28 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



..-^ 



the; raiIvWay automobii^e; and mr wiluams, assistant e;ngine;er o^ the; . 



RAILWAY 



Forest-covered Baird glacier in the background. The leaders of the National Geographic 

 Society's Expedition traveled 125 miles in the car, through the courtesy of the Katalla Com- 

 pany, who are building the railway, and Messrs Hawkins and Williams. 



ablation which had evidently been in 

 progress since the glacier spasmodically 

 rushed forward. So much ablation had 

 taken place that we are certain that the 

 advance occurred at least as early as 1907 

 and perhaps in 1906. The advance must 

 have been rapid, occupying only a small 

 period of time, for, at most, there were 

 only three years for the advance, break- 

 ing, and partial healing by ablation, to a 

 state permitting travel over the surface. 

 It is a pity that there was no one at hand 

 to witness the beginning and progress of 

 this marvelous change in glacier condi- 

 tion, the most spectacular of all so far re- 

 corded in the Yakutat Bay region, or, for 

 that matter, in all the world. 



pre;se;nt condition of the; glacie;rs 



THAT ADVANCE;d IN I906 



Our second principal line of inquiry 

 was with reference to the condition of the 

 four glaciers whose remarkable advance 

 was discovered in 1906. In the summer 

 of that year the Variegated, Haenke, 



Atrevida, and Marvine glaciers were in ai 

 state of activity which contrasted strik- 

 ingly with their inactive condition nine 

 months before. The observations of 

 1906 were upon glaciers in full flood 

 stage, and if, as proposed by the theory, 

 this spasmodic transportation was the re- 

 sult of an impulse due to the accession of 

 large quantities of snow and ice shaken 

 down into the reservoir in a period of 

 three weeks of earthquake shaking, it 

 was to be expected that the full force of 

 the advance would soon be spent. 



It was, therefore, with great interest 

 that we returned to an examination of the 

 transformed glaciers. Our expectations- 

 were more than realized, for we were 

 quite as unprepared for so sudden a ces- 

 sation of activity as we had been for the 

 spasmodic advance and breaking observed 

 in 1906. From our study in 1909 it has 

 become evident that the advance of the 

 glaciers, begun between September, 1905, 

 and June, 1906, ended before the summer 

 of 1907. By this it is not meant to assert 



