GLACIERS OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES AND SELKIRKS. 69 



distance of over a mile, there occurs a tremendous accumulation of huge mo- 

 rainic blocks of a red and brown sandstone. The blocks are much disintegrated 

 by the weather, and falling apart, but each roughly indicates its former size and 

 shape (plate xxi v, figure 3) . Near the upper end of the valley the moraine is a half 

 mile across, extending from the glacier to the foot of Eiffel Peak and almost 

 completely surrounding Wenkchemna Lake, as shown upon the map. Toward 

 the east the moraine becomes narrower and there may be distinguished an 

 older portion, partially soil-covered and forested. These latter blocks are more 

 completely coated with lichens and have plainly the appearance of greater age. 

 There is thus evidence that the moraine was formed at two different periods, 

 the older portion surrounding the lake and extending eastward, and that a con- 

 siderable interval, as expressed in years, separated the two periods. Opposite 

 peak No. 7 there occurs at the front an accumulation of coarse blocks, evi- 

 dently part of the younger of the two ancient moraines, which the present glacier 

 has been able to partially override. Farther west the glacier has been unequal 

 to the task of either pushing the blocks ahead or of oveniding them, and the 

 streams have been deflected eastward, as previously noted. When the forma- 

 tion of the older of the two moraines began the glacier reached across the valley 

 and deposition started. The glacier had so little depth, owing to the meager 

 supply of nivi, that it was unable to heap the blocks into a great ridge. Ap- 

 parently the rather thin edge of ice was pressed against the moraine and there 

 melted by pressure, and the blocks deposited along the southern margin until a 

 belt a quarter mile in breadth was formed. A considerable period intervened 

 during which time the eastern portion of the glacier had shrunken to much 

 smaller proportions than it had formerly held and than it has at present. In 

 a manner still to be accounted for, the glacier a second time became loaded 

 with very coarse blocks and started to advance, possibly because of the protection 

 afforded the surface by this load. Encountering the former moraine, however, 

 it was unable to go over, or around, and it used its energy in a vain attempt 

 to push the obstacles ahead. The pressure exerted caused the melting of the ice 

 and the blocks were deposited in another broad, continuous belt, parallel with 

 the first. As though it had learned wisdom by the experience, the glacier now 

 rather calmly turns eastward and passes around the obstruction which it has 

 built in its own path. These two moraines, lying side by side, are of the same 

 type as the two described in the Lake Louise Valley, and, as far as may be judged 

 roughly from their general appearance, of approximately the same age. The 

 cliff from which the material was obtained has a west-northwest trend and the 

 blocks were dropped from it to the eastward. 



b. Moraine Lake. This lake has had a different history from that of Lake 

 Louise in that it is apparently not a rock-basin and so attains no great depth. 

 It is, however, like Lake Louise in that it has a morainic dam across its foot, 

 although in the case of Moraine Lake the dam is of a different type. This 

 consists of a sharply defined heap of rock debris about 400 feet long, placed 

 at right angles to the main axis of the valley. The ridge increases in height 



