'26 



MAX AND THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 



foot of the glacier, conducting such observations upon it 

 as weather and equipment permitted. From that time 



... . '. .:..: .. 



Fig. 13.— Shows central part of the front of Muir Glacier one half mile distant. 

 Near the lower left hand corner the ice is seen one mile distant resting for 

 about one half mile on gravel which it had overrun. The ice is now retreat- 

 ing in the channel. (From photograph.) 



till the summer of 1890 no one else stopped off from the 

 tourist steamers to bestow any special study upon it. 

 But during this latter season Mr. Muir returned to the 

 scene of his discovered wonder, and spent some weeks in 

 exploring the interior of the great ice-field. During the 

 same season, also, Professors H. F. Eeid and H. Gushing, 

 with a well-equipped party of young men, spent two 

 months or more in the same field, conducting observa- 

 tions and experiments, of various kinds, relating to the 

 extent, the motion, and the general behaviour of the vast 

 mass of moving ice. 



The main body of the Muir Glacier occupies a vast 



