August 31, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



145 



Certain passages o£ Glazier's account reveal a strik- 

 ing similarity in observation, incident, and phraseol- 

 ogy when placed in parallel columns and compared 

 with passages from Schoolcraft's ' Narrative ' (edi- 

 tions of 1834 and 1855) : 



Schoolcraft, 183:2. 

 Naiwa River. 

 <p. 338.) " On questioning 

 Ozawindeb (the guide) of 

 the Naiwa River, he inform- 

 ed me that ... it origin- 

 ated in a lake . . . infested 

 ■with the copperhead snake ; 

 hence the name." 



Assawa Lake 

 (p. 239.) "We were just 

 twenty minutes in passing 

 through it. . . . our course 

 . . . was directly south. 

 Ozawindeb entered an inlet, 

 but had not ascended it far 

 when he rested on his pad- 

 dles and exclaimed ' Oomah- 

 mekunnah,' here is the path, 

 or portage. . . . The water 

 was tepid. After wading 

 about fifty yards the footing 

 became more firm, and we 

 soon began to ascend a 

 slight elevation . . . where 

 vestiges of the bones of 

 birds and old camp poles in- 

 dicated the prior encamp- 

 ment of Indians. The next 

 morning a dense fog pre- 

 vailed It was five o'clock 



before we could proceed." 



Lake Itasca 

 (p. 241.) "Soon out went 

 him on the trail, and got the 

 first glimpse of the glitter- 

 ing nymph we had been pur- 

 suing." 



Glazier, 1S81. 

 Naiwa River. 



(p. 258.) '• Che-no-wa-ge-sic 

 explained that Naiwa was a 

 stream. . . having its origin 

 in a lake . . . infested with 

 snakes, to which its name 

 has reference." 



Assawa Lake (Elvira), 

 (p. 259.) "We were twEnty 

 minutes in passing through 

 the lake. On reaching its 

 southern end we entered one 

 of the brooks. . . . Che-no- 

 wa-ge-sic soon pushed his 

 canoe into the rushes and 

 exclaimed 'Oma-mikunna,' 

 here is the portage. We 

 stepped into rather warm 

 pond water . . . After wading 

 about a hundred yards or 

 more the soil became firm, 

 and we began to ascend a 

 slight elevation . . . Remaios 

 of former fires, the bones of 

 birds, and scattered camp 

 poles proved it to be a spot 

 which had previously been 

 occupied by the Indians. . . . 

 A dense fog . . . prevented 

 our getting upon the trail 

 until seven o'clock in the 

 morning." 



Lake Glazier (!) 

 (p. 265.) "In their eager- 

 ness to get a first glimpse 

 of the glittering nymph we 

 had been pursuing." 



Glazier states (p. 327) that Lake Glazier is in lati- 

 tude 47° 13' 25" north ; is 1,578 feet above sea level ; 

 and distant from the sea 3,184 miles. Schoolcraft 

 states in his first edition (1834, p. 58) that Lake Itasca 

 is 3,160 miles from the sea, and in his revised edition 

 (1855, pp. 243 and 245) he inserts Nicollet'sdetermina- 

 tions of its latitude, 47° 13' 35" North, and its eleva- 

 tion, 1,575 feet. With the exception of the figures, Gla- 

 zier's language is word for word that of Schoolcraft. 



On p. 328 of Glazier's account is found an aclclen- 

 dxmi entitled ' Meteorological observations at the 

 head-waters of the Mississippi,' consisting of a record 

 of daily temperature from July 17 to Aug. 2 (July 17 

 is the date at which Glazier says, p. 252, he started 

 from Leech Lake). Now reference to p. 423 of 

 Schoolcraft's ' Narrative ' (edition of 1855) reveals the 

 fact that this meteorological table is an exact copy, 

 word for word and figure for figure, of observations 

 taken between the days named, in the year 1820, by 

 Schoolcraft in the vicinity of Cass Lake ! 



This liberal use of the statistical information gath- 

 ered by others ; i.e., a subtraction of ten seconds from 

 Nicollet's observation of the latitude, and an addition 

 of three feet to his barometrical determination of the 

 elevation of Lake Itasca ; and the exact copy of 

 Schoolcraft's meteorological observations at Cass 

 Lake, — afford strong evidence, in the absence of any 

 direct statement to the contrary, that Mr. Glazier 

 took no scientific instruments with him, such as ther- 

 mometer, barometer, and sextant or solar-compass, 



and that he simply made a guess at the latitude and 

 elevation of the lake with which he desires to associ- 

 ate his name. That his guess was a gi-ossly inaccu- 

 rate one is curiously proved by his own account. He 

 says (p. 262) : " Itasca is . . . between five and 

 six miles in length, and from one-fourth to three- 

 fourths of a mile in width. It has three arms, — one 

 to the south-east, three miles long; one extending 

 south-west from the island ; and one reaching north- 

 wards to the outlet, two and one-half miles." 



Now Nicollet's determination of the latitude of 

 Itasca is of the island in the lake (Schoolcraft's 

 Island), and is 47° 13' 35"; while Glazier says (p. 327) 

 that Glazier Lake (exact locality not noted) is in lati- 

 tude 47° 13' 25", or just ten seconds of arc south of 

 Schoolcraft's Island. The degree of latitude between 

 46° 30' and 47° 30' is 69.079 miles long (Coast survey 

 report, 1884). As ten seconds is ^^^th part of this 

 distance, or ] ,013^ feet, the position of Glazier Lake, 

 as given by Mr. Glazier, is actually within Lake 

 Itasca. Russell Hinman. 



Copper River, Alaska, glacial action. 



For the study of the action of water in its relation 

 to geological changes, American students have always 

 found an ample field at home ; not so, however, with 

 respect to glacial action, for we find our most ex- 

 haustive treatise on this subject (Shaler's) confined al- 

 most exclusively to the Alps glaciers. Let specialists 

 in the future seek fields in our own province, where 

 the system is probably more extensive than in any 

 other country south of the arctic circle. I refer to 

 that portion of the territory from Chilcat inlet up to 

 Cook's inlet, and in especial to that portion drained 

 by the Copper Eiver. 



How far glacial action has been concerned in the 

 determination of the topography will long be a sub- 

 ject for studJ^ 



My observations were such as to cause a belief in 

 an ice sheet that one time extended from the Alas- 

 kan Mountains to the coast ; as to how much farther 

 from the north it came I have nothing to say. It 

 may at first be considered at variance with the 

 theory of contemporary upheaval of this part of the 

 territory with the ranges of the western part of the 

 United States. If the glacial period be considered 

 long subsequent to the upheaval, there need be no 

 difficulty in reconciling the above. It was the ice 

 sea, which, by its steady motion to the south, has 

 largely assisted in giving the country its present con- 

 figuration. 



From Yakutat Bay to the mouth of Copper River 

 is an unbroken face of ice extending a distance of 

 fifty miles. How far this reaches to the interior 

 through the gorges of the coast is unknown, though 

 it majf be safe to consider the distance equal to that 

 of the glaciers of Copper River from its mouth. 

 These latter may be considered an extension of the 

 ice fronting the coast. — including the above-men- 

 tioned fifty miles, — which has been cut through by 

 the river. There is every reason to believe that 

 Miles's and Child's glaciers were formerly one and 

 the same, — an opinion that is in some way strength- 

 ened by the traditions of the natives. The most 

 southerly point of the former on the left is one mile 

 or less from the most northerly point of the latter on 

 the right bank ; while in the river bed between are 

 well-worn bowlders eight to twelve feet in diameter. 



