750 HARRY FIELDING REID 
The ice cave in its front, formerly much visited by tourists, has disappeared. 
Joseph Stampfler states that the Paradise Glacier once covered the entire 
terrace to its very edge. He cannot fix the exact date when the glacier began 
to withdraw from the edge, but he knows that it must have been in the early 
eighties. This edge is now more than two thousand feet in front of the ice. 
The névé line on the Cowlitz, Nisqually, Van Trump, Wilson, and Tahoma 
glaciers, situated on the southeast, south, and southwest flanks of the mountain, 
appears to lie normally at an altitude between 7,000 and 7,500 feet. During 
the abnormally dry summer of tort the névé line rose to 8,500 feet or higher. 
In certain places on the Paradise, Nisqually, and Van Trump glaciers old ice 
was exposed as high as 9,500 feet. On the Tahoma Glacier (southwest side) 
the ablation was less conspicuous. 
Mr. Matthes has emphasized the fact that the summit of 
Mt. Rainier is not the principal reservoir of its glaciers, but that 
the cirques and even the flanks of the mountain collect more snow 
than the summit. This is due not only to their larger area but 
also to the fact that the snowfall reaches its maximum amount at 
a much lower altitude than the summit of the mountain.* 
Professor Lawrence Martin sends me the following information 
regarding Alaskan glaciers: 
Kenai Peninsula.—Spencer Glacier is said by A. W. Swanitz to be receding 
more rapidly than in 1911, on account of the artificial diversion of a glacial 
stream to the ice border. 
Copper River—The Allen Glacier, on the lower Copper River, upon whose 
stagnant, moraine-covered terminus the Copper River and Northwestern 
Railway runs for 5} miles, is reported by Caleb Corser to have commenced 
to advance during the summer of 1912. It was thicker and more crevassed 
than in rorz; and in places formerly covered by moraine, blue ice appeared. 
The northern margin is said to have advanced a half-mile. The largest glacial 
stream on the northern side of Allen Glacier has left its former channel for a 
new course a mile farther west. It has increased greatly in volume, and 
shifts frequently, causing much trouble to the railway on the northern alluvial 
fan of outwash gravels. 
Heney and Grinnell glaciers were still advancing slowly in r912. Childs 
Glacier (presumably the northern margin) advanced 60 feet between July 15 
and September 30. 
Miles Glacier seemed to be advancing farther into the frontal lake than 
in 1911. On August 16, 1912, a sudden flood (perhaps from the draining of a 
glacier-margin lake) swept down the Copper River from Miles Glacier, raising 
«The Undescribed Glacier of Mount Rainier,” The Mountaineer, Seattle, V, 
42-57; ‘‘The Glaciers of Mt. Rainier,” Appalachia, XIII (1913), 24-27. 
