THE GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY'S ALASKAN EXPEDITION 37 



Our actual field work on areas outside 

 of the Yakutat Bay region was entirely 

 to the northwest. Here, in Prince Wil- 

 liam Sound, we found the large Valdez 

 glacier continuing the recession which has 

 been in progress, with one possible slight 

 advance, since 1899. There has also 

 been a retreat since 1898 of the Shoup 

 glacier, which, however, is smaller than 

 the Valdez. On the other hand, the still 

 larger Columbia glacier, the greatest in 

 this region, and comparable to the Hub- 

 bard, was again advancing into the forest 

 in 1909, as it had seven years before 

 1899, when studied by Dr Gilbert. Prof. 

 U. S. Grant has shown that there was a 

 period of recession in the Columbia gla- 

 cier between 1899 and 1905, followed by 

 slight advance between 1905 and 1908. 

 The present advance, which has gone 

 beyond that of 1892, does not appear to 

 be of the same order as that of those 

 Yakutat Bay glaciers which are advanc- 

 ing under the impulse of earthquake 

 shaking. It may be the beginning of a 

 spasmodic movement, or it may be a slow 

 forward swing such as comes from 

 moderate variation in snow supply. 

 Moreover, we would hardly expect the 

 largest glacier to be the first to advance 

 under the earthquake influence. How- 

 ever, it will be important to watch this 

 glacier in the next few years (pp. 30—33). 



In the Copper River V^alley, although 

 several other glaciers were seen, and 

 showed no sign of recent notable advance, 

 we gave special attention to the three 

 largest, the Baird, the Miles, and the 

 Childs. That the Baird glacier has long 

 been stagnant is proved by its moraine- 

 covered piedmont bulb, bearing a growth 

 of mature alder (see pages 24—25). 



The Miles glacier is more active and 

 discharges icebergs into the Copper River 

 from a long ice clifif ; but its alder-bearing, 

 moraine-covered piedmont bulb on the 

 north side shows a long period free from 

 advance, photographs and maps bv Aber- 

 crombie in 1884, Allen in 1885, Hayes in 

 1891. and Schrader in 1900 verifying this 

 inactivity. 



The Childs glacier, which is also 

 actively discharging icebergs into the 



Copper River directly opposite the Miles, 

 has not recently been much farther out 

 than now, but it is reported by the engi- 

 neers of the Katalla Company, who are 

 building the Copper River Railway, to be 

 more active in 1909 than previously, and 

 to have advanced somewhat. 



In view of the great economic impor- 

 tance of these three glaciers, between two 

 of which, and on one, the Copper River 

 Railway is now built, it is of high impor- 

 tance that these three glaciers be care- 

 fully mapped and studied. The fate 

 of the railway to the copper fields de- 

 pends upon the behavior of these three 

 glaciers, and since they are now so easily 

 accessible and so interesting — the only 

 case in the world where two large ice- 

 berg-discharging glaciers can be seen 

 from a railway train which passes be- 

 tween them — they are likely to be much 

 visited in the immediate future. 



From our observations and inquiries of 

 1909 we are led to believe that the spas- 

 modic advance of glaciers, so vividly il- 

 lustrated by six of the glaciers in the 

 small area of Yakutat Bay, has probably 

 not been duplicated in the regions to the 

 northwest and southeast. It is, of course, 

 recognized that such negative evidence is 

 not wholly conclusive, since our observa- 

 tions have not included all the glaciers or 

 even a large proportion of them. But it 

 is, nevertheless, considered as contribu- 

 tory evidence that in our search to the 

 northwest and southeast of the Yakutat 

 Bay region we have so far failed to find 

 a duplication of the marvelous transfor- 

 mation of glaciers observed there. So 

 far as it goes, this evidence tends to 

 verify the theory of local cause for gla- 

 cier advance in Yakutat Bay. Further 

 study in the areas beyond the limit of 

 vigorous shaking by the 1899 earthquakes 

 should be expected to bear similar tes- 

 timony. 



There have been world-shaking earth- 

 quakes originating near the Prince Wil- 

 liam Sound and Copper River regions, 

 of which those of October 9. 1900, and 

 February 14, 1908, are good examples, 

 though less severe than the three weeks 

 of earthquakes at Yakutat Bay in Sep- 



