36 ALASKA GLACIERS 



me, was able to say that the change previous to Reid's survey 

 was greater in amount than the more recent modification. 



But after the lapse of twenty years Muir found it im- 

 possible to recall the precise position of the ice front in 

 1879, and a subsequent study of his notes and sketches 

 left the matter still in doubt. On the accompanying map 

 (fig. 17) I have drawn two tentative lines, one crossing the 

 inlet near its mouth, the other running northward from 

 the peninsula which margins the Charpentier Glacier. 

 The more conservative of these implies that the face 

 of Hugh Miller Glacier retreated about one and a half 

 miles between 1879 and 1892. 



In 1892 Charpentier Glacier had two fronts, separated 

 by its contact with a broad rock island or peninsula. One 

 front, facing northward, was tidal; the other, facing north- 

 eastward, was non-tidal, but ended close by the water. 



FIG. 19. CHARPENTIER GLACIER IN JUNE, 1899. 



Its surface was dark from the accumulation of rock debris, 

 and its motion had probably ceased. Seven years later 

 the tide-water front had retreated about one-third of a 

 mile, thereby nearly severing its connection with the inert 

 mass at the northeast (Z>,fig. 19), and the waste of the latter 



