GLACIERS OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES AND SELKIRKS. 63 



this camp, at the foot of the lake, the trail is rough for horses, but practicable to the 

 front of the glacier, about two miles distant. 



Quite in contrast with the Victoria, and with mountain glaciers in general, 

 the Wenkchemna presents noteworth}^ peculiarities of form, in that it is very 

 broad for its length and has a remarkable amount of frontage. Its breadth 

 is about three miles, while its length is from one-half to one mile, the frontage 

 amounting to something over three miles. The area of the glacier is estimated 

 at about two square miles. It lies mainl_y between 7,500 feet and 6,400 feet 

 above sea level, the easternmost nose attaining the latter elevation, or about 

 400 feet higher than the Victoria. 



2. Piedmont Type. 



The peculiarities above noted in form are dependent upon the very unusual 

 method of formation. Instead of there being a trunk stream, to which the 

 minor ice streams are tributary, the entire glacier results from the amalgamation 

 of twelve, more or less, independent ice streams, each with its own feeding ground, 

 which lie side by side. There is no propriety in speaking of these streams as 

 tributaries; but since they are all nourished from the same general source, the 

 snow which falls vipon the eastern slopes of the Ten Peaks, since they coexist, 

 are tolerant of one another's presence, and maintain their own identity and 

 independent velocity from neve to nose, they may be spoken of as "commensal 

 streams," to boiTOW an adjective from the biologists. The form of the front, 

 the position of the medial moraines, and the nev^ areas enable us to differentiate 

 these streams as shown upon the map, and less well in plate xxi. Owing to the 

 general slope of the valley floor, the commensal streams are deflected eastward, 

 their natural course being northward. However, it is quite apparent that they 

 interfere with one another's movements. The easternmost stream is relatively 

 very small, terminating back some 3,000 feet from the nose of its neighbor, 

 where it is forming a temiinal moraine. Its neighbor to the west is narrow, 

 but in conjunction with sti-eams three and four, counting from the east, it reaches 

 the general front and together they form a broad rounded nose. Number five 

 spreads out fan-like at its lower end, and in consequence six and seven, in their 

 lower third, are deflected rather sharply to the north. Streams seven and eight, 

 from Mt. Deltafomi, are exhibiting the greatest amount of relative activity. 

 In the western part of the glacier the ice streams are turned eastward b}' the 

 tremendous accumulation of morainic blocks which they are unable to push 

 ahead or override. In consequence, number nine, which has only a limited 

 collecting area, is considerably compressed, being forced laterally against its 

 sturdier neighbor to the east. It is not likely that any one of these streams 

 could exist by itself as an independent glacier, since it would flatten out, be 

 more thinly clad with debris, waste more rapidly from surface and lateral melting, 

 and disappear soon after leaving the shadow of the mountains. 



This form of glacier is known as the ' ' piedmont type, ' ' and, so far as the writer 

 is aware, only one other example, the Malaspina, of Alaska, has thus far been 



