4o6 HARRY FIELDING REID 



in rapid retreat. Of a third class of glaciers, intermediate between the 

 other two, one is advancing and the other retreating. 



Messrs. Vaux have continued their observations of some of the 

 Canadian glaciers as follows : 



There is evidence of a continued retreat of the Victoria glacier, at 

 about the rate of previous years. The Illecillewaet continues to recede, 

 the tongue being 5 feet behind the location of last year. This recession 

 is much less than that noted for several years past. The glacier con- 

 tinues to decrease in thickness and width. The slight advance of the 

 Asulkan glacier, noted the last three years, appears to have ceased, and 

 in 1904 the tongue was 11 feet below the range line of 1899, showing a 

 recession of 5 feet since 1903. Changes in the form of the glacier 

 appear slight. The Yoho glacier is evidently retreating and decreasing 

 in thickness. It was last visited in 1901; since that date the tongue 

 has receded 89 feet, or on an average of 29! feet per year. A very 

 splendid ice-arch on the right side of the glacier was one of the notable 

 features last summer. 



REPORT OF THE GLACIERS OF THE UNITED STATES FOR 1905.^ 



Professor U. S. Grant has visited the glaciers of Prince WilHam 

 Sound, Alaska, and reports various changes in them. The Shoup 

 glacier lies in the neighborhood of Valdez; two large rocks are being 

 exposed by the retreat of the glacier which were not visible four years 

 ago ; along the sides there is a broad space of bare ground free of soil 

 and vegetation, and the whole aspect of the glacier indicates that it is 

 retreating. Photographs were obtained from fixed points which will 

 be useful in determining future changes. The western part of Colum- 

 bia glacier — i. e., the part west of Heather Island — is rapidly dischar- 

 ging, and presents apparently the same appearance as when visited by 

 the Harriman Expedition. At the north end of the small island north 

 of Heather Island, on which the front of the glacier is resting, and 

 where a few years ago the glacier had intruded and overturned the front 

 of a forest, a photograph was obtained from the same position as one 

 taken by Mr. Gilbert in 1899. At this point the front of the ice has 

 retreated 160 feet since 1899. O^^ the ground since vacated by the 



I A synopsis of this report .will appear in the Eleventh Annual Report of the Inter- 

 national Committee. A report of the glaciers of the United States for 1904 was given 

 in this Journal, Vol. XIII, pp. 316-18. 



