ICE-CLIFFS Oy WHITE RIVER, YUKOX TERRITORY 115 



mounted b}' about six feet of earth, with the usual superimposed la3^er 

 of decomposed vegetable matter. On seeing the first two I at once 

 recalled to mind an article by Lieut. J. C. Cantwell on " Ice-cliffs on 

 the Kowak River."* The diminutive magnitude, almost pigmy in 

 size, of these cliffs as compared with those seen on the Kowak b}' 

 Lieut. Cantwell, may to a great extent be accounted for by the differ- 

 ence in latitude and amount of winter precipitation. Lieut. Cant- 

 well does not state the depth of the winter's snow, but says " the 

 banks of the stream in the region where the ice-cliffs are found are 

 not all filled with ice," which is sufficient!}' suggestive. The greatest 

 depth of snow in mi^l winter on the White River (except about the ex- 

 treme headwaters near the Coast Range) is only about four and one-half 

 feet, and it is drv and powdery, disappearing rapidl}' in spring with- 

 out causing nearly as much of a freshet as I had anticipated. No 

 loose ice whatever remains along the banks of the river through the 

 summer, though it is to be found in the V-shai^ed gulches and valleys 

 of the smaller affluents. 



It was only on seeing the third cliff that the true nature of these 

 ice-masses suggested .itself to me, viz.. that they are the remnants of 

 buried glaciers through which the stream has recently cut its wa}'. 

 There is ample evidence of recent and vigorous erosion, the water at 

 present being so surcharged with a mixture of fine blue clay and 

 granitic sand that a bucket of it on Ijeing allowed to settle will reveal 

 a deposit of about one-fourth inch in depth, while small boulders and 

 pebbles are being forced along over the bars and riffles b}' all the vigor 

 of a seven to ten-mile current. On the other hand, the evidence of 

 glacial action, at least of recent date, is lacking, so far as my observa- 

 tion went, though a more thorough examination, ])articularly among 

 the harder rocks of the divides and crest lines, will, I tliink, reveal 

 former activitv. Such glacial action as did occur will probably prove 

 to be due to local glaciers, as there is no evidence of either a large con- 

 tinental ice-sheet or of the amount of })recipitation necessary for its 

 formation. 



The third cliff occupied the l^ottom of a small valley, and its ap- 

 pearance, togetlier with the stunted growth of black spruce on its sur- 

 face, so strongly resembled the tracts I had seen on the headwaters 

 of tl»e Klotassin in Marcli, and then supposed were old lake beds, that 

 I was at once forced to the conviction that the cause was the same in 



*NmUiNM. "iKucaMfllP M.M.A/.INF,, Mil. \ II, |>. M l.'l, < >l/t . , 1KIIU. 



