﻿SHERZER] GLACIAL STUDIES [N CANADIAN ROCKIES 49 1 



ference of 320 cm. and. by calculation, should be 447 years of age. 

 About one-third of a mile farther down the valley, where the Asulkan 

 and [llecillewaet valleys meet, a still more massive moraine of this 

 same type is seen. The blocks are very coarse, scarcely any fine 

 material showing, and consist almost entirely of quartzite, the largesl 

 seen being estimated to weigh [,250 tons. The moraine swings out 

 from the base of Glacier (Vest, obliquely across the valley, from 200 

 to 300 ft. across and from 60 to 7<> ft. above the valley floor, most 

 of the material being concentrated upon the west side of the stream. 

 The blocks are blackened with lichens, hut have disintegrated so 

 little that the moraine supports onl) a scanty growth of timber and 

 shrubs (fig. 91). Upon its eastern side it is nearly covered with 

 shattered tree trunks which were swept down from the side of Alt. 

 Eagle by an avalanch. showing one way in which soil may he ac- 

 quired by such a moraine. The largest tree found growing between 

 this moraine and the preceding was estimated to have been 520 years 

 old when it died and, from the condition of the wood and hark, to 

 have been dead about 30 years, giving a total of about 550 years. 



V. Asulkan Glacier 



1. Genera! Characteristics. — This glacier, or rather two glaciers, 

 to which the name has been applied, lies at the head of the Asulkan 

 valley, some five miles from Glacier House. The neve region lies 

 between the Dome. Castor and Pollux and Leda upon the west and 

 the Asulkan Range upon the east, separating it from the Illecillewaet 

 neve (pi. lxxii). The mass of ice supplied is considerably less than 

 in the preceding glacier and the main ice stream reaches an altitude 

 only of about 5,600 ft., the neve lying between 7.000 and 8,000 ft. 

 Portions of this neve are beautifully stratified. The inclination of 

 the bed seems quite regular and in only one or two places is the ice 

 badly shattered by irregularities. Toward the nose the inclination 

 of the surface is quite gentle, only about 6°, increasing finally to 25 . 

 The glacier is transporting comparatively little material at the present 

 time, but has sharply crested lateral moraines, with cores of stagnant 

 ice. 



2. Frontal CJiangcs. — Points of reference for the study of the 

 frontal movements of the main Asulkan stream were established 

 August 12, 1899. by George and William Vaux. Last year, Septem- 

 ber 17, 1903, the nose had pushed 13 1 j ft. beyond this line, plowing 

 into the ground moraine and overturning boulders. One of the 

 stones marked by the Yaux Bros, had evidently been pushed forward 

 some 14 to 15 ft. Upon August 27, 1904, the nose was 12' \ ft. 



