82 ALASKA GLACIERS 



photographs of the Port Wells glaciers are reproduced by 

 photogravure to illustrate the narrative of the Expedition, 

 and, to avoid needless repetition, I have selected for my 

 own use only the views most important in connection with 

 my text, but I shall refer freely to the plates of volume I. 



College Fiord is from two to three miles broad and 

 about twenty miles long, trending north-northeast and 

 south-southwest. Near the south end, where it joins the 

 main body of Port Wells, there is a bay on the east side 

 overlooked by two non-tidal glaciers. The larger of these 

 was called Amherst by the Expedition, the name being 

 given in honor of an American college. Somewhat north 

 of the middle the fiord sends an arm to the northeast, and 

 this arm receives a large tidal glacier, the Yale. At the 

 head of the main fiord is the Harvard, also a large tidal 

 glacier. Several branches of the Harvard were visible 

 from the ship, and that next to the ice front on the north- 

 west was named Radcliffe. A series of glaciers on the 

 northwest side of the fiord resembled the Radcliffe in 

 general character, and four of these received names 

 Smith, Bryn Mawr, Vassar, and Wellesley. 



Amherst Glacier was passed by the ship at some dis- 

 tance, and its features are known chiefly through the pho- 

 tographs secured by Merriam (pi. xiv). It is fed by 

 neves in full view from the fiord, and approaches the sea 

 in a short, broad stream which at first descends steeply 

 and afterwards more gently. The habit of the lowland 

 lying between the glacier and the ocean indicates that it 

 is built of morainic material. Near the sea is a belt of 

 timber, but this is separated from the ice by a barren tract 

 similar to that about Davidson Glacier. A barren zone 

 several hundred yards broad is seen to flank the glacier on 

 the southwest, and a similar zone borders its companion, 

 Crescent Glacier. These features doubtless indicate shrink- 

 age in modern times, the change having been of moderate 



