we run a
line nearer to the end of the glacier, the motion would have been
slower still. At the end itself it is nearly insensible. [Footnote:
The snout of the Aletsch Glacier has a diurnal motion of less than two
inches, while a mile or so above the snout the velocity is eighteen
inches. The spreading out of the moraine is here very striking.] Now
I submit that this is not the Place to seek for the scooping power of
a glacier. The opinion appears to be prevalent that it is the snout
of a glacier that must act the part of ploughshare; and it is
certainly an erroneous opinion. The scooping power will exert itself
most where the weight and the motion are greatest. A glacier's snout
often rests upon matter which has been scooped from the glacier's bed
higher up. I therefore do not think that the inspection of what the
end of a glacier does or does not accomplish can decide this question.

The snout of a glacier is potent to remove anything against which it
can fairly abut; and this power, notwithstanding the slowness of the
motion, manifests itself at the end of the Morteratsch glacier. A
hillock, bearing pine-trees, was in front of the glacier when Mr.
Hirst and myself inspected its end; and this hillock is being bodily
removed by the thrust of the ice. Several of the trees are
overturned; and in a few years, if the glacier continues its reputed
advance, the mound will certainly be ploughed away.

The question of Alpine conformation stands, I think, thus: We have,
in the first place, great valleys, such as those of the Rhine and the
Rhone, which we might conveniently call valleys of the first order.
The mountains which flank these main valleys are also cut by lateral
valleys running into the main ones, and which may be called valleys of
the second order. When these latter are examined, smaller valleys are
found running into them, which may be called valleys of the third
order. Smaller ravines and depressions, again, join the latter, which
may be called valleys of the fourth order, and so on until we reach
streaks and cuttings so minute as not to merit the name of valleys at
all. At the bottom of every valley we have a stream, diminishing in
magnitude as the order of the valley ascends, carving the earth and
carrying its materials to lower levels. We find that the larger
valleys have been filled for untold ages by glaciers of enormous
dimensions, always moving, grinding down and tearing away the rocks
over w