might have indicated that we had reached the bed of the glacier. FOOTNOTES: [A] "Every year, and year after year, the watercourses follow the same lines of direction--their streams are precipitated into the heart of the glacier by vertical funnels, called 'moulins,' at the very same points."--Forbes's Fourth Letter upon Glaciers: 'Occ. Pap.,' p. 29. [Illustration: DIRT-BANDS OF THE MER DE GLACE, AS SEEN FROM A POINT NEAR THE FLEGERE. Fig. 35. _To face p. 367._] DIRT-BANDS OF THE MER DE GLACE. (26.) [Sidenote: DIRT-BANDS FROM THE FLEGERE.] These bands were first noticed by Prof. Forbes on the 24th of July, 1842, and were described by him in the following words:--"My eye was caught by a very peculiar appearance of the surface of the ice, which I was certain that I now saw for the first time. It consisted of nearly hyperbolic brownish bands on the glacier, the curves pointing downwards, and the two branches mingling indiscriminately with the moraines, presenting an appearance of a succession of waves some hundred feet apart."[A] From no single point of view hitherto attained can all the Dirt-Bands of the Mer de Glace be seen at once. To see those on the terminal portion of the glacier, a station ought to be chosen on the opposite range of the Brevent, a few hundred yards beyond the Croix de la Flegere, where we stand exactly in front of the glacier as it issues into the valley of Chamouni. The appearance of the bands upon the portion here seen is represented in Fig. 35. It will be seen that the bands are confined to one side of the glacier, and either do not exist, or are obliterated by the debris, upon the other side. The cause of the accumulation of dirt on the right side of the glacier is, that no less than five moraines are crowded together at this side. In the upper portions of the Mer de Glace these moraines are distinct from each other; but in descending, the successive engulfments and disgorgings of the blocks and dirt have broken up the moraines; and at the place now before us the materials which composed them are strewn confusedly on the right side of the glacier. The portion of the ice on which the dirt-bands appear is derived from the Col du Geant. They do not quite extend to the end of the glacier, being obliterated by the dislocation of the ice upon the frozen cascade of Des Bois. [Sidenote: DIRT-BANDS FROM LES CHARMOZ.]