16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 192 



and in Yakutat Bay was between A.D. 970 and 1290 (A.D. 1127 ± 

 160 years), according to radiocarbon dates obtained from wood in 

 end moraines near Icy Cape and Ocean Cape (Plafker and Miller, 

 1958). Dm-ing the subsequent recession, the ice retreated as far as or 

 even farther than the present glacial fronts, permitting the growth of 

 trees well behind the present timberline in Icy Bay, in Russell Fiord, 

 and in Disenchantment Bay. This retreat began somewhat before 

 A.D. 1400, to judge from the age of living trees near Yakutat. 

 These geological changes are further discussed on pages 204-206. 



Native traditions seem to imply that this recession was in progress 

 when the ancestors of the K^ackqwan came from the Copper River; 

 in fact they are said to have caused it by throwing a dead dog down 

 a crevasse. Icy Bay was then completely filled with ice, and the 

 immigrants crossed Yakutat Bay on the glacier that extended from 

 Point Manby on the west to Eleanor Cove on the east. The native 

 name for Yakutat Bay, Tlazayik, is derived from the Eyak tla' 

 (glacier), xa' (near), plus the Tlingit suffix -yik (place inside). The 

 glacier was melting back, exposing the bay, and Yakutat, yak"'dat, 

 is supposed to be an Eyak expression meaning "a lagoon (or bay) is 

 already forming." 



It was presumably during this same recession that a village was 

 founded on Guyot Bay, just inside the northwest point of Icy Bay. 

 It was eventually overwhelmed by a readvance of the ice, which 

 culminated during the 18th century. Tarr and Martin (1914, pp. 46 

 f.) quoted a version of this tradition, recorded by Topham in 1888, 

 and believed that the glacial advance took place between 1837 when 

 Belcher sailed into Icy Bay and 1886 when Schwa tka saw a solid wall 

 of ice in the bay. Plafker and Miller (1958) have advanced convincing 

 evidence that the "Icy Bay" of the explorers from Vancouver to 

 Schwatka was really the former outlet of the Yahtse River, east of 

 the present Icy Bay, and that the latter was already full of ice by 

 1790. Malaspina Glacier probably advanced at the same time as the 

 glaciers in Icy and Yakutat Bays. A radiocarbon date of wood from 

 its moraine indicates that the climax of the advance was about 

 A.D. 1750 ± 150 years. The advance in the Yakutat area was much 

 less extreme and affected only the glaciers in Disenchantment Bay 

 and Russell Fiord. The maximum extent of the ice in Yakutat Bay 

 may have been to Blizhni Point and to a corresponding locality on the 

 eastern shore, midway between Knight Island and Point Latouche 

 (Plafker and MUler, 1958). 



Although the glaciers were already in retreat by 1791, Malaspina 

 was stopped in June of that year by ice that fiUed Disenchantment 

 Bay as far south as Haenke Island. Tarr (1909, p. 20) beheved that 

 this was only floating ice; if so, glacial conditions may not have been 



