It is suggested that both discontinuous shearing and continuous flow (creep) may coexist in one and the same glacier, provided the stress is high enough for the shear resistance to be reached. Experiments made in a tunnel in the Z’Mutt Glacier suggest that all the motion here observed was continuous, and also show that the viscosity is influenced by the stress conditions. A series of tests made by forcing a ball into the ice also enabled estimates of the viscosity and melting pressure to be made and emphasized the importance of melting in glacier flow.

Down-wasting has affected southern glaciers in New Zealand later than northern glaciers under the influence of a southward rising snow line which is attributed to a southerly shift in prevailing wind belts. Evidence from the Hooker Glacier indicates that the present period of wasting is the fourth of a series which began about 200 years ago.

As the firn line rises a glacier is planed in the ablation zone so that successive surfaces are parallel to the original surface, which shows that ablation is more active for a short distance below the fern line than near the terminal face. A period of accelerated terminal retreat can result from parallel down-wasting without a correlative acceleration in the rate of climatic change.

This report is of a preliminary nature; detailed analyses are being carried on at the present time. The tunnel project on a small cirque glacier in the Jotunheim area of Norway, made possible observations of englacial movements in August and December of 1951 which are correlated with surface movements. Emphasis was placed on detailed three-dimensional studies. A marked divergence of flow lines was noted in both the vertical and horizontal planes. Bands previously thought to be thrust planes were found to be of sedimentary origin and not to be discrete planes of shear. Rates of contractions of tunnel sections up to a depth of 50 m. were observed and the englacial temperature distributions were taken in both zones of ablation and accumulation.

The following items of equipment and glaciological techniques used on the Barnes ice cap are described:

1. Thermo-electric boring in cold ice.

2. Mechanical drilling in (a) cold rock, (b) cold ice.

3. Measurement of temperature in ice and rock.

4. Snow kit and measurement of ice density.

5. Crystal rubbings on cold ice.

The morphology of Snaefell, East Iceland, and the state of its glaciers in 1937 are described. There are four small glaciers. Two of these exist in well-developed cirques incised into the lavas, tuffs and breccias of this Pleistocene volcano. The third receives ice from a summit ice cap, while the fourth also receives ice from the same source as well as lying in a cirque. The firn line in 1937 is put between 1350 and 1500 m. so that the mass balance of the glaciers is unlikely to have been favourable, although only one showed any abandoned moraines. An explanation of the varying glacial modification of the different slopes of Snaefell is suggested in terms of structural trends, shading from the sun and snow-drifting.

The measurements by seismic sounding of the long profile of the Unteraar Glacier reported by Mercanton and Renaud are compared with theoretical calculations. By taking the valley to be a cylinder of parabolic cross-section a theoretical curve for the surface is deduced which depends on one unknown parameter only, the average shear stress on the bed. If this parameter is given the value 0.77 × 106 dynes/cm.2 the theoretical curve agrees well with the measurements.