36 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 627 



pina just east of the Marvine, shows no notahle 

 change from its condition in 1905; nor does 

 the Lucia Glacier, which is the next glacier 

 east of the Hayden, and which at the present 

 time does not quite join the Malaspina. The 

 glacier next east of the Lucia, however, has 

 entirely changed its condition since we saw 

 and crossed it in 1905. This glacier, the Atre- 

 vida, was crossed by Professor Eussell on his 

 first expedition in 1890. In Augnst, 1905, we 

 made several trips to its margin and one out 

 upon it, while Messrs. Martin and Butler 

 crossed it from side to side on their way to 

 the Floral Hills. Where we crossed the Atre- 

 vida, in 1905, it was an undulating, moraine- 

 veneered, apparently nearly stagnant glacier 

 which could be crossed with great ease, and at 

 all points, entirely without danger from crev- 

 asses. It was our intention to enter upon 

 the Malaspina Glacier along this route; but, 

 to our astonishment, we found that in ten 

 months, between August, 1905, and June, 

 1906, the conditions had totally changed. We 

 were unable to ascend even the margin in 

 1906, and views from above the glacier, on 

 both the east and west sides, prove it to be 

 broken from side to side, and from far up its 

 mountain valley down nearly to its terminus 

 in the moraine-veneered, alder-covered, bulb- 

 shaped expansion beyond the mountain front. 

 In its lower portion the Atrevida coalesces 

 with the Lucia Glacier and thus we have the 

 anomaly of two glaciers side by side, one of 

 which shows no change, while the other is 

 absolutely different from its condition only 

 ten months before. 



There are a score or more notable glaciers 

 in Yakutat Bay, all but two of which are 

 essentially as they were in 1905. Of these 

 two exceptions one lies in a small mountain 

 valley immediately north of the Turner 

 Glacier. In 1905, this small valley glacier 

 was apparently stagnant at its end, which was 

 approximately a quarter of a mile back from 

 the coast. Ten months later, in June, 1906, 

 this unnamed glacier, which we will call the 

 Haenke Glacier, was found to have advanced 

 well out into the fiord, and to have joined the 

 ice cliff of the Turner Glacier. By this addi- 

 tion the ice cliff of Turner Glacier is length- 



ened fully a mile. The Haenke Glacier was 

 also profoundly crevassed during its forward 

 rush. There is a glacier similar to the 

 Haenke in the valley next north of it, and 

 less than a mile distant, which shows no 

 change from its condition in 1905. 



The great Hubbard Glacier is the next in 

 the fiord and it shows no change; but just 

 east of it is a small glacier, which we named 

 the Orange Glacier, in 1905, and over whose 

 bulb-shaped terminus we walked freely, paying 

 special attention to it because of an interest- 

 ing series of concentric colored moraines which 

 then covered it. We also walked up this 

 glacier some five or six miles in a half day, 

 and in that distance found no undue crevass- 

 ing. In June, 1906, on the other hand, this 

 glacier was crevassed from as far up the valley 

 as we could see (about the point we reached in 

 1905), well down into its bulb-shaped termi- 

 nus, which was shoved up much higher than 

 in the previous summer. Its surface is so 

 broken that in 1906 we were not able to even 

 approach the colored moraine area over which 

 we walked so easily in 1905. In the place of 

 this moraine covered area of 1905 was clear, 

 crevassed and pinnacled ice. 



These facts prove that some of the glaciers 

 of the Takutat Bay region have been sub- 

 jected to a paroxysmal thrust of great force. 

 The thrust has been sufficient to break the 

 glaciers not only in their mountain valleys, 

 but also far down in their hitherto nearly 

 stagnant bulb-shaped termini. In the case of 

 the Marvine Glacier, the crevassing extends a 

 distance of at least twelve or fifteen miles. 

 Other glaciers, even those that are the nearest 

 neighbors to the advancing tongues, have not 

 yet been subjected to this forward thrust. 



This is not the place to fully discuss the 

 cause of this striking and unique change in 

 the glaciers. Suffice it to say, that in seeking 

 for a cause, we have felt obliged to discard 

 the operation of normal climatic variations. 

 It happens that in 1899 this region was 

 visited by a series of exceedingly severe earth- 

 quake shocks during which the coast line in 

 Takutat Bay was greatly deformed, in one 

 place being uplifted forty-seven feet. The 

 hypothesis which we advance in explanation 



