The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-11-03
|LLEC|LLE WAET
GLACIER HAS
RECEDED
Or. Charles D. WaIcott, Aided
by Wife, Investigates
Effect of Snowfall.

HotO much effect haze climatic
changes, especially vGryin0 GVer-
age snowfall OUer q number of
yeGrs, on the recession of glaciers?
Scientists haze been studuino this
problem for many gears, and IN the
following article DR.. Charles d.
WGLcott, secretary of the Smith
somiGn Institution, has written for
readers of The Washington Times
some of the data obtained from the
study of one glacier and snoUfield.
By DR. CHARLES d. WALCOTT,
Secretary, Smithsonian institution.
On my recent trip to visit, among
others, the 1llecillewaet glacier, /
was accompanied by Mrs. Walcott,
glaciologist, who first visited this
glacier in 1887, and who has made
many observations of it's changes
since that time. This glacier, which
Is located near Glacier, British Co
lumbia, WAS, IN 1887, about one and
one-haf miles from the railway
station. In 1894, photographs we
made showed q positive recession
since 1887, and in the past seven
years 1T has gone back approx
mately 1,07O feet.
The recession of a glacier Is
directly in ratio to the snowfall;
that is to say, il we should have
two seasons with great and unusual
snowfalls and low temperatures,
conditions might change very great
": but at the present time, except
in one or two cases, where local
conditions are responsible, the gla-
ciers in the region show marked
recession.
Is Fed Like River.
You may compare the conditions
with that of river, and all the laws
of nature that apply to a river can
be applied to a glacier; that is, the
neve, or snowfield, feeds the glacier
as a lake in which river rises
feeds river. AS the thickness Of
the snow increases in the neve, a
change takes place with the pressure,
the snow being compressed into Ice.
Then the ice begins to flow down
the mountain side. The rate of flow
varies greatly, being dependent upon
the volume Of ice, the steepness of
the mountain side over, which it
flows, and the formation Of the rocky
walls of the valley through which
the glacier passes.
II the glacier flows with curve,
the rate of flow on the outside Of
the curve is greater than on the an
side.
A very small change In average
temperature over a more or less
prolonged period will bring the
glaciers right down again. They
melt away. We do not know any
thing about the average tempSra-
lures in the glacier field; but we
do know that the recession, or
melting away, has been going on
since 1887.
Has Big Snowfield.
For instance. the snowfield that
feeds the IlIecillewaet glacier is
ten miles across. We have no
way of determining the snowfall
from year to year, as the field In
unapproachable with our present
limited means. There are other
glaciers that flow out Of the same
snowfield.
There may be local conditions
that are contributory to the re-
cesslon Of the Tllecillewaet, but in
asmuch as the other glaciers that
flow from the same snowfield are
nearly inaccessible, 1t has been i'm.
possible to investigate them UP to
now.
Nobody knows If It is the change
in climate entirely that is caus-
ing these recessions. There may
be, and probably are, other reasons.