288 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
Certain well-known Alpine glaciers may be instanced as reaching 
just beyond the end of a hanging lateral valley and thence cascading 
into the deeper main valley. One is the Mer de Glace by Chamou- 
nix; its cascading end is known as the Glacier des Bois. Another 
is the neighboring Glacier des Bossons, from whose upper amphi¬ 
theatre a steep tongue descends far below; like the waterfalls of 
Norway, the tongue may be seen lying on the side slope from a 
considerable distance up or down the main valley. A third example 
is the Glacier of the Rhone, whose splendid terminal cascade is so 
conspicuous from the road to the Furka pass. (These three I have 
seen some years ago.) Possibly the Vernagt glacier is another of 
the same kind; its catastrophic overflows into the lower Rofen 
valley have often been described. Doubtless many other examples 
of this class might be named. 
While engaged upon these observations in the Alps in the spring 
of 1899, I sent a brief note about them to my esteemed friend, Mr. 
G. K. Gilbert of Washington, telling him that all the lateral valleys 
seemed to be “ hung up ” above the floors of the trunk valleys. 
His reply was long in coming to Europe, and, on arriving at last, 
it was dated Sitka, Alaska, where Mr. Gilbert had gone as a mem¬ 
ber of the Harriman Alaskan Expedition, and where my note had 
been forwarded. He wrote that, for the fortnight previous to 
hearing from me, he and his companions had been much impressed 
with the discordant relations of lateral valleys over the waters of 
the Alaskan fiords, and he suggested that such laterals should be 
called “hanging valleys” — a term which I have since then adopted. 
He fully agreed that hanging valleys presented unanswerable tes¬ 
timony for strong glacial erosion, as will be stated in his forthcoming 
report on the geology of the Expedition. 
After leaving Switzerland, I had a brief view of the lake district 
in northwest England, before crossing to Norway. The amount of 
glacial erosion in the radiating valleys of the English lakes has 
been much discussed, and as usual directly opposite views have 
been expressed. Rugged rocky knobs were seen in abundance 
about Ambleside and along the ridge separating the valley of 
Tliirlmere from St. John’s Vale; and the latter receives a hanging 
valley from the east near Dalehead post-oflice. The famous falls 
of Lodore seemed to descend from the mouth of a hanging valley 
into Derwentwater. A model of the lake district, on exhibition at 
Keswick, showed some other examples of lateral valleys that 
seemed to stand above the floors of their main valleys, notably one 
