THE GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S ALASKAN EXPEDITION 



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THE HUBBARD GLACIER CLIFF COMPARED IN HEIGHT WITH THE MASONIC TEMPLE 



IN CHICAGO 



The innumerable branches of a glacial 

 torrent often interpose obstacles to direct 

 travel ; the crevasses of a glacier surface 

 make frequent detours necessary. While 

 we were stopping for lunch at a glacier 

 margin one day a series of avalanches 

 built up a deposit of mud and stones 50 

 feet by 100 and from 5 to 30 feet thick. 

 It contained boulders as much as 6 feet 

 by 4 by 4 and shifted a stream 50 feet 

 laterally into an alder thicket. 



A brown bear with a half -grown cub, 

 meeting one on the march and coming up 

 to within 20 feet, lead one to sometimes 

 wish for a gun, and, subsequently, to re- 

 gret lack of presence of mind in utilizing 

 the camera. The submerging at midnight 

 of a camp on the beach by an exception- 

 ally high tide, so that the water stands 

 14 inches deep on the tent floor, is not 

 the pleasantest of incidents. 



These accidents, however, are easily 

 forgotten exceptions to the general rule 

 of glacier study in Alaska. The series of 

 beautiful panoramas of mountain and 

 plain, fiord and glacier, the excellence 

 and variety of glacial phenomena exhib- 

 ited — all these lend zest to the work and 



make the season among the Alaskan 

 glaciers far too short. 



THE ENTERPRISE OF VALDEZ 



In the regions visited by the National 

 Geographic Society's Expedition the re- 

 lations of the glaciers to life are striking. 

 When stagnant and moraine-veneered the 

 glaciers are the seat of abundant vege- 

 tation, which is destroyed when the ice 

 tongues advance and when they melt and 

 the moraine soil slumps down. As gla- 

 ciers retreat, vegetation follows. The 

 gravelly stream bottoms are the seat of 

 vegetation which is easily destroyed by 

 the rapidly shifting glacial streams. 



The Malaspina and adjacent glaciers 

 are used as highways of travel, the 

 former being utilized by the mountain 

 climbers, Russell, Bryant, and Abruzzi. 

 The Nunatak and Fourth glaciers were 

 crossed by hundreds of prospectors dur- 

 ing the gold rushes, the latter being still 

 a highway to the Alsek Valley. Glaciers 

 and glacial streams also erode, transport, 

 and deposit the gold which later concen- 

 tration has made it profitable to wash on 

 some of the Yakutat Bay beaches. 



