32 ALASKA GLACIERS 



progress for nearly twenty years. The other masses clung 

 to the walls of the trough occupied by Reid Glacier, and 

 were still continuous with the ice of the glacier, although 

 they had ceased to move. They were simply portions of 

 the retreating glacier so well supported by the land that 

 they had not fallen into the sea when the deeper parts of 

 the ice stream were melted. They were partly covered 

 by gravel and other rock debris, but still showed faces of 

 white ice near their junction with the glacier. That on 

 the west side extended about 1,200 feet beyond the general 

 ice front, and the eastern mass was nearly or quite as long. 

 From these remnants it is inferred that there was a some- 

 what gradual shrinkage of the glacier after the record of 

 1894, and that it did not immediately assume the propor- 

 tions observed in 1899. 



The width of the Reid at its debouchure is seven-eighths 

 of a mile, and the general height of its ice cliff about 100 

 feet. The frequent falling of ice masses during our visit 

 gave the impression that it was discharging bergs rapidly, 

 but the little bay before it carried less floating ice than the 

 open inlet beyond. 



The data compiled in the map of the inlet (fig. n) are 

 of unequal precision. The line representing the ice front 

 in 1879 depends largely on the recollection of Muir, 

 but his recollection is supported by notes and a landscape 

 sketch made at the time. The fronts of Grand Pacific 

 Glacier in 1892 and 1894 are believed to be close approxi- 

 mations, but the front in 1899 has much less authority and 

 may involve considerable error. 



The total retreat along the axis of Johns Hopkins Glacier 

 in the twenty years preceding 1899 was about three and 

 a half miles, and the retreat of the Grand Pacific along 

 the line of its western distributary was three and a half 

 to four miles in the same period. Reid Glacier retreated 

 a half mile after its separation, the period being some- 



