The Editor,

The Journal of Glaciology

Sir,

In Vol. 2, No. 2, of the Journal of Glaciology I found a paper by P. D. Baird and his co-workers on glaciers of the Baffin type, which are characterized by the lack of névé, the nourishment of the lower parts being achieved by the super-imposition of ice derived from frozen melt water.

May I draw attention to an analogy in the Cordillera de San Juan. There the glaciers apparently are more or less stationary, and even at the end of the winter they are without névé cover owing to ablation by the wind. The glacier tongues end at high altitudes, 4000 m. and more, and the climate is cold, dry and windy. Precipitation nearly exclusively occurs in the form of light and dry snow which is transported by the wind into the concavities of the mountain relief. The alimentation of the lower parts seems to be almost entirely accomplished by this wind-borne snow accumulation.