LA PEROUSE GLACIER 



43 



pushed up into the forest, forming a heap several yards 

 in height, and stones and earth were mingled with trunks 

 of trees and other vegetal debris. It was evident that the 

 forest had recently extended somewhat down the slope 

 toward the present position of the ice, and that a temporary 

 enlargement of the ice field had crowded it back. This 

 had occurred so recently that a younger growth of trees 



FIG. 25. LA PEROUSE GLACIER CONTACT WITH FOREST IN 1895. 



had not yet started on the morainic ridge. Some of the 

 overthrown trunks still retained their bark, though it had 

 fallen away from most. The wood of the trunks was 

 still sound, but some branches an inch and more in diam- 

 eter had become brittle, and leaves and smaller twigs had 

 fallen off. With the local woodman's knowledge of the 

 rate of decay in an Alaska forest it would be possible to 

 estimate closely the date of the advance. To my inex- 

 pert judgment it appeared probable that it occurred within 

 the last decade of the century. 



