16 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



the \Aoi-kl. It may be a matter of surprise to many to learn that 

 four or five days of comfortable railway travel places one in the 

 midst of snow fields rivaling in size and grandeur those of Switz- 

 erland, that the ice bodies descending from these fields may be studied 

 from modern hotels as a base, and that of those to be reported upon 

 one may safely ride a horse to the very. nose of each. For trips on the 

 ice to the passes and neighboring peaks experienced Swiss guides are 

 jivailable during the summer months. So far as is known, there is 

 here the most magnificent development of glaciers of the Alpine type 

 on the American continent, and the purpose of the survey was to 

 gather as much information concerning them as the time and facilities 

 rendered possible. Many photographs with which to illustrate the 

 details of glacial structure were obtained, a number of which ac- 

 company a preliminary report of the expedition printed in the 

 Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Professor Sherzer reviews 

 his work as follows : 



Field work began .July 1, 1904, with two assistants, and continued until the 

 middle of September, camps being made at Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, and in 

 Yoho. Asulkau, and Illecillewaet valleys, in each case as close as practicable 

 to the glaciers under study. Quite in contrast with the two preceding summers, 

 that of 1904 proved exceptionally propitious for field studies. The unusual 

 immber of bright days and the reduced precipitation, however, reacted unfavor- 

 ably in that they permitted forest fires to spread in several of the valleys, and 

 during much of the summer the atmosphere was more or less charged with 

 smoke, rendering distant photography unsatisfactory or quite impossible. 



Covered with a veneering of rock debris over its lower third, the Victoria 

 glacier, at Lake Louise, is not the most interesting of the series to the casual 

 observer, who is liable to carry home the idea that it is simply a stone heap, 

 and a rather uninteresting pile at that. Geologically, however, this glacier is 

 the most active and varied of any of those that can be conveniently reached in 

 the entire region, and nearly six weeks were devoted to the study of it and its 

 tributary, the Lefroy. In spite of the many visits which a camp alongside the 

 glacier for this length of time permitted, as well as numerous visits during two 

 previous seasons, not one failed to reveal some new feature or to shed important 

 light on one previously observed. This longer stay at the Victoria permitted 

 measurements of the forward flow of ice under variable conditions of tempera- 

 ture, the construction of an accurate cross section, the determination of the 

 amount of surface melting, and the varying amounts of drainage and sediment 

 discharged — v/ork which was not feasible on the other glaciers, to each of which 

 but seven or ten days could be devoted. A detailed survey was made of each of 

 the five glaciers, from the nose around each way to the neve field, by means 

 of plane table or compass and steel tape, and full data for a map of the ice and 

 moraines and for a general description were procured. Especial attention was 

 given to the structure of the ice itself, with the hope of shedding more light on 

 some of the points still under discussion. 



Only the most general statements concerning those results of the field studies 

 in which the scientific public may be interested will now be noted. The glaciers 

 generally were found to be still in retreat, the Wapta, at the head of Yoho 

 Valley, having exceeded its average of the last three years by a few feet, while 

 the Illecillewaet, at Glacier House, receded but one-third of the average which it 



