262 HARRY FIELDING REID 



of California this year than for many years past, and probably all 

 the glaciers are retreating. (LeConte.) 



The Chaney and Sperry Glaciers in Montana show a marked 

 retreat. The former, though a small glacier, has retreated 200 yards 

 or more in the last eight years. (Chaney.) 



The snowfall on the Arapahoe Glacier in Colorado was unusually 

 small in 1902. In 1903, however, it was unusually large, and seems 

 to have produced a noticeable effect on this little glacier. The ice 

 is somewhat thicker and the front slope of the glacier steeper, but 

 there is no apparent change in length, except at two points where 

 streams have effected a slight recession. From September, 1 901-2, 

 the precipitation was below normal and the temperature above nor- 

 mal at the Weather Bureau stations nearest to this glacier, whereas 

 it was just the reverse from 1902-3. Silt was found on the moraines 

 similar to that found last year, and as it is impossible to sup- 

 pose that the glacier has advanced over the moraine and retreated 

 again within a year, the former explanation of this silt, which required 

 rather violent fluctuations of the glacier, must be abandoned. It is 

 probable that the silt is due to dust blown from the mountains upon 

 the snow and left on the moraine when the snow melted. This is 

 a more satisfactory explanation, but it shows nothing with regard 

 to the glacier changes.^ 



Harry Fielding Reid. 



Geological Laboratory, 



John Hopkins University, 



March 17, 1904. 



Note. — Since the above report was written, the third volume of the Harriman 

 Alaska Expedition, on Glaciers and Glaciation, has appeared. It is written by 

 Mr. G. K. Gilbert, and is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the Alaskan 

 coast glaciers. Mr. Gilbert collates all information regarding the variations of 

 these glaciers up to 1899, and adds the observations made by himself and by 

 other members of the expedition. The positions of the ends of many glaciers are 

 shown by pictures and maps. The glaciers discussed are too numerous to be 

 named here, but we must mention the general fact that the glaciers of Glacier Bay 

 and of Disenchantment Bay show very great recessions during the last hundred 



'Junius Henderson, "Arapahoe Glacier in 1903," Journal of Geology, 

 Vol. Xn (1904), pp. 30-33. 



