The Armida Landor Glacier, Nepal
I puzzled my head a great deal to find out exactly how these funnels were produced, and the only plausible explanation seemed that some boulder fallen from the mountain side had, owing to its sun-absorbed high temperature, gradually bored a hole into the ice. The walls of the cylindrical hole, becoming in their turn exposed to the strong sunlight, went through a process of melting, the heat affecting the upper portion to a much greater extent than farther down, where the strength of the sun’s rays would be mitigated by the influence on the temperature of the air by the surrounding ice. Thus the quicker melting of the upper portion compared with the lower would at once have a tendency to produce the conical shape of the funnels.
Then, of course, the grooves in the ice are produced by the water of the melting surface ice [[71]]flowing down. In fact, in the daytime, the lower centre hole, which had vertical walls, was almost invariably filled with water.
Perhaps, to avoid the absurd criticisms of fault-discovering critics (which criticisms arise merely from their own appalling and fantastic ignorance), it may be as well to remind the reader that the sun’s rays, even at very great elevations and among quantities of snow and ice, can be very powerful—85°, 90°, and even more. This particularly if the region in which one is travelling is, as was that where we were, in a latitude north of 30° 4′ 0″ only from the Equator. Naturally, the drop in the temperature when the sun disappears is enormous, from 60° to 100° being nothing very exceptional. This also applies in a lesser degree between the sun and shade in the daytime. When marching, for instance, due north or south in those regions, it is not unusual to have one’s anatomy roasting on the side where it is struck by the sun, and to be half-frozen on the other side.
We continued our journey upon the moraine of the main glacier, avoiding as much as we could the dangerous cracks and treacherous holes. Half-way up the main glacier we were at an altitude of 13,600 feet. On descending some 400 feet we [[72]]came to a plain wherein grew rhubarb and some turnips, the former wild, the latter planted by Nepalese shepherds. There were, in fact, three tiny shelters of stones and mud where the poor wretches had lived. We were much rejoiced at finding some shrubs we could use as fuel. The glacier we were leaving behind was separated from this valley by a high dune of mud and débris.
After crossing a stream we came to a third, the Martia Glacier, some 15,500 feet above sea-level. This glacier was not quite so impressive as the other two, but it was, nevertheless, a most beautiful basin filled with masses of clear ice in irregular terraces. A great moraine extended here across the valley from the glacier, forming a ridge which we had to climb in order to proceed on our journey. There seemed to be traces of iron in the débris of the moraine as well as in the rocks of the mountains around, and upon the gigantic boulders which had been shot down upon the ice.
On the opposite side of the Lumpa stream to the one on which we stood, just before reaching the third glacier, were high vertical rocks of brilliant colouring. To the south-east of the glacier at the foot was the usual dune, and we again found a great many gigantic pits, all with water at the bottom. [[73]]
We came to a very dangerous crevasse which we could not cross, and we had to make a considerable detour. The edge on which we had got seemed on the point of giving way, and might have collapsed at any moment. Where the surface ice was covered by débris it showed graceful undulations and well-rounded mounds, but occasionally there were higher hillocks of conical shape and quite pointed.
Still travelling upon the moraine of the Lumpa Glacier we arrived at last at the spot where the Lumpa river has its birth, dripping gently from the glacier. Here, too, the ice with the overlying débris showed in its general lines the peculiar sweeping curves noticeable in all these glaciers, the section to the east being, in this particular glacier, an exception to the rule, and exhibiting a disorderly mass of débris and huge blocks of ice.
We had reached a point where a bifurcation occurred, one arm of the glacier extending to 160° bearings magnetic (S.S.E.), the other and principal one to 120° bearings magnetic, towards the Lumpa Mountain.