TURNER GLACIER 67 



Since writing the preceding paragraph I have been able 

 to extend the comparison by examining photographs by 

 the Canadian Boundary Commission and the U. S. Fish 

 Commission. That by the Boundary Commission was 

 taken from Haenke Island 1 in 1895, its record being 

 midway between Russell's and mine. It shows the con- 

 dition of each feature as intermediate between the phases 

 of 1891 and 1899. That by the Fish Commission was 

 taken from Osier Island in 1901. It shows an extension 

 of the frontal cliff, as compared with the condition in 

 1899, and probably indicates renewed movement in mar- 

 ginal ice which had become stagnant. 



There is an important morainic belt on each margin of 

 the glacier, with outlying ribbons, and a single well-defined 

 medial moraine reaches the water front near its middle. 



The visible portion of the glacier within its mountain 

 valley has a moderate grade, but at its debouchure into 

 the main trough of Disenchantment Bay there is a steep 

 descent, the surface falling 500 to 600 feet in a quarter of 

 a mile. The grade then suddenly diminishes to almost 

 nil, and the glacier terminates in a platform of nearly uni- 

 form height, with a width ranging in different parts (1899) 

 from i, 800 to 3,500 feet. 



The ice cascade at the point of debouchure indicates a 

 drop in the rock bed where the Turner trough joins the 

 greater trough of Disenchantment Bay, and this feature is 

 related to the phenomena of hanging valleys, to which 

 special attention will be given in another chapter. The 

 flatness of the terminal portion of the glacier is a peculiar 

 feature, not so strikingly exhibited to us in any other in- 

 stance. It is of course possible that the longitudinal pro- 

 file of the glacier bed is here horizontal, and that the ice is 

 everywhere supported by a floor of rock or drift; but it 

 seems to me more probable that the flatness is due to 



1 No. 12, on page 5 of vol. 17, official album. 



