1 86 ALASKA GLACIERS 



give little suggestion of the original mountain forms from 

 which they were derived. They are irregular alike in 

 their larger and smaller features. 



If the forms of land in this part of Unalaska Island were 

 constructional, the sinuosity of the coast might be ascribed 

 to irregularities of volcanic eruption ; but as they are ero- 

 sional, the deep embayments between steep-sided points 

 and islands, and the dearth of plains near sea-level, point 

 toward a somewhat recent subsidence of the land or rising 

 of the sea. 



Spurr describes a series of terraces near Unalaska Bay, 

 ranging up to a height of 1,500 feet, ascribes them to 

 marine action, and infers a gradual rising of the land in late 

 Pleistocene time. 1 He notes also that the village of Iliu- 

 liuk stands on a spit which is evidently of recent formation 

 but is shown by its vegetation to be above the reach of 

 storm waves, and infers that elevation of the land is now 

 in progress. The last mentioned observation I was able 

 to verify, but I was not satisfied that any higher terrace I 

 saw had been formed by the sea. 



BERING SEA 



The most extreme and contrasted opinions have been 

 advanced with reference to the Pleistocene condition of 

 Bering Sea. It has been stated by one high authority 2 

 that the western coast of Alaska, the eastern coast of 

 Siberia, and various islands of Bering Sea, are all glaciated 

 in such a way as to indicate the occupation of the eastern 

 part of the sea by an ice-sheet; and it has been asserted 



Eighteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Survey, part in, pp. 266-267, 273, 276, 

 1898. 



John Muir. On the Glaciation of the Arctic and Subarctic Regions visited 

 by the U. S. S. Corwin in the year 1881. Rept. Cruise of the Corwin, 1881, 

 Washington, 1885. 



