VARIATIONS OF GLACIERS. XVIII 
HARRY FIELDING REID 
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 
The following is a summary of the Seventeenth BN Report 
of the International Committee on Glaciers.” 
THE REPORT OF GLACIERS FOR IQII 
Swiss Alps.—The general retreat of the glaciers in recent years 
was interrupted in the last two years by the advance of more than 
eight glaciers; but all of these glaciers have begun to retreat again. 
The remarkable heat of the summer of 1911 caused very great 
melting at the ends of the glaciers and seems to have brought their 
advance to an end. 
Eastern Alps.—Here we have conditions very similar to those 
of the Swiss Alps. The hot summer of 1911 caused a very marked 
elevation of the snow line and the slight advance noted in Igto0 
was checked, and practically all the thirty-five glaciers under 
observation were in retreat. One only seemed to be stationary. 
The glaciers this year give no indication that the general retreat, 
which has been in progress for some time, has come to an end. 
The snow line is higher and the lower ends of the glaciers are 
flattened out by melting. 
Italian Alps.—Observations at various points on the Italian 
side of the Alps show that, with one or two exceptions, the glaciers 
are continuing to retreat. On the south side of Mont Blanc the 
changes are very slight and the glacier in the Allée Blanche has 
actually advanced about eight meters. 
French Alps.—In spite of the very hot summer of to11 the 
glaciers on the French side of the Mont Blanc chain show a tendency 
to advance, and there is a distinct thickening of the glaciers a 
short distance above their ends. The glaciers of the Maurienne 
™ Earlier reports appeared in the Journal of Geology, I1I-XXI. 
2 Zeitschrift fiir Gletscherkunde, VII, 37-47, 191-202. 
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