GENERAL MEETING. 85 
of the Yukon Valley, far north of Kotzebue Sound, was noted, as 
well as the fact that this valley has, for some unexplained reason, 
a mean temperature considerably above the normal, so that its 
forests extend well beyond the Arctic circle. 
The distribution of glaciers, properly so-called, in Alaska, as far 
as our present knowledge goes, is confined to the region of the 
Alaskan range and the ranges parallel with it south of the Yukon 
Valley, but particularly to the coast mountains bordering on the Gulf 
of Alaska and the Alexander Archipelago, of which the Saint 
Elias Alps form the most conspicuous uplift. 
The distribution of stratified ice is all north of the Yukon Val- 
ley, which divides the two regions. Hence, for the glacial epoch, 
it may be presumed that the one is the equivalent of the other, and 
the fact that Arctic Alaska is marked by stratified ice, rather than 
glaciers such as those of Greenland, must be due to local geological 
and climatic peculiarities existing at the time. On the Asiatic 
coast, especially at Holy Cross Bay, in nearly the same latitude and 
with not very different topographic conditions, glaciers are abun- 
dant at the present time. 
On the mainland, facing the Alexander Archipelago, especially 
toward Lynn Canal, Icy Strait and the Stikine region, local glaciers 
are abundant, and traces of others, now dissolved, may be found 
on the lowlands of most of the islands. That these were always 
local, though doubtless very extensive, and that they were the pro- 
geny of the topography instead of being its parent, is obvious to 
anyone who has seen the coasts of Maine or Norway, which have 
been submitted to general glaciation, and will compare their 
rounded, worn, and moutonnée aspect with that of the sharp cliffs, 
beetling crags, narrow valleys, and scanty lowlands of the Alaskan 
islands. 
The speaker concluded, from his observations, that the extent of 
the Alaskan glaciers is greatly diminished from its former state, 
and is probably still diminishing; that the southern portion of the 
Territory is probably nearly or quite stationary, while the northern 
part is undergoing elevation; and that, from the nature of the case, 
the area of stratified ice cannot be expected to increase or di- 
minish materially without changes in geological or climatic con- 
ditions too great to be anticipated. 
Mr. Atvorp remarked that on Point Barrow frozen ground had 
been penetrated to a depth of thirteen feet. 
