GLACIERS OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES AND SELKIRKS. 97 



to support a growth of raspberries, blueberries, etc., and also a few spruce 8 to 

 12 inches in diameter. The bulk of the material lies to the west of the glacial 

 brook and was derived from the eastern side of Glacier Crest and Mt. Lookout, 

 the cHffs of which have a northwest-southeast trend. The shape of the moraine 

 and the way in which the blocks have been deposited indicate, as noted by Prof. 

 Penck at the time of his visit, that the moraine was built conjointly by the former 

 lUecillewaet and Asulkan glaciers. The blocks contributed by the Asulkan 

 came from the western side of Glacier Crest and the Asulkan Ridge, and are 

 much less in amount than those derived from the eastern side and transported 

 by the lUecillewaet. The largest tree fotind growing inside of this moraine 

 was calculated to have been 520 years old when it died and from the condition 

 of its wood and bark to have been dead about 30 years. 



CHAPTER VII. 

 ASULKAN GLACIER. 



I. General Characteristics. 



Lying at the head of the Asulkan Valley, upon the opposite side of Glacier 

 Crest from the lUecillewaet Glacier (see plates xxxii and xxxiii), is located the 

 Asulkan Glacier. Its broad expanse of snowfield extends in a semicircle from 

 Asulkan Ridge, past Leda, Pollux, and Castor to the northern extremity of the 

 Dome, faces to the northward, and under the sunlight is of dazzling whiteness. 

 The name is of Cree Indian origin and is generally said to mean "goat," but I am 

 assured that it really means "bridge." The nose of the glacier lies about three 

 miles from the station, reached by a picturesque and easy trail, except in the 

 upper part, where the trail becomes steep. The glacier itself may be safely visited 

 and studied without a guide, but no one should venture upon the nev^ unattended, 

 as it is very treacherously crevassed. This glacier is the smallest and the most 

 southern and western of the series here reported upon, its nose lying in longitude 

 117° 28', west and latitude 51° 13', north. 



The glacier consists of three streams, two of which are closely united and the 

 third separated from the other two except in the n^v6 region where they are 

 all united. The length of this third stream, measured fi'om the Asulkan Pass, is 

 about two miles, of which the first mile is n^ve and the lower mile is ordinarily 

 free from snow during the summer season (plate xxxix, figure i). The breadth 

 of the dissipator is about 1,800 feet in the upper part, but about the middle of its 

 Qoiu-se it makes an abrupt bend from the north to the northeast and tapers 

 gradually to a sharp nose. The eastern margin curves around gradually to the 

 nose, while the western side is curiously straight, cutting diagonally across 

 what appears to be the natural course of the glacier. There seems no apparent 

 reason for this abrupt bend in the glacier and for the remarkably straight western 

 margin of the ice, but the explanation will appear in what follows. This peculiar 

 contouring of this stream gives it the general form of a bear's paw — a polar bear 



