THE VARIATIONS OF GLACIERS 409 



River Valley between 1898 and 1905, although no measures have 

 been made. The summer of 1905 was unusually warm, and the 

 glacier streams were very much larger than usual (Flemer). 



Last summer the Mazama Club of Portland, Oregon made its 

 annual excursion to Mount Rainier. General Howard Stevens, who, 

 with Mr. P. V. Van Trump, made the first ascent of Mount Rainier 

 in 1870, was one of the party. He recognized some marked changes 

 since his former visit. The Paradise glacier has retreated about 800 

 feet. The snow in the western crater on the summit was at least 40 

 feet lower than in 1870, and the wind-swept ridge separating the two 

 craters, which was bare in 1870, was covered by a mound of snow 

 30 feet high in 1905. Mr. Longmire, who has been Hving near Mount 

 Rainier for the last twenty- five years, thinks the Nisqually glacier 

 has retreated a quarter of a mile in that period {Mazama Magazine) . 

 Professor J. N. LeConte made some measures of the movement of 

 this glacier, and found a velocity of 22.4 inches per day at a distance 

 of 3,000 feet from the end. He also erected a monument near the 

 end as a station for the determination of future changes.' The pre- 

 cipitation in Oregon has been below normal for some years. The 

 record at Portland shows a mean annual precipitation of 46.83 

 inches; whereas the average for the last six years has only been 

 35 . 47 inches. It is not surprising, therefore, that the glaciers observed 

 on the southern side of Mount Hood are retreating; the White glacier 

 is retreating less rapidly than the Zig Zag and the small one to the 

 west (Montgomery). There is no new information regarding the 

 recent variations of the Mount Adams glaciers, but a comparison of 

 photographs taken in 1895 ^^^ ^9°! shows that the ice at the end 

 of Avalanche glacier, on the west side of the mountain, diminished 

 in thickness at least 25 feet in that interval. 



The Sperry and Harrison glaciers, and a small unnamed one on 

 Mount Jackson, Montana, give evidence of a very recent retreat 

 by the terminal moraines which they have deposited a short distance 

 from their present ends, and which are so recent that vegetation has 

 not yet taken hold upon them. (Chaney.) 



Judge Henderson measured the movement of the Arapahoe 



I His complete article will be published in the new Zeitschrift filr Gletcherkunde 

 and in the Sierra Club Bulletin. 



