Curiosities of Science, Past and Present / A Book for Old and Young

by John Timbs

FLOW OF THE MER DE GLACE.

Michel Devouasson of Chamouni fell into a crevasse on the Glacier of Talefre, a feeder of the Mer de Glace, on the 29th of July 1836, and after a severe struggle extricated himself, leaving his knapsack below. The identical knapsack reappeared in July 1846, at a spot on the surface of the glacier four thousand three hundred feet from the place where it was lost, as ascertained by Professor Forbes, who himself collected the fragments; thus indicating the rate of flow of the icy river in the intervening ten years.—Quarterly Review, No. 202.