512 THE METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE 



least, has but recently emerged — so far as it has emerged as yet — 

 from its mantle of ice. But there are enormous areas still buried 

 beneath ice coverings thousands of feet in thickness. TheMuir 

 glacier alone covers an area probably as large as the state of Rhode 

 Island, and there are scores of others comparable with it in mag- 

 nitude. The region north of Prince William sound is covered in 

 greater part by glacial ice. There is more ice there than dry land. 



One broad fact or conclusion, long ago pointed out by Mr John 

 Muir, but persistently overlooked by geologists, is forced daily 

 upon the attention of the traveler on the Alaskan coast. This is 

 that the existence of glacial fiords is no evidence of a subsidence 

 of the coast. The Alaskan fiords were cut and are being cut 

 today by glaciers below sea-level. It may be that the coast is 

 subsiding, but its fiord character is no evidence of this. Glaciers 

 are now protruding their fronts into water a hundred fathoms 

 deep and many miles from where the shoreline would be were 

 the ice removed. 



Of the results accomplished by this expedition little can be 

 said at present, since little will be known until the specialists of 

 the expedition have had time and opportunity to investigate the 

 material collected. The movements of the party were arranged 

 in such wise as to be especially favorable to the work of the 

 biologists. The frequent stops made in many different localities 

 afforded them an opportunity for a thorough study of the dis- 

 tribution of plant and animal life throughout a vast stretch of 

 the coast. The comparatively longer stops made in the vicinit} r 

 of the most important glacier regions enabled them to make quite 

 exhaustive studies of the extension of plant and animal life over 

 newly made land, recently freed from the ice covering, and-in 

 this branch of study it may well be that interesting and im- 

 portant results will be obtained. 



THE METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE 

 SECOND WELLMAN EXPEDITION 



By Evelyn B. Baldwin, 



U. S. Weather Bureau 



In the following article I purpose to give merely an outline of 

 the scope and character of the meteorological work of the sec- 

 ond Wellman Expedition. The observations that were secured,. 



