[§ 24.] Suggestion of a new Likeness of Glacier Motion to River Motion. Conjecture tested.

173. Here we have cause for reflection, and facts are comparatively worthless if they do not provoke this exercise of the mind. It is because facts of nature are not isolated but connected, that science, to follow them, must also form a connected whole. The mind of the natural philosopher must, as it were, be a web of thought corresponding in all its fibres with the web of fact in nature.

174. Let us, then, ascend to a point which commands a good view of this portion of the Mer de Glace. The ice-river we see is not straight but curved, and its curvature is from the Montanvert; that is to say, its convex side is east, and its concave side is west (look to the sketch). You have already pondered the fact that a glacier, in some respects, moves like a river. How would a river move through a curved channel? This is known. Were the ice of the Mer de Glace displaced by water, the point of swiftest motion at the Montanvert would not be the centre, but a point east of the centre. Can it be then that this "water-rock," as ice is sometimes called, acts in this respect also like water?

175. This is a thought suggested on the spot; it may or it may not be true, but the means of testing it are at hand. Looking up the glacier, we see that at les Ponts it also bends, but that there its convex curvature is towards the western side of the valley (look again to the sketch). If our surmise be true, the point of swiftest motion opposite les Ponts ought to lie west of the axis of the glacier.

176. Let us test this conjecture. On July 25 we fix in a line across this portion of the glacier seventeen stakes; every one of them has remained firm, and on the 26th we find the motion for 24 hours to be as follows:—

Fourth Line: D D' upon the Sketch.

EastWest
Stake123458789101112131415
Inches7813151619202121232321221715

177. Inspected by the naked eye alone, the stakes 10 and 11, where the glacier reaches its greatest motion, are seen to be considerably to the west of the axis of the glacier. Thus far we have a perfect verification of the guess which prompted us to make these measurements. You will here observe that the "guesses" of science are not the work of chance, but of thoughtful pondering over antecedent facts. The guess is the "induction" facts, to be ratified or exploded by the test of subsequent experiment.

178. And though even now we have exceedingly strong reason for holding that the point of maximum velocity obeys the law of liquid motion, the strength of our conclusion will be doubled if we can show that the point shifts back to the eastern side of the axis at another place of flexure. Fortunately such a place exists opposite Trélaporte. Here the convex curvature of the valley turns again to the east. Across this portion of the glacier a line was set out on July 28, and from measurements on the 31st, the rate of motion per 24 hours was determined.