440 



NA TURE 



[March 12, 1896 



purposes for which the more important waters are used, 

 and two maps are appended ; the second of these indi- 

 cates the distribution of waters used commercially, and 

 the first shows, as might be expected, the much wider 

 dispersal of springs used as health resorts. A complete 

 list of known springs closes the paper. 



Mr. Merrill follows ^ with an account of the results 

 of stream measurements. These are carried out by means 

 of current meters, while the fluctuation of streams is 

 recorded by nilometers. The "run-off" is expressed in 

 second-feet {i.e. the water carried by a stream i foot wide 

 and I foot deep flowing i foot per second), and the total 

 discharge in acre-feet. The records have been continued 

 monthly for many years, and yield a vast body of useful 

 hydrographic information with regard to such rivers as 

 the Missouri, Yellowstone, Rio Grande, Arkansas, Bear, 

 and Snake Rivers. Curves are drawn where possible, 

 and there are two maps, one delineating the rainfall of 

 the States, and the other the run-off of the principal river 

 basins. The latter quantity reaches a maximum in the 

 eastern States, and at the southern end of the Rocky 

 Mountains in Wyoming. Run-off is a function of rainfall 

 and topography, with modifications introduced by other 

 conditions, such as climate, structure, and vegetation ; the 

 ratio of run-off to rainfall is g-reater in mountain districts 

 than in valleys. 



A list of Californian earthquakes in 1893, by Mr. C. D. 

 Perrine, is given in Bulletin 114.^ 



We have reserved till last the modestly told account of 

 Mr. I. C. Russell's exploration of the Malaspina glacier, 

 and his plucky attempt to reach the summit of Mount St. | 

 Elias.''' Although unsuccessful he appears to have done 

 enough to be able to point out a route which, with 

 better luck and weather, will probably lead the way to 

 this coveted point ; and one cannot but hope that it may 

 fall to the lot of this explorer to be the first climber to 

 reach the top. 



The Malaspina glacier is fed by all the southern and 

 western ice-streams of the St. Elias range, which is but 

 an outpost of a vast mountain area to the north. From 

 the highest point which he reached, Russell saw this new 

 land spread out before him like a map ; but the point of 

 view was not reached without much labour in the carry- 

 ing of camp equipments, and in step-cutting up the great 

 ice-falls. The glacier seems to be a great reservoir or 

 sea of ice, stagnant or retreating, rather than a living and j 

 growing river of ice, and it deserves the term " piedmont 

 glacier" bestowed on it by our author. It only pushes 

 out into the sea at one pomt. Icy Cape, to the west, but 

 elsewhere it is separated from the ocean by a belt of flat 

 land of varying width. This border gave the same trouble 

 to Russell's party that it has done to English explorers, 

 on account of its icy-cold rivers and dismal swamps, 

 somewhat mitigated in this case by the vast strawberry 

 meadow in which the first camp was pitched. 



Cutting a way through the great forest-belt, and push- 

 ing through the thick moraine at the margin of the ice, 

 the party went across the glacier in the direction of the 

 Chaix Hills, noting here and elsewhere the astonishing 

 feature that the live moraine was often covered with a 

 dense coat of vegetation, including trees of considerable 

 age and size. 



The Chaix Hills are made of stratified sands and clays 

 containing marine shells, and some 4000 or 5000 feet in 

 thickness ; these deposits were evidently formed in the 

 sea at the extremity of a glacier, and subsequently up- 

 lifted The uplift appears to have taken place along a 

 line of fault extending from the Robinson Hills at the 

 west, past the Chaix Hills, and on to the Samovar Hills 



Fourteenth Annual Report of the United States Geological Survey. 

 93- (•894.) 

 ulletin 114, "Earthquakes in California in 1893," by C. D. Perrine. 



tS92-93. (1894.) 

 ^ Bui: ' 

 (1894-) 



'Thirteenth Annual Report of the United States (Geological Survey, 

 - -2. (1893.) 



NO. 1376, VOL. 53] 



and Pinnacle Pass at the east. Thence they pushed 

 across the Agassiz and Newton glaciers, passing many 

 ice-falls, the surface between which had a gentle and, even 

 in some cases, a reversed slope. Capital descriptions of 

 the scenery are often given, and numberless glacial 

 observations recorded. 



Although the party camped for twelve days at the en- 

 trance of the amphitheatre at the head of the Newton 

 glacier, the weather only permitted of one advance during 

 the time. They then reached an altitude of 14,500 feet 

 on the col between the summit of Mount Newton and 

 that of St. Elias ; but here they found themselves 

 forced to return, as they had not strength to accomplish 

 the 6500 feet between themselves and the summit in ad- 

 dition to the labour of returning to camp that night. It 

 was concluded that it would be necessary to camp on the 

 col itself, when a final attempt of the peak was made. A 

 second effort was made, but the avalanches and the 

 dangerous condition of the snow compelled a speedy 

 retreat, and, bad weather setting in, they were obliged to 

 abandon the attempt, and confine themselves to investi- 

 gations on the glacier at lower levels, and on its margin. 

 They had, however, reached high enough to obtain a 

 glorious panorama extending to Mount Fairweather, 200 

 miles away to the south-east, and to mountains of equal 

 altitude and distance to the north-west. They looked to 

 the north over a great "land of nunataks," a vast area of 

 snow 8000 feet high, dominated by peaks rising yet 4000 

 feet higher. 



■ The expedition then retreated down the glacier to 

 where the Yahtse River emerges from its cavern of ice ; 

 thence they went along the shore to Yakutat Bay, ex- 

 ploring the edge of the ice on the way, and then they 

 extended their survey along Disenchantment Bay, which,, 

 judging from the vivid description given, might well dis- 

 pense with the first syllable of its name. It appears to be 

 a charming region of mountains, glaciers, and bays, which 

 may well in the future attract the notice of travellers and 

 climbers in search of new ground. 



The height of Mount St. Elias was determined, within 

 a plus or minus error of 100 feet, as 18,100 feet. The 

 work at the edge of the ice gave many useful results. 

 The supremacy of the water action in the sea, and even 

 in the rivers, soon made itself felt in the characters it in- 

 duced on the material transported by the ice, but laid 

 down in the water ; the ice frequently traversed uncon- 

 solidated material without disturbing it, and ridges of 

 gravel, very like kames and eskers, were found to have 

 been deposited by glacial rivers when at a higher level 

 than that at which they at present flow. 



On the main mass of the glacier there are many new 

 facts recorded ; but we have' room for only a few of them. 

 Uykes of veins of hard ice, frozen in fissures, are added to 

 the many structures in which ice resembles less transient 

 rocks. A rough sorting of debris takes place on the ice 

 surface as the rocks roll down the numerous irregularities, 

 due to melting and other causes ; moulins become filled 

 with gravel when the water-action ceases, and then, be- 

 coming preserving causes, give rise to " sand cones," 

 which recall the earth pillars of the Tyrol. In the 

 stationary parts of the ice numerous lakelets of strange 

 hour-glass-shaped section occur. Lakes of the same 

 method of origin as the Miirjelen Lake are frequent where 

 the ice passes nunataks and valleys. The main drainage 

 of the ice is englacial or subglacial, and surface streams 

 are rare and evanescent. Finally, these streams tend to 

 cut their channels upward through the ice as their floor 

 gets coated with debris, which not only checks mechanical 

 erosion, but is a bad conductor of heat. An immense 

 amount of water-rolled material takes its place amongst 

 the more truly glacial detritus, and it is somewhat note- 

 worthy that nothing corresponding to moraine profottde 

 is described by Mr. Russell in his report. 



The strictly palasontological work in the period under 



