The Editor,

The Journal of Glaciology

Sir,

I have been particularly interested in Professor A. Desio’s paper on “An exceptional glacier advance in the Karakoram—Ladakh Region” (Vol. 2, No. 16, October, 1954, p. 383–86), since his explanation of the phenomenon is the same as that which I communicated to Professor von Klebelsberg, Editor of the Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde and Glaziologie more than a year ago with respect to the 1952–53 advance of the Glaciar P. Moreno in Patagonia. Only later I found out that both of us had a predecessor; Mr. P. Groeber gave the same explanation for the famous catastrophe of the Glaciar del Plomo in Mendoza Province in his book: La alta Cordillera entre las latitudes 34° y 29° 30′, Buenos Aires, 1951, p. 348/9.

Well, I think it does not matter very much who has been the first to develop the idea; in my opinion it is of more importance that now three observers independently have come to the same conclusion referring to far distant glaciers. I think the fact is now well established that glacier advances during the retreat of the surrounding ice streams may be caused by the process described by Professor Desio.