The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-12-19
THE GLACIERS IN MONTANA.

Several Near Blackfoot Mountain-On
 the Slopes of the Continental Divide,
 Close to Canada.
 For some years I have been interest ed in the geography of a small section of the Rocky mountains which until recently was part of the Blackfeet res- erVation, in northwestern Montana. This section lies for the most part east or the Continental Divide, and between the international boundary on the north and the Great Northern railroad on the south. The portion of if which l know best is included in inc water shed ot the St. Mary's river and it's 'lioutarles' In 1891 I took to the head or the St. Mary's river the first party that mad ever visited it, so far as known, and in 1895 accompanied to the same point the government commission which afterward purchased from the Blackfeet Indians the rough mountain Iand which formed the western DOT ton of the reservation of that tribe. Before that l had made sketch map or the region, which is the basis of all me maps of it that have been made or | published.
 In lS97 l made hasty trip to the head of the river and climbed Mount Jackson, the highest peak in that re- zion. Last July QS9S) I again went to the head of the river and climbed the Blackfoot mountain, another lofty peak somewhat less accessible than Mount Jackson. On both trips I was accompanied by my friend, J. B. Mon l roe.
 These last trips have enable me defi- nitely to locate two points about whose relations l have never until now been 1 cute certain. One is the Fumpeliy | glacier, discovered by Profes ;or Ra- Ihael Fumpelly, who, I believe, in 1883 i Win a small party which included the late ". A. Stiles, crossed from the 1 Flathead country to the plains by way | ot the Marias, or, as it is now called, l the Cut Bank pass. This great mass of ice, which is seen by every traveller going through the Cut Bank pass, rises to the height of several hundred feet above the face of a lofty cliff, over which portions of the glacier are con- stantly falling with tremendous re- I ports, which are heard for long dis i tance.
 From the top of the Blackfoot moun- tain the whole country leading up to the Cut Bank pass can be seen, and 1 immediately below it to the southeast 1 lies the Pumpelly glacier, readily iden- tified not only from it's position with 1 relation to the valley, but also by the peaks and rocks in it's neighborhood It thus appears that the Pumpelly gla- cier, as I have long supposed was the l case, is part of the southern flow of the l great icecap which covers almost the ! whole of the Blackfoot mountain. The 1 Blackfoot glacier, which stretches away in northeasterly direction from I the peak of the Blackfoot mountain, though perhaps varying in extent somewhat with the season, was esti- mated last July to be six or seven miles long, and in some places between 1 three and four miles wide From the peak of the Blackfoot mountain the ice field flows also in northerly direction, meeting another which runs down be- CNGCli Af1Oullt fNdiIictI tIlu MOulI JdCk- son, while from Mount Jackson a num- Der of smaller glaciers flow down to timber line
 A little to the west of south of the l Blackfoot mountain and lying in a great bend of Mud Creek-tributary of the Flathead-which entirely cuts it off from the main range, lies Mount James -one of the three highest peaks in this 1 immediate section. Seen from the east it is shaped like the square-faced, 1 peaked end of haystack, and at a distance appears very difficult or im- possible of ascent. Its southern and western faces may be more practicable than those on the north and east ap- pear From the top of the Blackfoot mountain the level shows Mount Jack son to be the highest of all these moun- tains; Mount James the next while Blackfoot is the third. But the diff ferences in height are very slight
 A few miles northwest of Mount 1 Jackson and lying on the west side of the range is a little basin named Ava 1 lanche basin by l.. B. Sperry of Ober- ] lin, Ohio, and on the mountains over looking this, MT. Sperry tells us are extensive snowfelds and a glacier. l From the summit of Blackfoot noun tain it appears that this Avalanche ba- | sin lies nearly south of Mount Plegan l of my map, and southwest of Mount l Reynolds. I understand that Mir Sper- ry who was, of course, unaware that the mountain had been earlier named, has called Mount Reynolds Matterhorn, from the sender-as seen from the southwest-finger of rock which forms it's peak. Mount Reynolds is in the Continental Divide, although most of
 the recent maps wrongly place it east of the divide.
 If the locations of the Pumpelly gla- cier and of Avalanche basin with re- gard to definite and well known points in the Continental Divide are thus es- l tablished, the matter is one of some | interest to students of this section of the northern Rocky mountains, since | hitherto, so far as I am awarr the re- lations of the east and west sides of the range have not been known be- l tween the head of Belly river and the Cut Bank pass.
 Lying nearly to the south of Mount Jackson, and between it and the Black foot mountain, is a deep basin which
 is the head of Harrison creek, flowing