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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Fig. 3. West half of Hubbard Glacier, discharging icebergs into Disenchantment Bay. 

 Mt. Hubbard in right background. Panorama with Fig. 4. 



stagnant ice of the detached bulb of an adjacent glacier whose parti-col- 

 ored crescentic moraines have led us to call it the Variegated Glacier. 

 Ice underlies all this dark-colored area, however, where moraine man- 

 tles the quiescent and melting ice tongue in which there are numerous 

 lakelets. The Hubbard Glacier is exceptional in having a small pro- 

 portion of medial and lateral moraines, perhaps partly because it is so 

 crevassed. Its surface is clear and attractive and its sea cliffs almost 

 entirely snowy white. 



The Ice Cliffs and Icebergs 



The foreground of berg-dotted fiord, the silvery ice cliff (Fig. 7), 

 the sea of serac and crevasse behind, and the mountain background ris- 

 ing to 8,000 and 10,000 feet within ten miles of sea-level, form a scene 

 never to be forgotten. One might not presume to too great familiarity 

 with this lordly glacier, however, for an approach to within a half mile 

 of the ice cliff, even in a seaworthy dory, means danger of capsizing 

 in the iceberg-generated waves from the cliff or from overturning bergs. 

 The formation of icebergs from the glacier as seen at safer distances 

 is of fascinating interest. The dazzling white cliff (Fig. 8) with its 

 tints of blue and green in the crevasses suddenly crumbles as if the foun- 

 dation of one of the castellated ice towers were suddenly removed. 

 Liquid silver seems to slip for minutes from the cliff, then a pinnacle 

 falls with a crash. Instantly the water in front of the glacier, even 

 if clear of bergs a moment before, is filled with white ice fragments, 

 while blue and green and dirty-black icebergs, released from the sub- 

 merged part of the cliff, rise through the pack of small bergs, casting 



