The Daily Alaska empire., 1929-07-27

WCCho, Heto DCcN Cdll ylilSe Ofi AC search work relative to determin- ing how forests develop on the land left bare by the retreating gla- ciers, will leave Juneau Sunday on the Prince George, after making what he terms a. most interesting and profitable trip in and around Glacier Bay. He is taking hun dreds of specimens of interglacial wood back to the University of Minnesota for more minute observ- ation under the microscope al though he says that a rough ex- animation shows them to be the same type of hemlock and spruce as those which grow here at the present time.
 In speaking of his present work in Glacier Bay, Dr. Cooper first explained that Glacier Bay was particularly favorable place for re- search work because of the rapidity with which the glaciers had been retreating and because of the ex- haustive and thoroughly depend able information that has already been gathered. In 1794, Capt. Van couver found the whole of Glacier Bay filled with a single glacier which had an ice cliff near the mouth of the present bay Since 1794, however, the main glacier has disappeared and each branch has retreated up it's own inlet making separate and distinct glaciers. John Muir, in 1880, and several geolo- gists since that date have mapped the region and determined just where the ice fronts were located It is now possible to tell just how long it takes forests to develop in the barren regions left by the re- treat of the glacier
 Dr. Cooper has been carrying on his observations of Glacier Bay since 1916 and his present trip is the third one he has made here since that time.
 Studying Tree Growth
 T have been studying" said Dr. Cooper, "the very beginnings of the process of tree growth in areas from which the glaciers have re- +rootod ood ;,, fO1G T ,,,orlaJ c,,oo II plots of ground and made perma- nent charts of the plots, showing every plant growing there at the time In 1921, I recharted these plots paying strict attention to all new species of plant life and to the development of the previous plants. And now, this year, have returned to do more extensive charting and to make. more thor ough observations. All of the small plants show considerable increase in their numbers and size since my first charting of them in 1916.'
 Climatic Cycle
 Of interest to the layman will 1 be the fact that when the plants are augmented by the trees and shrub stage of development, the age of the trees are studied by cutting and by increment boring. Another interesting fact about this sort of research is the fact that the information obtained by botanists as to the climatic cycle of the ages of trees helps the geologists in their study of how much time has passed away since the melting Of the ice in the glaciers.
 1 Dr. Cooper said that he had found the study of an inter-glacial forest which had been buried by ice about 5000 years ago to be most interesting. "At that time," he said, forests covered all the slopes of Glacier Bay. Then, later, the climate changed-the snowfall be- came heavier and the winds were colder-and caused the glacier to spread. But before the glacier was enlarged, great rivers of water came rushing down the mountain sides, carrying gravel and sand be- fore them and buried the forests. Possibly it broke countless numbers of trees but in some places the water flowing over the forest floor was quiet and did very little harm other than depositing fine sand and silt, on the forest, which set tied so gently that it buried even the moses without hurting their form to any great extent. These moses can now be dug out of the gravel and when washed off, they still retain their fresh, green color have been most fortunate in find | ing 13 kinds of mosses, spruce cones, and even found specimen which when examined under the microscope, proved to be the ln- harmed pieces of an insects wing The fact that all this vegetation was buried under 5000 feet of ice makes such a discovery as an in- sect's wing a thing of great inter est"
 Spectacular Place
 Incidentally" con tinued Dr. Cooper, i've were fortunate enough to get into Johns-H Hopkins Inlet, which is usually closed to naviga- I tion because of floating ice, and we