Sir,

As I have been unable to trace any record of a water-spout on the Aletsch Glacier in the Bernese Oberland, you may be interested in particulars of a spout seen at approximately 2 p.m. on Monday, 27 August 1962. Figure 1 shows a photograph of the spout at its maximum height.

Fig. 1

I was walking up the central moraine with my family and two friends when I noticed a water-spout about 85 m. to the north of our party. We walked across the ice to the spot, the spout having ceased by the time we got there. We waited and witnessed two other displays of spouting from the narrower end of a pool about 10 m. long and 75 cm. broad at its widest point. The characteristics of each performance were similar. Particulars of the third spout were recorded:

Although we waited until 3.10 p.m. no further display was seen. The ice where the phenomenon occurred was relatively level and not far west of the ice fall which is situated just below the chalet Triest on the north side of the glacier opposite the Aletschwald. The water-spout itself was approximately in line with the Tällihütte under the Triestgletscher and shown on the Sicgfriedkarte 1: 50,000.

6 November 1962

(There does not appear to be any previous record of a water-spout on the Aletsch Glacier or indeed on any Swiss glacier. A water-spout in Spitsbergen was described in this Journal, Vol. 2, No. 19, 19556, p. 637–39 by M. A. Rucklidge together with a suggested scheme of the arrangement of the subglacial water channels which caused it.

The exact position of the Tällihütte is shown on the 1957 Aletschgletscher map of the Eidg. Landestopographie, Wabern-Bern, 1960, Blatt 3.—Ed.)