1848.] On the motion of the Glacier of the Pindur. 203 



Note on the motion of the Glacier of the Pindur in Kumaon. By Lieut. 

 R. Strachey, Engineers. 



In No. 181 (August 1847) of the Asiatic Society's Journal, I gave 

 an account of the Glacier at the head of the Pindur River, in which it 

 was noticed that I had been unsuccessful in an attempt to measure 

 directly the motion of the glacier. In the past month (May 1848), I 

 again visited this glacier, chiefly with the intention of making an accu- 

 rate measurement of its motion ; and the result of my operations I 

 now propose to detail. 



About 200 yards below the small tributary that enters the main gla- 

 cier from the N. W. an old moraine, grown over with grass and bushes, 

 which vouched for its present stability, offered a convenient station from 

 which the motion of the ice could be observed. The moraine is heaped 

 up against an almost perpendicular wall of rock, sufficiently high to 

 command a view of the greater part of the surface of the glacier along 

 the line on which observations were to be made. This line, which is 

 nearly perpendicular to the general direction of the glacier, was marked 

 by two crosses painted white, one on the rock in contact with the old 

 moraine, the other on a cliff on the opposite side of the valley. A 

 stake was driven into the moraine, at its highest point, close to the 

 rock on the line between the two crosses, and a Theolodite was set up 

 over it. Five other marks were also made on the glacier, at intervals 

 along the same line, by fixing stakes in holes driven in the ice with a 

 jumper. These marks, which were all carefully placed on the exact 

 line between the crosses by means of the Theodolite, were completed 

 at about Oh. 30m. p. m. on the 21st May. 



On the following day the Theodolite was again set up on the same 

 place as before, and being properly adjusted, the cross-wires of the 

 telescope were directed to the cross on the cliff on the opposite side of 

 the glacier. A stick was then set up near the first of the five marks 

 that had been made the previous day, and was, by means of signals, 

 moved up or down the glacier, till it appeared to coincide exactly with 

 the cross-wires of the Telescope, and consequently to be exactly on the 

 line between the two crosses painted on the cliffs. The distance between 

 the centre of the stick and that of the fixed mark was then measured, 

 which evidently showed the downward progress of the ice at that point 



