96 W. P. Blake on the Glaciers of Russian America. 
Art. XIII.—The Glaciers of Alaska, Russian America; by 
Witn1am P. Bake 
ON approaching the northwest coast of America from the west 
the on chain of the interior is seen to be lofty and alpine 
in its character. The ridges are sharply serrated, and rise here 
and there ‘nts needle-like pinnacles, giving an outline against the 
sky that — strongly with the gently sloping sides of the 
truncated cone of Edgecombe, a fine extinct volcano which marks 
the sirane to the harbor of Sitka. 
The rocky peaks of the interior rise above broad fields of snow, 
which give birth to numerous glaciers, while Edgecombe, 
the ridges upon the coast, are in great part covered with a dense 
forest of pines and firs No glaciers are found upon the coast at 
Sitka or south of it, for under the influence of the warm currents 
of the Pacific, the climate is comparatively mild, while a short 
distance i in the interior, the winters are almost Arctic i in severity. 
The principal stream in the vicinity of Sitka, is the Stickeen; 
a rises in the ‘Blue Mountains,” opposite the head-waters 
the Mackenzie, and flows in a general southeasterly direction — 
parallel with the coast until it breaks through the mountains 
east, and a little north, of Sitka. When the snows are ae gq 
the river becomes much swollen and is then navigable wi 
siath, The valley is rally narrow and the river isnot | 
bordered by a great breadth of alluvial land. 
In ascen this river one glacier after another comes into 
en are upon the right bank of the stream 
from the inner slope of the mountain range. There are 
four = glaciers and several smaller ones visible within a dis — 
tance of 60 or 70 miles from the mouth. 
e first glacier observed, fills a rocky gorge of rapid descenh | 
about two miles from the — and looks like an enormous cae | 
€ mountains are greatly eroded by it, for it is ove’ 
ae by freshly broken slits of rank evidently produced by the | 
glacier. 
sweeps grandly = into the valley from an opening be 
mountains from a source tha’ x - not visible. It ends at dee — : 
of the river in a imegular ff of i ae a mile and a half or two 
miles in length, and about 150 feet high. Two or more te 
moraines — it sus ~~ ae schon of the stream. 
oe 
The second glacier is much larger, and has less ens Ra 
