568 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [DcC, 



OBSEBVATIONS 

 MADE IN 1906 ON GLACIERS IN ALBERTA AND BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



BY GEORGE, JR. AND WILLIAM S. VAUX. 



At the present time the glaciers close to the line of the Canadian 

 Pacific Railway located in the western part of Alberta and the eastern 

 of British Columbia offer very convenient opportunities for study and 

 comparison. The most accessible examples are found on the western 

 slopes of the Selkirk and Rocky Mountain ranges, where they are fed by 

 the immense precipitation from the warm winds blowing eastward 

 from the Pacific Ocean. In common with almost all glaciers through- 

 out the world it is found that these are receding, and while the changes 

 between year and year are not great when the immense area of the 

 glacier is considered, in a decade or century sweeping differences must 

 be noted. 



That the general tendency for a great many years has been to recede 

 every glacier in this region points with unmistakable evidence. At no 

 very remote date the Illecillewaet and Asulkan Glaciers met and 

 flowed as one down the valley which is now shared in common 

 by their streams; while the beautiful Lake Louise, more than 225 

 feet deep at the centre, owes its existence to the dying Victoria Glacier 

 which now extends only to within one and one-half miles of the upper 

 edge and is year by year depositing in the lake masses of glacier mud , 

 ultimately to reduce it to a muskeg marsh. Thus at every turn the 

 life span of glacier, mountain and lake may be read, and the creating 

 and destroying forces seen at work on every hand. 



The much greater activity of glaciers located on the western slopes 

 of the mountains as compared with those on the eastern has already 

 been noted, and it may also be observed that the snowfall on the 

 higher ranges is greater than on the lower in corresponding positions, 

 even though the latter may lie farther to the west, and consequently 

 nearer to the origin of the moisture-bearing winds from the Pacific 

 Ocean. 



The amount of precipitation of snow on the several mountain slopes 

 and in the passes adjacent to the railway has always been a matter of 

 much interest to those concerned in protecting the roadbed during the 

 winter, and also to students of glacier and alpine phenomena, as by 

 comparisons made over a long series of years interesting data of cause 



