Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 1.djvu/215

144 proper instruments for the work, his results were not very satisfactory. In 1899 our own work of this sort began. A base line was laid out on the right moraine, at a point about 1000 yards above the tongue of the glacier. We had provided a number of square steel plates, painted bright red and lettered for identification. With the assistance of a transit these were laid out across the glacier in a straight line, and at points as nearly equidistant as possible. Some days later, and again in subsequent years, the position to which the ice had carried these plates was measured by trigonometric methods, and then the rate of flow calculated.

As time went on some of the plates were lost through their slipping into crevasses, or from other causes. We have reason to believe, however, that none of them were disturbed by visitors, which is a satisfaction. Finally they had flowed so far down that none of them could be seen from the ends of the base, and in 1906 a new set of plates was laid out. The interval of time at our disposal was too short to permit of any very satisfactory deductions from this new line of plates, apart from obtaining the rate of summer flow, but we are hoping to secure measurements the coming summer, which may add to the amount of knowledge we possess on this subject.

The following tables summarize what has already been done: