22 
J. G. ANDERSSON. 
(Schwed. Südpolar-Exp. 
a glacier. The névé region is represented by the area of water-saturated detritus 
at the lower edge of the melting snowdrift, and the flowing tongue of mud is the 
glacier proper that moves down the valley. The terminal moraine even is often to 
be seen in the shape of slabs and pieces of rock that the mud-stream has pushed 
together in front of its lower end. 
These mud-streams do not consist of finer particles only, but also of coarse 
material, gravel and blocks, frequently intermixed with, and also carried on the top 
of the muddy substance. ' 
I have dealt somewhat in detail with the conditions on Bear Island because here 
the solifluction works in a most instructive manner. But the phenomenon is by no 
means limited to this island or even rarely met with. I have observed it as well 
in South Georgia; in Graham Land it was noticed by NordenSKJÖLD, from the Rocky 
Mountains, from Arctic America, from Spitzbergen and Scandinavia it is reported, 
from Tibet it is described by Hedin as a very important and widely distributed 
process.^ Its optimum is evidently reached in polar and alpine regions in places 
where a plenteous snowcover deposited during the winter melts away in summer- 
time. 
Also in the Falkland Islands I observed solifluction in its quite typical form 
working in some favourable localities where the hillsides are steep, the vegetation 
scarce, and the trickling water saturates the soil. 
^ J. G. Andersson: Solifluction, a component of subaerial denudation. Journal of Geology. Vol. 
XIV. 1906. R. 94 — 96. 
“ See my article on solifluction in Journal of Geology. 1906. P, 104 — -no. 
To the records collected in this paper I am now able to add some new facts, kindly communicated 
to me by the skilled scientists who made the observations : 
Mr J. B. Tyrrel in Toronto, Canada, tells me that he has noticed sthis method of flowage, even on 
gentle slopes, during survey-work in the Hudson Bay régions and points out that there are several notes 
on the process in his report on the Doobaunt River (Geol. Survey of Canada. Part F. Annual Report. Vol. 
IX, 1896). 
Mr J. M. Bell, formerly on the staff of the Canadian Geological Survey, now director of the Geol. 
Survey of New Zealand, has sent me the following most important communication: 
»While travelling on the north-eastern shore of Great Bear Lake, I saw marvellous examples of mo- 
dern solifluction and even greater evidences of the activity of this phenomenon in the past. The rocks 
consist of hard quartzite, like those you describe from the Falkland Islands, with narrow beds of shale. 
The quartzite breaks into small angular fragments which are slowly, but constantly, passing down the 
slopes towards the valleys. 
In the New Zealand Alps, where glacial phenomena are shown so exquisitely and on so splendid a 
scale, solifluction is also very evident, especially above the levels of dense vegetation and below the alti- 
tudes of perpetual snow. Piere the rocks consist of interstratified grauwackes and argillites. The latter 
easily disintegrate and the grauwackes are carried away with them. One sees magnificent ‘rivers’ of angu- 
lar grauwacke fragments and innumerable ‘rock’ streamlets. It is possible that the wide expanses of the 
Canterbury Plains on the eastern part of the South Island, may represent a fossil evidence of solifluction, 
formed during the period of maximum ice advance in New Zealand.» 
A very interesting paper dealing with processes nearly allied to solifluction was published quite recently : 
G. GöTZINGER, Beiträge zur Entstehung der Bergrückenformen. Geographische Abhandlungen herausgege- 
ben von Prof. A. Penck in Berlin, Bd IX. H. i. 1907. 
