VARIATIONS OF GLACIERS 740 
continue to retreat but very slowly. The great heat of the summer 
of r911 does not appear to have greatly affected the glaciers in 
the northwestern part of the Pelvoux massif and in the Grandes 
Rousses. The general retreat has apparently been stopped in 
these mountains. The accumulation of snow has been increasing 
and this has protected glaciers from excessive melting. 
Swedish Alps—The Swedish glaciers lie pretty far north. Of 
the five under observation, four are advancing and one is stationary. 
Norwegian Alps.—The interior glaciers of the Jotunheim are 
retreating; only two out of twenty-seven observed show slight 
advance. In the Folgefon and the Jostegalsbrae, near the west 
coast, thirteen glaciers are advancing and sixteen retreating. In 
the more northerly regions we find nine glaciers advancing and two 
retreating. It is rather interesting to note that different parts of 
the same glaciers are retreating at different rates. 
Russia.—A number of glaciers in the Caucasus and several 
in the Altai Mountains are distinctly in a phase of retreat. 
REPORT ON THE GLACIERS OF THE UNITED STATES FOR 1912" 
In Colorado, the Hallet Glacier shows a trifling expansion 
(Mills). Although the snowfall during the winter and spring 
was very heavy, no change was apparent in the length of the 
Arapahoe Glacier (Henderson). 
Mr. F. E. Matthes, who has been engaged in mapping Mount 
Rainier, sends me the following information regarding its glaciers: 
According to the testimony of Joseph Stampfler, a guide in the Mount 
Rainier National Park, who has lived since early boyhood at Longmjre, in 
the valley of the Nisqually River, the Nisqually Glacier in 1885 extended to 
the point now occupied by the bridge on the government road to Paradise 
Park. The glacier accordingly has made a retreat of one thousand feet since 
188s. In that distance it has left no marked morainal ridges, and the inference 
is that its retreat has been a fairly steady one. 
The retreat of the glaciers has been marked during the last four years 
(1909-12). The Paradise Glacier, which prior to 1909 descended from an 
irregular rock bench about 250 feet high to gather again on the fiat terrace 
below (elevation 6,100 feet), now barely reaches the terrace in a few places. 
«A synopsis of this report will appear in the Eighteenth Annual Report of the 
International Committee. The report on the glaciers of the United States for the 
year Igri was given in Jour. Geol., XXI, 423-20. 
