THE VARIATION OF GLACIERS. VIII/ 



The following is a summary of the Sixth Annual Report of 

 the International Committee on Glaciers:^ 



REPORT OF GLACIERS FOR I9OI. 



Swiss Alps. — Of the ninety-four glaciers which have been 

 observed by the Swiss Foresters all, with one exception, are 

 retreating. We have no reason to think that the other sixty- 

 eight known glaciers which have not been specially observed 

 are doing differently. The only glacier advancing in 1901 was 

 the Boveyre, in the Valais. Its advance, which has amounted to 

 one hundred and eight meters in ten years, is the result of a 

 large avalanche which fell upon the glacier and so increased its 

 thickness as to permit a considerable increase in length before 

 the ice melted. A few glaciers show a hesitancy in their retreat, 

 but this does not alter the statement that the Swiss glaciers are 

 receding. 3 



Eastern Alps. — The greater number of the fifty-five glaciers 

 observed are retreating. A small number, however, are advan- 

 cing. The most remarkable of all these is the Vernagt glacier, 

 in the Oetzthal, which has continued its remarkable advance and 

 has gained fifty meters since 1900. Its velocity has increased 

 at the same time from 210 to 250 meters a year. No glacier of 

 the Alps within the last fifty years has shown so remarkable a 

 growth. 



The independence of neighboring glaciers with regard to 

 their advance or retreat is sometimes characteristic even of dif- 

 ferent parts of the same glacier. For instance: Presena glacier, 

 in the Adamello group, has three tongues; in 1901 the central 

 was sensibly longer than in 1895 ! ^^e other two, on the contrary, 



'The earlier reports appeared in the Jour. Geol., Vol. Ill, pp. 278-88 ; Vol. V, 

 pp. 378-83; Vol. VI, pp. 473-6; Vol. VII, pp. 217-25; Vol. VIII, pp. 154-9; Vol. 

 IX, pp. 250-54; Vol. X, pp. 313-17- 



''Archives des sciences phys. et naL, Geneva, Vol. XII (1902), pp. 282-302. 



3 Report of Professor Forel and M. Muret. 



285 



