72 ALASKA GLACIERS 



resented on a map prepared in connection with expedi- 

 tions to Alaska under Glenn and Abercrombie, in 1898,* 

 and the same map also indicates the presence of the glacier, 

 but neither bay nor glacier is delineated with sufficient 

 accuracy to serve as a record for future comparison. The 

 name Columbia was given by the Harriman Expedition. 

 The general course of the glacier is southward, and its 

 width in the lower ten miles is from three and a half to four 

 miles. Its sources are distinct and were not seen, but 

 beyond the tract covered by our map (pi. xi) it appeared 

 to spread somewhat broadly, and the ice field affording 

 its chief supply may send streams in other directions also. 



NORTH 



FIG. 37. PANORAMA OF COLUMBIA 



Shows the western division of the front. 



About nine miles from the sea it encounters an outlying 

 mountain over 3,000 feet high, by which it is divided, the 

 principal current passing to the west. The eastern arm 

 descends steeply for three miles and terminates in a 

 land-locked valley against a plain of glacial gravel. A 

 subdivision of the western arm enters the same valley. In 

 1899 it barely touched the eastern arm, so that the moun- 

 tain was wholly surrounded by ice and could properly be 

 called a nunatak. Beyond this point the main stream 

 flowed to the ocean, but the surface grades descended 

 also toward lateral valleys, and there was waste all about 



1 Maps and descriptions of Routes of Exploration in Alaska in 1898. U. S. 

 Geological Survey, 1899. Map No. 8. 



