GLACIERS OX MOUNT SHASTA. 29 



and southeast slopes of the mountain, the thickness cannot be less than from 

 1,800 to 2,500 feet. It is crevassed in a series of immense chasms, some of 

 them 2,000 feet long b}- thirty and even fifty feet wide. In one or two 

 places the whole surfixce is broken with concentric systems of fissures, and 

 these are invaded with a set of radial breaks which shatter the ice into a 

 confusion of immense blocks. The region of the terminal moraines is quite 

 unlike that of the Alps, a large portion of the glacier itself Ijeing covered by 

 loads of angular debris. The whole north face of the mountain is one great 

 body of ice, interrupted by a few sharp lava ridges which project above its 

 general level. The veins of blue ice, the planes of stratification, were 

 distinctly observed, but neither mouUm nor regular dirt-bauds are present. 

 Numerous streams, however, flow^ over the surface of the ice, l)ut they hap- 

 pen to pour into crevasses which are at present quite wide." 



No statement is made of the height above the sea-level to which the ice 

 descends at its lowest point. Judging from the appearance of the cone as 

 seen from the nortli, and from the photographs, it may be about 10,000 feet. 

 The different views, taken by Mr. Watkins, give the impression that a con- 

 siderably less area of the surfiice of the cone is occupied by ice than is 

 described by Mr. King as being so covered. The fact that the debris extend 

 over so much of the glacial surface is evidently to be explained by the almost 

 stationary character of these glaciers. Hardly any snow or rain falls upon 

 them during the sununer, and by far the larger portion of that which de- 

 scends in winter is evaporated without actual melting, owing to the intense 

 dryness of the climate. That the cliraatological conditions all througli 

 California are peculiar, is well known, and these peculiarities extend even to 

 the summit of Shasta, as is well illustrated by the fact that our party found 

 on the summit pieces of paper on which the names of visitors had been 

 recorded, in some instances several years before, and which remained per- 

 fectly unchanged by decay or discoloration. That the masses of ice should 

 be limited to the northern side of the mountain is something which might be 

 expected ; for as the prevailing winds in summer came from the south and 

 southwest, the moisture which they carried away would be most likely to be 

 condensed in part, at least, in the eddy which would take place just at the 

 passage from the warm over to the cold side of the descending slope, which 

 remains during the warmer part of the da}- in shadow. 



A careful examination of all the details of structure of these ice-masses, 

 by some one who has had experience in similar work in the classic glacier 



