NOTE ON THE GLACIER OF MOUNT LYELL, 

 CALIFORNIA 1 



WILLIS T. LEE 

 Washington, D. C. 



The writer had the privilege of visiting the glacier on Mount Lyell 

 on August 17 and 18 of the present year (1904), and of securing the 

 photographs accompanying this note. Mount Lyell is one of the 

 well-known peaks of the High Sierra, although it is by no means the 

 highest, the elevation being only 13,090 feet. On the. northern face 

 of the mountain lies a body of ice something over a mile in east-and- 

 west length, and extending down the slope about half a mile. It 

 consists, in reality, of two glaciers lying side by side, and separated 

 in part by a narrow tongue of rock. The present aspect of the glacier 

 is shown in the accompanying photographs. 



Two phenomena seem especially worthy of note. First, there is 

 an absence of any large amount of morainal material except at the 

 immediate terminus of the ice. Lyell Canyon, which was formerly 

 occupied by the extended Lyell Glacier, was examined for a distance 

 of about fourteen miles, and only scattered bowlders and small beds 

 of morainal material were noted until the present terminal moraine 

 was reached. Abundant evidence of glacial action, however, is 

 present throughout the valley in the form of polished and grooved 

 surfaces, roches moutonnees, and domes. The retreat of the glacier 

 to its present position must have been rapid. It is doubtful if the 

 volume of glacial debris now found in Lyell Canyon is much greater 

 than the volume that would be contained at any one time in a glacier 

 filling this canyon to the extent which Lyell Glacier did in former 

 times. 



The second phenomenon to which I call attention is apparent on 

 examination of the photographs. In contradistinction to its former 

 rapid retreat, the front of Lyell Glacier has remained at or near its 

 present position for a considerable length of time. It will be noted 



1 Published by permission of the director of the U. S. Geological Survey. 



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