THE GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S ALASKAN EXPEDITION 



13 



ests during the summer of 1509 was re- 

 sulting in the large-scale destruction of 

 life. Ten years before, Dr G. K. Gilbert 

 and the Harriman Expedition had found 

 that the Columbia glacier was retreating 

 from an advance into the forest, dated 

 tentatively as in 1892. Professor U. S. 

 Grant found that the Columbia glacier 

 retreated 160 feet between 1899 and 

 1905, and readvanced 112 feet between 

 1505 and 1908. In the spring of 1909 

 lie observed the continuation of this ad- 

 vance, seen also by the National Geo- 

 graphic Society Expedition in August. 

 Mature trees had grown up to the very 

 €dge of Columbia g^lacier, and a read- 

 vance, overturning trees, thrustuig splin- 

 ters of ice up among their very branches, 

 and rolling the peaty soil into great bol- 

 sters and terminal moraine ridges, include 

 some of the profoundest effects of glacial 

 conditions upon life (see pp. 32 and 37). 



Where the great Copper River breaks 

 through the lofty Chugach Mountains 

 are displayed some of the most striking 

 relationships between glaciers and 

 human life. This water route to interior 

 Alaska has always been blocked by lat- 

 eral glaciers entering the Copper River 

 Valley and causing ice barriers and 

 rapids in the stream course. Few of the 

 Russians succeeded in getting up the 

 Copper, and difficulties here led to the 

 utilization of the glacier highway at 

 A'aldez by most of the prospectors. 



The army officer, Abercrombie, as- 

 •cended to the Miles and Childs glaciers 

 in 1884, and his photographs showing the 

 glaciers and river there are almost iden- 

 tical with present conditions. Lieutenant 

 Allen, in his brilliant explorations of 

 1885, passed these glaciers, as did Dr 

 'C. W. Hayes and Lieutenant Schwatka 

 in 1891.* Hayes made the first detailed 

 map of Miles, Childs, and Baird glaciers. 



The map reproduced herewith, modi- 

 fied with a map made in 1900 by Schra- 

 der, Gerdine, and Witherspoon, shows 

 the conditions. Miles and Baird gla- 

 ciers, emerging on opposite sides of the 

 -valley, expand in piedmont bulbs. The 



* National Geographic Magazine, vol. iv, 

 1892, p. 126. 



Copper River writhes between them, 

 forced first against one mountain wall, 

 then the other. Above the glacier dams 

 are lake-like stretches of the river. 

 Childs glacier thus dams the Copper, 

 causing a lake into which Miles glacier 

 discharges icebergs from a cliff three 

 miles long. There are similar slack 

 waters above Miles and Baird glaciers. 

 Opposite the glacier ends the river is 

 constricted into foaming rapids (p. 25). 



THE GREATEST SCENIC RAILWAY IX THE 

 WORLD 



Under these difficult conditions a rail- 

 way is being built. Its difficulties in- 

 clude three great bridges across the shift- 

 ing glacial torrent of Copper River. 

 They include expensive rock cuts, curves, 

 etc., at Abercrombie Rapids, where Miles 

 glacier and the river occupy the wiiole 

 valley, forcing the railway to the moun- 

 tain side. They include the laying of 

 five miles of track on the ice of Baird 

 glacier, whose advance would destroy the 

 line and whose melting will keep it con- 

 tinually under repairs (see pages 23-25). 



The project is daring, unique, but pos- 

 sible. Careful study has determined the 

 necessities. Large capital has enabled 

 wise work. Able engineers, including 

 Messrs E. C. Hawkins, M. J. Heney, and 

 Alfred Williams, who built the White 

 Pass and Yukon Railway, are coping 

 with the problems one by one. Men have 

 never before built railways close to, be- 

 tween, and on great glaciers. But that 

 it can be done is being proved in Alaska. 

 The rich copper deposits north of the 

 Chugach Range, near Mount \\'rangell. 

 and perhaps the valuable coal fields of 

 the Controller Bay region, will soon be 

 connected by rail with the growing port 

 of Cordova, on eastern Prince \\'illiam 

 Sound. 



Moreover, this will be the greatest 

 scenic route in the world. Nowhere else 

 can one step from an ocean steamship to 

 a railway car, and ride through foothills, 

 then over a great glacial delta to and 

 between giant ice tongues two and eleven 

 miles respectively in width, around the 

 stasfnant, moraine-veneered bulb of the 



