i8 



ALASKA GLACIERS 



from 1,000 to 2,000 feet in height and reduced the lesser 

 mountains of the basin to the condition of projecting peaks, 

 or nunataks. The sea front made a continuous ice cliff 

 ten miles long. Then the great trunk glacier gradually 



wasted; the rounded 

 crests of submerged 

 hills began to reap- 

 pear as nunataks ; 

 rows of nunataks 

 coalesced into 

 mountain ranges; 

 the ice cliff retreated 

 up the bay, passing 

 one nunatak after 

 another and leaving 

 it as an island or a 

 promontory; one by 

 one the tributary ice 

 streams were aban- 

 doned by the waning 

 trunk and left as in- 

 dependent glaciers, 

 whose terminal ice 

 cliffs retreated grad- 

 ually up their several 

 sea arms. These 

 modifications of the 

 coastal geography 

 were accompanied by equally remarkable changes at 

 higher levels. Several glaciers lost their neves, by dis- 

 sipation or by diversion, and being thus deprived of 

 nourishment and of part of their propelling force, lie 

 nearly stagnant and are slowly melting away. A num- 

 ber of fragments of ice streams are stranded on flat 

 passes among the hills, where they lie almost inert but 



FIG. 7. MAP OF GLACIER BAY. 



Ruled areas, land. J5G, Brady Glacier. CG, Char- 

 pentier Glacier. GI, Geikie Inlet. GP, Grand Pacific 

 Glacier. HI, Hugh Miller Inlet. HM, Hugh Miller 

 Glacier. Jff, Johns Hopkins Glacier. MI, Muir Inlet. 

 MG, Muir Glacier. Q, Queen Inlet. R, Rendu Inlet. 

 RI, Reid Inlet. W, Willoughby Island. 



