9 2 



ALASKA GLACIERS 



Connected with the eastern edge of the ice was a long, 

 narrow tongue attached to the shore (fig. 49), evidently a 

 remnant left by the glacier at some very recent date when 

 its front was more extensive. As this strip was not pro- 

 tected by gravel, it must have been wasting rapidly, and 

 the period of its separation may have been only a few 

 months. I was in doubt whether to ascribe it to a pro- 

 gressive shrinkage of the glacier or to seasonal variation. 



FIG. 49. EAST PART OF FRONT OF BARRY GLACIER. 

 Showing associated remnant of stagnant ice. From a photograph by D. G. Inverarity. 



On the same coast the forest did not approach the glacier 

 closely at the water line, but passed above it, leaving a 

 barren zone several hundred feet broad. The common 

 boundary of the barren zone and forest was so well defined 

 as to indicate that it represented a former limit of the ice, 

 but there were no overturned trees. If the forest ever 

 occupied the barren zone, and was there destroyed by an 

 advance of the glacier, the occurrence was so long ago that 

 the overturned tree trunks had disappeared through decay. 

 The portions of the forest nearest the ice included no 

 trees of large size, but as there were many standing dead 

 trunks it is probable that the growth was mature and that 

 the small size of the trees indicated merely conditions un- 



