110 I. C. R.usseU — Exjjedition to Mount St. Elias. 



dog. Standing on a rounded mound he looked inquiringly down 

 the valley, with his shaggy side in full view. I fired — but missed 

 my aim. The unsuccessful hunter always has an excuse for his 

 failure ; I had never before used the rifle I carried, and the hair- 

 trigger with which it was provided deceived me. Fortunately 

 for the bear, and jirobably still more fortunately for me, the bullet 

 went far above the mark. The huge beast vanished again, al- 

 though the vegetation was not dense, and left us wondering how 

 such a large animal could disappear so quickly and so completely 

 in such an open region. On searching for his tracks, we found 

 that he had traversed for a few rods the plant-covered terrace on 

 Avhich he was first discovered, and then escaped up a lateral gorge 

 to a broader terrace above. 



Reaching the head of the Floral pass and climbing the hill of 

 debris bordering the Hayden glacier, we came out upon the clear,- 

 white ice of the central portion of the ice-stream. The ice was 

 greatly crevassed, but nearly all the gaps in its surface could be 

 crossed by jumping or else by ice-bridges. The most interesting 

 feature presented by the glacier was the way in which it yields 

 itself to the inequality of the rocks over which it flows. Starting 

 on the eastern side, below the entrance to Floral pass, and ex- 

 tending northwestward diagonally across the stream, there is a 

 line of steep descent in the rocks beneath, which causes the ice 

 to be greatly broken. This is not properly an ice-fall, except 

 near the confining walls of the canon ; but it might be called an 

 ice-rapid. The ice bends down over the subglacial scarp with 

 many long breaks, but does not form pinnacles, as in many simi- 

 lar instances where the descent is greater, and true ice cascades 

 occur. The most practicable way for crossing the glacier was to 

 ascend the stream above the line of rapids for some distance, and 

 then follow diagonally down its center, finally veering westward 

 to the opposite bank. By following this course, and making a 

 double curve like the letter $, we could cross the steep descent 

 in the center, where it was least crevassed. 



The marginal moraines on the Hayden glacier are formed of 

 fragments of brown and gray sandstone and black shale of all 

 sizes and shapes. It is clear that this debris was gathered by 

 the cliffs bordering the glacier on either side. The medial mo- 

 raine which first appears at the surface just above the rapids is 

 of a different character, and tells that the higher peaks of Mount 

 Cook are composed, in part at least, of a different material from 



