668 HARRY FIELDING REID 



some cases started, and in others helped, by the earthquake of Sep- 

 tember, 1899, has been the general belief on account of the great 

 quantity of floating ice which the excursion steamers encountered the 

 following summer, and which has ever since filled the bay, especially 

 from Muir Inlet southward. This belief is confirmed by the expe- 

 rience of Mr. August Buschmann, who was in charge of the cannery 

 at the mouth of the bay in 1899. He reports that immediately after 

 the earthquake the quantity of drift ice in the bay increased and 

 made navigation very difficult for his small steamers. 



The glaciers descending from the Brabazon range of mountains, 

 facing the coast between the Fairweather Range and Yakutat Bay, 

 give evidence that they are retreating by the existence of moraines 

 at some distance from the ice; the intervening region is barren, but 

 trees in general grow on the outer side of the moraines. One glacier, 

 the Yakutat, has its origin in the great snow fields behind the moun- 

 tains and passes completely through the range; it is retreating like 

 the others.^ 



The interpretation heretofore put upon the narratives of Malas- 

 pina and of Vancouver, regarding the ice in Disenchantment Bay, 

 has been that the glaciers actually filled the bay as far as Haenke 

 Island in 1792 and 1794. But Messrs. Tarr and Martin,^ by a con- 

 sideration of the general character of the vegetation, the absence of 

 lacustrine deposits in the lower part of Russell Fiord, the strongly 

 marked shore lines in Disenchantment Bay, and finally by a critical 

 examination of the accounts of the two early explorers, have concluded 

 that they merely encountered compact floating ice in the neighbor- 

 hood of Haenke Island, and that the glaciers did not, at the time of 

 their explorations, extend to this island. 



In the Aleutian Islands, the volcano of Makushin, Unalaska, and 

 the volcanic mountains of Atka, carry large neve-fields with radiating 

 glaciers ; they do not show any signs of retreat ; it is probable that they 

 are advancing, for the Aleutian Islands are unquestionably in process 

 of elevation (Jaggar). 



1 Eliot Blackwelder, " Glacial Features of the Alaskan Coast between Yakutat 

 Bay and the Alsek River," Journal of Geology, 1907, Vol. XV, pp. 415-33. 



2 "Position of the Hubbard Glacier Front in 1792 and 1794," Bull. Am. Geog. 

 Sac, 1907, Vol. XXXIX, pp. 129-36. 



