128 
SCENERY OF SWITZERLAND. 
the rounded blocks borne by the glacier. These 
have been brought down by avalanches. 
Near the glacier are two other small moraines, 
the outer one that of 1885, the inner of 1893. We 
know that these moraines were deposited by the 
glacier, and no one who has seen them can doubt 
that those farther and farther down the valley have 
had a similar origin. 
The Rhone flows from the foot of the glacier in 
various and varying streams, but especially at one 
place near the centre of the face of the glacier, 
where there is a beautiful blue arch, about 25 metres 
in height. 
In 1874 careful measurements were commenced 
by the Swiss Alpine Club. At first lines of stones 
were placed annually at the foot of the glacier, but 
the river washed them away so much that the present 
limits are laid down annually on a plan. It is found 
that just as the glacier advances when we have a 
succession of cold and 'snowy years, and diminishes 
when there have been hot and dry periods; so in 
each year, even when the glacier is on the whole re- 
treating, it advances in two or three of the winter 
months. Amongst other means of studying the 
glacier the Commission have placed lines of stones 
across it at some distances above the fall. One of 
