114 ICE-CLIFFS OX WHITE RIVER, YUKOX TERRITORY 



trying to account for this anomal}', I, at the time, attributed it to the 

 }tossihilit\' of these tracts being the beds of ancient lakes; that the 

 water of the s})ring freshets lay too long thereon, and that the cold 

 from this source caused the dwarfing of the trees. 



On the second trip we left Fort Selkirk July 22, reaching White 

 River at a point a few miles south of our former crossing on August 6. 

 In again traversing the same region I found that the vegetation on 

 these tracts gave no evidence of any protracted submergence during 

 the spring freshets ; that the amount of water resulting from the melt- 

 ing snows in spring was much less than expected, and that the de- 

 pauperate condition of the trees must be attributed to some other 

 cause. 



W'iiile camped on the river bank awaiting the return of my com- 

 jianions, I frequently heard large masses of earth and trees tumble 

 into the river with a loud report from the face of a bluff on the east 

 Ijank about one and a half miles Vjelow camp, and finally decided to 

 go down and examine it, as the water was then low, and there was 

 no apparent cause for an}'^ serious or continuous undermining of the 

 river Itanks at that sea.son. 



This bluff was situated about 210 miles above the mouth, and proved 

 to be a truncated hill with strong evidence that a slough from the river 

 at one time divided it from the mainland, and that it then formed an 

 island. On climbing to a spot on the face of the bluff', from which it 

 could be more closely examined, 1 found that the su[)posed iiill was 

 simply a mass of ice about 60 feet high, surmounted b}' a cai»i)ing of 

 earth from five to seven feet deep, composed of a superimposed laj'er 

 of sand and gravel either alluvial or morainal, and above this a de- 

 posit of decomposed vegetable matter about ten or twelve inches in 

 depth, the whole overgrown by a stunted growth of trees such as I 

 had previously seen on the supposed old lake beds. 



About two weeks later, while drifting down the main stream on a 

 raft, at a point on the east bank about 25 miles below the bluff above 

 mentioned, I observed another of these ice-masses, this time situated 

 in low ground and only 20 feet high, and surmounted by some six 

 feet of earth, and, as before, covered with a stunted growth of trees. 

 Three days later, on August 31, at a point on the west bank about 16 

 miles above the confluence of the main stream Avith the west branch 

 (Katrina River of recent mai)s) — in other words, 113 miles above the 

 mouth of the river — I observed the third of these ice-cliffs, this one being 

 about 30 feet in depth from the present water-level to the top and sur- 



