Travels in Alaska 



the walls. The Indians have a tradition that the river 

 used to run through a tunnel under the united fronts 

 of the two large tributary glaciers mentioned above, 

 which entered the main canon from either side; and 

 that on one occasion an Indian, anxious to get rid of 

 his wife, had her sent adrift in a canoe down through 

 the ice tunnel, expecting that she would trouble him 

 no more. But to his surprise she floated through 

 under the ice in safety. All the evidence connected 

 with the present appearance of these two glaciers 

 indicates that they were united and formed a dam 

 across the river after the smaller tributaries had been 

 melted off and had receded to a greater or lesser 

 height above the valley floor. 



The big Stickeen Glacier is hardly out of sight ere 

 you come upon another that pours a majestic crystal 

 flood through the evergreens, while almost every 

 hollow and tributary canon contains a smaller one, 

 the size, of course, varying with the extent of the 

 area drained. Some are like mere snow-banks; others, 

 with the blue ice apparent, depend in massive bulg- 

 ing curves and swells, and graduate into the river-like 

 forms that maze through the lower forested regions 

 and are so striking and beautiful that they are ad- 

 mired even by the passing miners with gold-dust in 

 their eyes. 



Thirty-five miles above the Big Stickeen Glacier is 

 the "Dirt Glacier," the second in size. Its outlet is a 

 fine stream, abounding in trout. On the opposite side 

 of the river there is a group of five glaciers, one of 

 them descending to within a hundred feet of the river. 



[48 I 



