, in 1892, the Tete Kousse glacier of the Mont Blanc 

 group swept away the Baths of St. Gervais ; in 1893, the village of 

 Taesch, between Viess and Zermatt, was devastated by the torrent 

 of the Weingarteu glacier, not far from the village of Eanda, which 



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*1 



Fig. 1. 



was destroyed by a glacier avalanche in the year 1819 ; again, in 

 1894, the torrent of the Crete glacier (Grand Combin group, Rhone 

 valley) suddenly poured its flood into the river Dranse, and thereby 

 endangered the town of Martigny ; while last year the record was 

 swelled by the avalanche of the Altels glacier on the north side 

 of the Gemmi Pass, in the Bernese Oberland. 



The scene of this last catastrophe is at an altitude of about 1950 ra. 

 (6400 ft.) above sea-level, nearly midway between Kanderstag and 

 the summit of the Gemmi Pass, familiar to tourists crossing the 



1 Official measurements made in 1893, after a dry and hot summer, showed that 

 out of 28 glaciers in Canton Yalais (Rhone valley), 14 had receded 3 to 28 metres, 

 3 hid remained stationary, 10 had advanced 2 to 30 metres, and only one (Zigior 

 glacier, Mont Collon group) had advanced 100 metres, or about 1ft. per day. 



