260 K. S. TARE RECENT ADVANCE OF GLACIERS IN ALASKA 



piedmont ice plateau known as the Malaspina glacier, which reaches the 

 sea at two points — Icy cape on the west and Sitkagi bluffs on the east. 

 Icebergs are discharged into the ocean from the former, but the latter is 

 merely a moraine-veneered ice-cliff, against the base of which the ocean 

 waves beat. 



Each of the tributary glaciers dominates a part of the Malaspina ice 

 plateau. The eastern portion is under the influence of Marvine glacier, 

 which supplies the ice of that part of the Malaspina bordering Yakutat 

 bay. The tributary next west of the Marvine is Seward glacier, and 

 west of this is the Agassiz. East of the Marvine is the much smaller 

 Hayden glacier, which, although completely joined to the Malaspina, 

 produces little effect upon its ice supply, excepting in a very narrow strip 

 along the eastern margin. 



A bay in the ice is formed on the lee, or southern, side of the moun- 

 tains where the Marvine and Hayden glaciers unite, and in this ice-free 

 area a small hill rises, to which Eussell applied the name Blossom island. 

 A good-sized stream, supplied by the melting along the margin of the 

 Marvine and several smaller glaciers, traverses this area, expanding into 

 a lake, then escaping beneath Hayden glacier through a subgiacial tunnel 

 about 5 miles in length. On emerging from its tunnel, on the eastern 

 margin of Malaspina glacier, this stream is known as Kwik river — a 

 great, rushing, glacial torrent which flows to Yakutat bay in a course 

 roughly parallel to the eastern margin of the Malaspina. 



On his way to mount Saint Elias in, 1890, Professor Russell crossed 

 Hayden glacier, went across Blossom island, then traversed Marvine 

 glacier. So far as known, his is the only expedition which has previously 

 visited this portion of Malaspina glacier. In 1905 I did not reach this 

 region, but we had clear views of it from neighboring mountains, and two 

 of my party, Messrs Martin and Butler, looked down on it from the 

 slopes on the western side of the Floral hills directly above Hayden 

 glacier. Professor Russell found Marvine glacier easy to cross in 1890, 

 and from our views of 1905 we are convinced that there would then have 

 been no difficulty in crossing this part of Malaspina glacier; but in 1906, 

 from far up the mountain valley north of Blossom island doAvn to the 

 very margin on the shores of Yakutat bay, a distance of not less than 15 

 miles, that part of the Malaspina dominated by Marvine glacier was so 

 crevassed as to be utterly impassable. 



LUCIA AND ATREVIDA GLACIERS 



Lucia glacier lies just east of the Hayden, and adjoining the Lucia on 

 the east is Atrevida glacier, In their tower portion these two glaciers 



