The Glacial Theory, 



153 



the Grimsel, at an elevation of 7500 feet, and more than two 

 leagues above the extremity of the glacier ; it has pure ice for 

 its foundation, on which broad stones of the moraine are placed 

 for a floor, the walls and roof being composed of heavy 

 blocks of stones. In August 1840, the Hotel des Neuchate- 

 lois was 2457 feet from a certain point of the mountain 

 termed Abschwung, This measurement when it was taken, 

 was engraved by M. Agassiz on one of the blocks, on his 

 return to the Grimsel in the following month of March 1841. 

 M. Agassiz found this measurement to be 2623 feet, the block 

 had therefore advanced 166 feet, from which M. Hugi calcu- 

 lates the motion of this glacier at about 220 feet per annum. 

 This movement is occasioned, M. Agassiz states, by the infil- 

 tration, and daily congelation of water, which causes dilatation 

 and progression outward, to which the whole glacier is subject. 

 Thus M. Agassiz, in August 1840, found the distance from 

 the Hotel des Neuchatelois to the Cabone de Hugi^ (another 

 hut placed on the middle of the glacier, but farther out 

 towards its edge,) to be 1890 feet; in August 1841, the dis- 

 tance between the two huts amounted to upwards of 2000 feet. 



We shall again revert to this subject, and probably notice 

 some of the opposite opinions and controversies arising out 

 of it. 



