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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



[vol. 47 



present in this valley their absence may be satisfactorily accounted 

 for by noting the scarcity of rocky cliff's from which the blocks 

 might have been derived. 



IV. Illecillewaet Glacier 

 I. General Characteristics. — Passing from the Rockies to the 

 Selkirks, the next chain to the west, there are marked evidences of 

 the increased precipitation. The mountains are more completely 

 forested and less rugged and the extensive snowfields send down 

 hundreds of ice tongues which reach a considerably lower altitude 



Fig. 89. — General view Illecillewaet glacier, Sept., [904. 



than in the Rockies. The glacier in the two Americas which bas 

 been visited by more people than any other is the Illecillewaet, 

 readied in a ball" hour, over a good trail from Glacier House. It 

 is fed by a snow-ice field covering from five to six square miles, 

 lying to the south of Alt. Sir Donald and having an elevation of 8,000 

 to 9,000 ft. ( pi. LXix, b ). The lowest part of the rim of this collect- 

 ing basin is upon the north side and through this the ice spills over and 

 cascades into the valley, forming innumerable crevasses and seracs, 

 and reaching an altitude of 4,800 ft. General maps of the region 

 have been made by Green, Bell-Smith and Wheeler and large scale 

 maps of the lower extremity by the Vaux Bros, and Penck, hut no 



