98 GLACIERS OF THE CANADIAN ROCKIES AND SELKIRKS. 



in which the straight margin represents the sole. From near the heel of this 

 foot there extends southward a long, slender ridge of glaciated rock, carrying 

 more or less morainic matter, which separates this eastern ice stream from the 

 double ice mass immediately to the west (plate xxxix, figure i). Judging from 

 the line of crevasses and faulting across the ne"ve", there lies another similar ridge, 

 parallel with the first and about one-quarter mile to one-half mile to the west, 

 which separates this mass into two streams, each having its own separate nose, as 

 shown upon the map. This ridge is apparently the continuation of the line of 

 bedrock exposed along the right-hand margin of the westernmost ice stream. 

 The neVe 1 line upon this glacier is about 7,000 feet above sea-level and the main 

 portion of the neVe" lies between this altitude and 8,000 feet. From the Asulkan 

 Pass (7,710 feet) to the nose of the easternmost stream the descent is 2,110 feet, 

 or at the rate of 1,055 ^ eet to tne m ^ e - The altitude of the nose is 5,600 feet, 

 or some 800 feet higher than that of the Illecillewaet, due apparently to the smaller 

 volume of ice in the Asulkan and its dissipation at three separate points. The 

 altitudes of the two higher noses to the west are about 6,ooc feet, or the same as 

 the Victoria. So far as may be judged from the crevasses and fault ings, the 

 ice responds fully to the irregularities in its bed which indicates that it is 

 relatively thin. The surface slope of the western and middle streams is very 

 steep; that of the easternmost, or main, stream is much more gentle, amounting 

 in places to not more than 6. Toward the nose the inclination becomes 25 

 and then drops off to but a few degrees, so that it may be readily ascended. 

 Upon either side of the stream the marginal slopes are steep for a few hundred 

 feet back from the nose. 



2. PIEDMONT CHARACTERISTICS. 



If the reader has covered Chapter IV of this report he will have recognized 

 already the piedmont character of the Asulkan, which consists of three com- 

 mensal streams. The glacier is of peculiar interest because it is an illustration 

 of a piedmont glacier in its senile condition. It has reached its second childhood 

 and now illustrates the disintegration of a piedmont glacier into the component 

 streams, the union of which in its youth gave rise to the glacier itself. Every 

 glacier of this type begins with the independent development of a system of 

 Alpine glaciers, coordinate in importance, which coalesce laterally into a single 

 ice mass. The length of the glacier is determined by the length of the separate 

 streams composing it and its breadth by the number of streams and their com- 

 bined breadth. In the final stages of dissolution, which must come sooner or 

 later in its life history, the piedmont glacier shrivels back into the original Alpine 

 components. The eastern tributary has already separated sufficiently so that 

 it may be regarded as an independent glacier. The other two have separated 

 for a distance of about one-fourth of a mile, but the separation will not be com- 

 plete until the ridge of rock above noted has appeared at the surface of the ice. 

 The middle stream covered the ridge of rock, now exposed between it and the 

 eastern stream, and sent its nose down the valley as far as the drainage brook 



