RUSSELL FIORD 51 



midway between Point Latouche and Knight Island may 

 correspond to a comparatively recent maximum of the 

 Disenchantment Bay Glacier that from which it was 

 retreating when observed by La Perouse. A more intel- 

 ligent judgment can be formed when the system of sound- 

 ings shall have been carried through Disenchantment Bay. 



Turning attention to Russell Fiord, we find pertinent 

 phenomena somewhat more abundant, and it seems pos- 

 sible that their careful study may yield important chapters 

 of the local history. The lower parts of the fiord walls 

 are finely sculptured, showing by magnificent flutings that 

 there has been much longitudinal scouring. At various 

 points, but especially south of Hidden Glacier, there are 

 marginal banks of gravel similar to those about Muir 

 Glacier, characterized by horizontal bedding but showing 

 by their surficial forms that they have been overridden 

 and molded by a glacier. Nearly all parts of the walls of 

 Russell Fiord carry vegetation, of which the alder is a 

 conspicuous element, but the growth is relatively sparse 

 toward the north and dense and luxuriant toward the 

 south. The gravels about the basin at the extreme south- 

 ern end bear a luxuriant and mature forest of spruce. 



Looking back to the time when Russell Fiord was filled 

 by a glacier, it seems evident that the ice stood for a con- 

 siderable period with a front just outside the mountains. 

 The expansion of the fiord in the edge of the foreland 

 corresponds, I conceive, to the flaring end of David- 

 son Glacier, and the surrounding plain of gravel is the 

 equivalent of the moraine barrier which the Davidson has 

 built in Lynn Canal. This condition is assumed to date 

 back several centuries, for it is not probable that the 

 forest could occupy the whole surface of the gravels until 

 the ice had retreated. The banks of gravel within the 

 fiord record lingerings of the ice front and subsequent re- 

 advances, but whether these oscillations preceded or fol- 



