134 I. C. Russell — Expedition to Mount St. Elias. 



southern .cape of the Samovar hills there is a highly compound 

 moraine-belt stretching away toward the south, and then divid- 

 ing and curving both east and west. The central band of debris 

 must be a mile broad. Along its eastern margin I can count 

 five lesser bands separated by narrow intervals of ice, and on 

 the farther side similar secondary bands are suggested, but the 

 height of the central range almost completely conceals them 

 from view. In- the distant tattered ends, however, their various 

 divisions can be clearly traced. Great swirls in the ice~ are there 

 indicated by concentric curves of debris on its surface. 



" Still farther westward there are hills rising to the height of 

 impressive mountains, in which northw;ard dipping rocks, appar- 

 ently of sandstone and shale, similar to those forming the Hitch- 

 cock range, are plainly distinguishable. All the northern slopes 

 of these hills are deeply buried beneath a universal covering of 

 snow evideiitly hundreds of feet thick, which is molded upon 

 them so as to reveal every swelling dome and ravine in their 

 rugged sides. Farther westward still, beyond a dark headland 

 apparently washed by the sea, there are other broad ice-fields 

 of the same general character as the Malaspina glacier, which 

 stretch away for miles and miles and blend in the dim distance 

 with the haze of the horizon. 



" Just west of the Seward glacier, and in part forming its west- 

 ern shore, there are dark, rocky crests projecting through the 

 universal ice mantle, suggesting the lost mountains of Utah and 

 Nevada which have become deeply buried by the dusts of the 

 desert. The character of the sharp crests beyond the Seward 

 glacier indicate that they are the upturned edges of fault-blocks 

 similar to the one on which we are seated. Interesting geological 

 records are there Avaiting an interpreter. The vastness of the 

 mountains and the snow-fields to be seen at a single glance from 

 this point of view can scarcely be realized. There are no familiar 

 objects in sight with which to make eye-measurements ; the pic- 

 ture is on so grand a scale that it defies imagination's grasp." 



Searching the snow-sheet below with a field-glass, I discover 

 a minute spot on the white surface. Its movement, slow but 

 unmistakable, assures me that it is Lindsley returning from the 

 site chosen for our camp to-night. Although apparently n_ear 

 at hand, he forms but an inconspicuous speck on the vast snow- 

 field. 



