Glaciological Research in Alaska— Field 125 



Yakutat Bay area in 1890 and 1891. The Harriman Alaska Ex- 

 pedition (21, 35) of 1899, which numbered among its scientists 

 Grove Karl Gilbert and John Muir, visited Glacier Bay and 

 Yakutat Bay and extended detailed studies up the coast to 

 Prince William Sound and the Kenai Peninsula. 



Another milestone was established by Tarr and Martin (28- 

 30, 48-55) in their work from 1904 to 1913, mostly undertaken 

 for the National Geographic Society, which in 1914 published 

 their results in "Alaskan Glacier Studies," an unusually detailed 

 and beautifully illustrated volume. Their studies covered the 

 glaciers of Glacier Bay, Yakutat Bay, the lower Copper River, 

 Prince William Sound, and parts of the Kenai Peninsula. In 

 Yakutat Bay, the observed spasmodic advances of many of the 

 glaciers were attributed to the earthquake of September, 1899, 

 and a hypothesis was proposed which was termed the "earth- 

 quake advance theory ' (55, p. 168). In 1906, F. E. and C. W. 

 Wright (61), of the U. S. Geological Survey, made a detailed 

 study of the glaciers of Glacier Bay, and C. W. Wright followed 

 this up with a second visit to the area with H. F. Reid in 1931. 

 These two observers thus returned to continue observations 

 which they had begun respectively 25 and 39 years previously. 

 Regretably, only summaries of Wright's observations have been 

 published. In 1905, 1908, and 1909, U. S. Grant and D. F. 

 Higgins (22), also of the Geological Survey, conducted a series 

 of observations of the glaciers of Prince William Sound and 

 the Kenai Peninsula. 



In 1916, William S. Cooper (10-14), °f tne University of 

 Minnesota, began a long-term systematic study of plant ecology 

 in the areas recently vacated by the ice in Glacier Bay. In order 

 to work out the schedule of vegetation growth and plant suc- 

 cession, he found it necessary to determine the chronology of 

 ice recession. This contributed much to the study of glaciers 

 as well as to plant ecology. His periodic visits began in 1916 

 and continued to 1935 and then were taken up by his associate, 

 Donald B. Lawrence (26, 27), also of the University of Minne- 

 sota, in 1941, 1949, and 1950. This unique project, now in its 

 35th year, has resulted in the publication of several very signifi- 



