44 ALASKA GLACIERS 



Sinc writing the last paragraph I have received from 

 the U. S. Fish Commission a photograph made from the 

 steamer ' Albatross' in September, 1895, and have repro- 

 duced it in figure 25. This shows that the ice at that 

 time was in actual contact with the forest. 



In the standing timber, which comprises both spruce 

 and hemlock, and also among the overturned trees, are 

 trunks four feet in diameter, and during the whole life of 

 these trees a matter of centuries this particular spot 

 has been undisturbed by the ice. It is thus shown that 

 glaciation has here attained within a few years a maximum 

 not previously reached for centuries. 



The locality of our visit records at least two glacial 

 maxima. As the older till contains tree trunks, it marks 

 an advance of the ice after an epoch of inferior develop- 

 ment. The mature forest standing on this till records 

 another long epoch of lessened glaciation, and the recent 

 advance a second maximum. It is possible that the epoch 

 between the two maxima was of only a few centuries, but 

 evidence to be mentioned in another connection indicates 

 that it was much longer. 



On our return voyage in July we passed this part of the 

 coast at a distance of several miles, and I was able to note 

 that the eastern margin of the piedmont division of La 

 Perouse Glacier lay parallel to a forest margin, with an 

 intervening belt of different color, presumably morainic, 

 about 200 yards wide. Similar belts were also seen about 

 the flanks of the next piedmont mass toward the east. 

 These facts indicate that the recent advance recorded at 

 one point on the front of La Perouse Glacier was an ad- 

 vance of the whole glacier, and render it probable that 

 the change was not confined to a single glacier. 



The evidence from the crushing of the forest does not 

 tell us whether during the long period before the last ad- 

 vance the ice had approximately its present extent or ex- 



