PART IV. 

 GLACIERS OF THE ST. ELIAS REGION. 



Natural Divisions of Glaciers. 



The glaciers of the St. Ehas region form two groups. The ice- 

 streams from the mountain are of the type found in Switzer- 

 land, and hence termed Alpine glaciers. The great plateau of ice 

 along the ocean formed by the union and expansion of Alpine 

 glaciers from the mountains belongs to a class not previously 

 described, but which in this pa.per have been called Piedmont 

 glaciers. The representative of the latter type between Yakutat 

 bay and Icy bay is the Malaspina glacier. Both types are to be 

 distinguished from Coniinental glaciers. 



Alpine Glaciers. 



The glaciers in the mountains are all of one type, but present 

 great diversity in their secondary features, and might be sepa- 

 rated into three or four subordinate divisions. The great trunk 

 glaciers have many tributaries, and drain the snows from the 

 mountains through broad channels, which are of low grade 

 throughout all the lower portions of their courses. Besides the 

 trunk glaciers and the secondary glaciers which flow into them, 

 there are many smaller glaciers which do not join the main 

 streams, but terminate in the gorges or on the exposed mountain 

 sides in which they originate. These have nearly all the feat- 

 ures of the larger streams, but are not of sufficient volume to 

 become rivers of ice. 



A minor division of Alpine glaciers for which it is convenient 

 to have a special name includes those that end in the sea and, 

 breaking off, form icebergs. These may be designated as " tide-- 

 water glaciers." Typical examples of this class are furnished 

 by the Dalton and Hubbard glaciers, but other ice-streams hav- 

 ing the same characteristics occur in Glacier bay, in Taku inlet, 

 and at the heads of several of the deep fjords along the coast of 

 southeastern Alaska. 



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