1 82 ALASKA GLACIERS 



that the ice-sheet of the island was not an overflow from 

 the mainland, for mainland ice could not have crossed 

 the island without burying deeply the whole northwest 

 coast. And the same interpretation may be given to the 

 narrow-crested ridge observed between glacial troughs at 

 the west, for a strong overriding current would have flat- 

 tened the crest. The relation of land to sea in Pleistocene 

 time is not shown, but remnants of a low base-level plain 

 indicate a pre-Pleistocene period of stability, during which 

 the attitude of the land was slightly different from the 

 present, the eastern side of the island being somewhat 

 lower than now. 



The reasoning tending to show that Pleistocene glacia- 

 tion was associated with a low sea-level applies to the south 

 coast of Kadiak with even more force than to the district 

 of Prince William Sound, for the island, standing forward 

 beyond the general line of the Alaska coast, is specially 

 exposed to the influence of the great ocean current. 



REGION OF THE GULF COAST 



Fragmentary as were our observations in the districts 

 we have already described, they were still more fragmen- 

 tary in those touched farther west and north, and the pres- 

 ent is therefore a convenient point for retrospect and 

 summary. The district of the Alexander Archipelago, 

 the district of high mountains, the district of Prince Wil- 

 liam Sound, Kenai Peninsula, and Kadiak Island, circle 

 about the Gulf of Alaska. A curved line passing through 

 them is more than 1,000 miles in length, and its extremities 

 are 900 miles apart. 



In the high mountain region the Pleistocene glacial 

 system seems to have included alpine glaciers similar to 

 those of the present time but larger; and these united in a 

 system of piedmont glaciers, or possibly in a confluent 

 piedmont glacier, which everywhere reached the sea. In 



