510 THE HARRIMAN ALASKA EXPEDITION 



to the south, directly to the Pacific, or westward to the lower part 

 of Yakutat bay. Here, therefore, is a fiord 25 miles in length, 

 opened up within a century. 



Port Wells, in Prince William sound (see map, page 511), is a 

 fine example of the retreat of the ice and the opening of navigable 

 waters. The old charts show this fiord to be only some 30 miles 

 in length, whereas the explorations of the Harriman expedition 

 in 1899 show that it now runs northward into the land not less 

 than 40 miles. It terminates at the upper end in two branches, 

 each occupied by a great glacier, Yale and Harvard, whose fronts 

 are in the water, while along the west side of the fiord are four 

 smaller glaciers, tumbling down in ice cascades from " hanging 

 valleys " into the water. These terminal glaciers have retreated 

 9 miles in a century. 



But the finest of the recent accessions to the navigable fiords 

 of Alaska is the Harriman fiord, discovered and mapped by the 

 expedition. This is a western branch of Port Wells and is not 

 indicated on any chart. Five miles above its mouth it turns 

 abruptly from a northwesterly to a southerly direction and runs 

 in this course some 15 miles. At the bend it is nearly closed by 

 the ice-front of Washington glacier. Indeed, although this gla- 

 cier has been known for some time to the people who navigate 

 these waters, it was supposed that it extended entirely across the 

 fiord, closing it. It was therefore a great surprise, even to the 

 local pilot of the Elder, when a close approach to the front of 

 Washington glacier disclosed a passage through and an open 

 fiord, lined with magnificent glaciers and mountains, beyond. 



Under the circumstances it required great nerve to take a 

 1,700-ton steamer through waters so utterly unknown as these. 

 There was no danger from shoals in the open fiord, but a pro- 

 jecting rock which might in earlier days have been a nunatak 

 might have been encountered at any moment ; but the ship was 

 run safely to the head of the fiord, unfolding at every bend a 

 wonderful scene of rock and ice. 



From all indications, it is certain that within the century the 

 four great glaciers which now drop bergs into the waters of Har- 

 riman fiord were united in one, which occupied the fiord from its- 

 present head to its mouth . Moreover, but few years have elapsed 

 since Washington glacier bridged or dammed the fiord at its 

 bend, closing it to all access except by land journey. From these, 

 amid thousands of similar instances which might be cited, it is 

 clear that Alaska is " Our Youngest Possession." The coast, at 



