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XIV. Illustrations of the Viscous Theory of Glacier Motion . — Part III. 
By James D. Forbes, Esq., F.R.S.S. L.andE., Corresponding Member of the institute 
of France, and Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. 
Received January 27, — Read February 26, 1846. 
§ 6. On the Motion of Glaciers of the Second Order. 
§ 7* On the Annual Motion of Glaciers, and on the Influence of Seasons. 
§ 8. Summary of the Evidence adduced in favour of the Theory. 
§ 6. On the Motion of Glaciers of the Second Order. 
Up to the year 1844 no attempt had been made, so far as I am aware, to measure 
the rate of motion of those comparatively small isolated glacial masses reposing in 
the cavities of high mountains, or on cols, called by De Saussure Glaciers of the 
Second Order. 
Some observations had indeed been made upon a glacier of this description in 1841, 
and by MM. Martins and Bravais, during a residence on the Faulhorn. But it 
was not at that time known that the motion of glaciers was a continuous and 
regular one, admitting of rigorous measurement even in short intervals of time, and 
the importance of such observations was overlooked. They accordingly believed 
that the glacier in question had no sensible motion, and probably they did not 
attempt to observe it until a subsequent year. It is impossible now to doubt that the 
Blau Gletscher , near the Faulhorn, has a movement like all other bodies of the kind. 
In July 1844, I had an opportunity of passing some days at the hospice of the 
Simplon, in the neighbourhood of which exists a small glacier of the second order, 
easy of access, and very fit for the experiment which I proposed to myself upon such 
bodies. Its diminutive size made it all the more suitable ; for should it be found 
to possess a regular motion, we are certain that the mechanism of a glacier is con- 
tinued within the small compass of a mass which may be conveniently examined in 
detail in all its parts. It is lodged in a niche of the mountain called the Schonhorn*, 
immediately behind the Simplon hospice : we shall therefore call it the glacier of the 
Schonhorn. From its inconsiderable extent, it might easily be overlooked by a 
passing traveller amidst the multitude of vast and striking objects by which he is 
surrounded-i". ^ perched, as has been said, in a kind of niche on the northern 
* Also called Hvibschhorn, an equivalent epithet. 
t The reader will not for a moment imagine that it is the Kaltwasser glacier of which we speak, which lies 
also in the neighbourhood of the Schonhorn, descending from the Monte Leone and Wasenhorn, and from 
which the Galerie da Glacier on the Simplon road takes its name. 
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