44 2 The National Geographic Magazine 



A. Muir Glacier in May, 1903 



A and B give a panoramic view of the frontal cliff of the division of the glacier passing east of the 

 nunatak. Beyond the nunatak at the left appears a part of the main or western division 



the east shore, we entered Muir Inlet, 

 passed back of the small island, and 

 reached the moraine of the glacier. At 

 this point the ice completely blocked 

 further progress, filling the inlet from 

 shore to shore in a solid mass of bergs, 

 large and small. Landing here, we went 

 up to where a view could be had of the 

 inlet and glacier. From this point the 

 ice in the inlet looked as though so 

 closely packed that, from the island on 

 the eastern shore across to the western 

 shore and up to the front of the glacier, 

 one might cross the inlet on the ice 

 at almost any point. At scarcely any 

 place could any water be seen, and to 

 one not knowing that water extended 

 underneath the ice, it would have been 



hard to believe it possible. It had the 

 appearance of a great ice-jam in a river, 

 except that the larger bergs were lifted 

 above the mass higher than any jam 

 could raise them. The space of clear 

 water which f ormerly extended in front 

 of the ice, forming one of its greatest 

 contrasts, was entirety filled. 



The glacier had receded until the 

 point of the island in the center of the 

 glacier, shown as being about three 

 miles from the ice-front on the map of 

 the glacier by Professor Reid, in the 

 National Geographic Magazine, 

 February, 1892, was clear of ice ex- 

 cept such as lay on the water in front 

 of it. The main branch breaks from 

 there to the mountain at the west, and 



