Wellington Philosophical Society. 433 
Evevento Meretine. 9th October, 1872. 
Dr. Hector, F.R.S., President, in the chair. 
1. The Hon. W. Fox gave an account of his travels on the West Coast of 
the South Island. A large number of sketches illustrative of the scenery 
which Mr. Fox had witnessed during his travels in Switzerland, as well as on 
the West Coast, were exhibited on the walls of the building, and these, by the 
aid of the very fine light, showed to considerable advantage, and were admired 
as much for the grandeur of the scenery depicted as for the excellence of the 
sketching. The author made no attempt to treat the subject of glaciers in a 
scientific manner, but merely from what might be termed a picturesque point 
of view. A glacier may be described as a mass of ice occupying a deep gorge 
in the mountains, resembling the letter U in shape, its dimensions being 
many hundred feet in thickness, and from one to fifty miles long. This mass 
of ice does not remain, as might be supposed by unscientific observers, in a 
state of repose, but is in a constant state of forward progression. The rate 
of advance had, however, long been a subject of dispute, and various theories 
were propounded on the subject, the first being that the cause of motion is 
due to gravity and dilatation—from the melted waters pouring into the 
rents and crevices upon the ice becoming frozen and by expansion moving the 
mass forward. A more satisfactory theory, however, has been promulgated, 
which is that the great body attains the forward motion on account of its 
viscidity, the ice not being, as is generally supposed, a hard mass, but rather 
of a flowing or lava-like consistency, which the ladies of the auditory might 
better understand by drawing upon the homely article “dough” for com- 
parison. This theory would better account for the fact that in glacier vallies 
it was often found that they had narrow mouths, wide above and narrow at 
the bottom, which overcame the difficulty of explaining how what was 
generally supposed to be a hard mass obtained egress through the mouth. 
Mr. Fox then explained the limitation of the glacier formation upwards, and 
the strange conjuncture of the névé with the lower portion, where the snow 
assumes a frosted condition, or, as the Germans call it, Jirner. The extraor- 
dinary depth of the crevasses and the danger to travellers formed a point in the 
subject which was explained in an interesting manner, Mr. Fox stating that 
the existence of these crevasses explained how the glacier vallies became the 
sources of rivers, the melting of the ice and snow percolating through the 
great body collecting in the bottom of the valley, and forming a tunnel before 
escaping into the open day. The causes and origination of moraines was the 
next point made clear, after which Mr. Fox alluded to the curious circum- 
stance of the glaciers at their termini advancing and retiring at particular 
seasons, which accounted for the appearance of moraine hills at considerable 
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