iV^ TURE 



\yan. 28, 18^6 



was in no way disturbed by either of these masses of ice. 

 That a loose inistratihed deposit containing both angular 

 and water-worn pebbles and a little clay and sand, evi- 

 dently the remainder-beds from the melting of the dirty 

 and stony ice, overlay the bedded gravels. And that tine 

 grey clay, in one place with stones, in another without, 

 resembling glacial clays with w^hich I am well acquainted, 

 occurred below the bedded gravels. 



.A. gentleman on board the steamer. Captain H. E. 

 Morgan, of Port Townsend, W.T., with whom I had 

 become acquainted during the voyage, had made several 

 previous visits to the glacier ; and we agreed to set out 

 together for its upper surface as soon as we landed, and 

 go as far along it as we could in the time allowed us. 



We therefore struck out at once for the top, and, skirting 

 the heaps of moraine which till a large hollow space 

 caused by the shrinking of the glacier from the mountain- 

 side, we soon commenced to ascend, passing diagonally 

 along steep slopes of what looked like rough gravel, but 

 was really stony ice covered with a thick crust of loose 

 stones, as' some dark w\ater-pools and narrow crevasses 

 soon showed. 



Along these slopes we rose rapidly for some distance, 

 the rubbly covering becoming thinner and thinner, till 

 we emerged on a tolerably even plane of clear dark ice, 

 with a rough and e\idently rapidly-wasting surface \vhich 

 afforded excellent foothold. 



I should think we were now at least half a mile from 

 the mountain-side, and this space was altogether occupied 

 by moraine or moraine-covered ice. Our elevation would 

 be about that of the end of the glacier— 350 feet above 

 sea-level. In front of us the surface rose rather steeply 

 for another mile or so. 



Up this slope we moved, following a course .nearly 

 parallel with the broad moraine on our right, which we 

 had just crossed. On our left, at some distance from us, 

 we could see another well-marked train of moraine, in 

 which were many blocks of large size. The ice we were 

 now passing over was \ery clear and unencumbered with 

 debris, and of a magnificent pale blue tint. It was 

 fissured transversely by deep crevasses, which, however, 

 were not very wide, so that we could generally find a 

 place to cross without diverging far from our course, 

 though they seemed to widen as they left the margin of 

 the glacier. 



We went on in the same direction till we reached the 

 crest of the slope. Up to this point I do not think the 

 glacier anywhere e.xceeded a width of three miles, but 

 now in front of us there lay a great expanse of ice which 

 spread out like a lake, having a width which we estimated 

 to be from six to eight miles. It seemed to me that from 

 where we stood we looked slightly downward upon this 

 basin. Numerous feeders poured into it on either side, 

 one very large tributary coming in from a deep valley on 

 our right about three miles distant, but its main gathering 

 grounds were on some mountains at the head of the 

 valley, which we estimated were about forty miles distant, 

 our estimate being based on their appearance as compared 

 with that of those off the mouth of the inlet, whose 

 distance was known. 



This basin discharged itself into the fiord by the steep 

 slope we had just passed, which no doubt represented a 

 similarly narrowed and increased slope in the buried 

 valley beneath it. Our elevation here was probably not 

 far short of 1000 feet. About three miles ahead of us an 

 island of whitish rock cropped high up above the surface 

 of the ice. This seemed to cause an eddy, as it were, in 

 the current, there being a swerving of the ridges of ice on 

 either side and a depression under its lee. 



.After passing the crest we found that the crevasses were 

 no longer open, their sides coming together at a short 

 distance below the surface, so as to form deep V-shaped 

 troughs, or wells, which were filled with water of brilliant 

 purity. The exquisite tints of blue deepening with the 



depth of the water exhibited by these ice pools made 

 them a most beautiful spectacle. .At the same time the 

 surface of the glacier became ver>' hummocky, so as to 

 resemble a short cross-sea suddenly frozen, but as the 

 decaying upper layer still afforded excellent foothold, and 

 as there were now no black, open gulfs to startle one. 

 travelling, though laborious, was quite practicable in an\ 

 direction. We therefore changed our course and, striking 

 out diagonally, soon crossed the narrow moraine on our left. 

 This, which would be about a mile from the edge of the 

 ice, we found to consist chiefly of blocks of gray granite 

 of all sizes, mixed with much sand formed by the decom- 

 position of the small boulders which had often crumbled 

 away into little heaps of grit. Beyond this there did not 

 seem to be any rocky debris on the ice nearer than the 

 moraines of the opposite shore, and the glacier consisted 

 entirely of clear massive ice cut up into grooves and 

 ridges. I noticed here and there amongst this clear ice, 

 however, patches of small extent through which a muddy 

 yellow stain was suffused. Seeking a cause for this, 1 

 found in the midst of one of these patches a pasty- 

 looking mass of gritty matter of the colour of rusted iron, 

 forming a centre from which the stain had evidenth- 

 diffused itself through the ice. 



As this was not only far away from the moraine, but was 

 also widely different from anything I had seen there, and 

 as it did not in any way resemble an organic growth, I con- 

 cluded that it might be of meteoric origin, and brought 

 part of the mass away with me. 



With the kind assistance of Mr. G. Carr-Robinson, 

 F.R.S.E., F.C.S., I have lately been able to make a rough 

 qualitative analysis of this substance, which has shown it 

 to consist in great part of iron oxide, with a trace of 

 nickel, and my suspicion that it may be a decomposed 

 meteorite has thus been considerably strengthened. .A 

 more complete analysis will shortly be made. 1 hope 

 that some future visitor to the locality will more thoroughly 

 investigate this point, and carefully examine any stained 

 ice which he may meet with in the body of the glacier. 

 I took hasty notice of several instances, but only found 

 this substance in the one case mentioned. A melting 

 olacier of great age is certainly a likely place to reveal 

 meteorites. 



Capt. Morgan told me that once before when he was 

 on the glacier he had come across the weathered bones of 

 a bear protruding from the ice ; he afterwards showed 

 me one of the teeth which he had brought away with 

 him. 



After going a little further we found it was high time to 

 return to the ship. There was now nearly two miles of 

 ice and moraine between us and the mountain-side which 

 bounded the glacier on our right, whilst on our left the 

 ice still rose before us in broken hummocky ridges, with 

 deep pools between. I pressed on alone to the crest of 

 one of the ridges ahead of us, which promised a more ex- 

 tended view. Looking forward from this point, the sur- 

 face seemed to become more and more broken, but I still 

 could not see any open crevasses, and think it might have 

 been possible to cross the glacier. 



I then hurriedly retraced my steps, but instead of going 

 directly back to the beach, swerved to the left, and 

 passed dow^n into the hollow between the glacier and the 

 mountain-side to which I have already referred, wherein 

 was heaped a great mass of moraine. This consisted 

 chiefly of sand and gravel piled up in long ridges running 

 roughly parallel with the flank of the glacier and with 

 each other, with here and there a dangerous slough of 

 soft tenacious mud between them, deposited by waters 

 welling up from below. These ridges, of which there 

 were three or four between the glacier and the mountain, 

 were from 30 to 100 feet high, and were steeper on one 

 side than the other ; they seemed to contain both water- 

 worn and angular pebbles, with a thin scattering of large 

 blocks. I crossed two of them, but had not time to go 



