The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-11-18
LIVE GLACIERS OF ALASKA.
Most of the Great Ice Rivers arc
slowly Receding From the sea.


slowly Receding From the Sea.
TIN Alaska there are many hundreds ol
living glaciers, that is. glaciers
Ii whose fronts reach the sea and as
charge icebergs. Glaciers OF this CLASS
range in size from the Great Malaspina
a lake OF ice sixty miles by thirty anu
fed by scores of ice steams from the 81.
Elias Alps, down to little streams flowing
down the mountain gorges two or three
miles only in length.
Among the many interesting questions
propounded by the glaciers was that OF
their present movement, whether II be
advance or recession. That In past times
they have greatly receded Is shown by
their abandoned channels, the hords
which make up the entire Alaskan coast
and by the fiord-shaped valleys winch
characterize the inshore topography.
Examination of the neighborhood OF ex-
listing glaciers shows that on the whole
they are with few exceptions still reced-
ing. This recession is probably not regu-
lar or continuous, since every winter
shows an advance and every summer
recession, and since year OF heavy
snowfall induces temporary advance,
while hot or dry year produces an ABB
normally large recession. still all signs
Indicate in the case of every glacier ex-
amined, with one exception (the crillon),
that on the whole they are still retreat
ing.
the stretch OF bare. naked land. both
of valley and mountain slope. not yet COW
cred with vegetation, extending outward
from the glacier front, is in itself SUM-
cient evidence of this retreat. In the case
of the Muir glacier, which is the best
known, the amount of recession has been
directly measured, since the front OF the
glacier has been mapped at different
times by Muir, Reid and Wright. Here we
a nf txrrr, In 10 n
twenty years, and reduction In the level
of its surface of 300 feet in the same time.
The glaciers of Alaska take various
forms. The simple form of stream OF
ice flowing down a mountain gorge, with
tributaries from neighboring gorges, Is
common. But the greater glaciers usual
ly take the form of lake of ice occupy
ing a broad valley or a plateau, fed by
streams of ice from surrounding mount
aims and drained by outlets In one, two
or more directions. or this type the Muir
is fine example. 1t occupies broad
valley, having gentle slope to the south.
east and west: is fed by streams from the
mountains on the north. east and west,
and has three outlets. by the Davidson
glacier to Lynn canal. by a glacier to the
west arm OF Glacier bay, while its larg-
est outlet is by what Is popularity known
as Muir glacier southwark to Muir inlet.
a branch of Glacier bay.
OF this type. too. are the great ice fields
on each side of the Fairweather range
that on the northeast being drained into
Glacier bay by several outlets and those
on the southwest side discharging direct
ly into the Pacific. On the shores OF
Prince William sound are many exam
pies of this type, great fields of ice In the
Interior discharging at the coast by COM
paratively narrow outlets.
A third type Is that illustrated by the
a la r.tr1a ell tt.. L.
the Alaskan glaciers. lake of ice lying
on gentle slope open TO the sea. The
Maiaspina is fed by many streams Of ice
from the st. Elias Alps, spreading out
into this great lake. which wastes away
mainly by melting, since only a small
part Of its front Of sixty miles reaches the
sea and discharges In bergs. In places
the surface OF this great ice lake is COW
cred with soil and supports rank growth
of vegetation. Here are flowers in pro-
fusion and forests of spruce growing
above the ice