GLACIERS OX THE PACIFIC COAST. 23 



hanging peak, we could see, as it were, under our feet, a little 

 lake of deep, blue water, about an eighth of a mile in diameter, 

 standing in the brown, gravel-covered ice of the end of the 

 glacier. On the back of the rocky spur which divides these 

 two glaciers, a secondary glacier has scooped out a basin-shaped 

 bed, and sends down an ice-stream, having all the characteris- 

 tics of a true glacier, but its ice disappears several miles above 

 the mouths of the large glaciers on either side. Were nothing- 

 known of the movement of glaciers, an instance like this would 

 seem to afford sufficient evidence that such movement exists, 

 and that gravity is the main motive-power. From our north- 

 ern and southern points we could trace the beds of several large 

 glaciers to the west of us, whose upper and lower portions only 

 were visible, the main body of the ice lying hidden by the high 

 intervening spurs. 



Ten large glaciers observed by us, and at least half as 

 many more hidden by the mountain from our view, proceeding 

 thus from an isolated peak, form a most remarkable system, 

 and one worthy of a careful and detailed study.* 



Still farther to the north, in the State of Washington, 

 Mount Baker, rising to an elevation of 11,000 feet, is to a 

 limited extent a center for the dispersion of glaciers of small 

 size. The field, however, has been but imperfectly explored. 



Northward from the State of Washington the coast is 

 eveiywhere very rugged, being formed by the lofty peaks of 

 an extension of the Cascade Range; while the thousands of 

 islands which fringe the coast of British Columbia and Alaska 

 are but the partially submerged peaks of an extension of the 

 Coast Range, from wmich the great glaciers of former times 

 have scraped off nearly all the fertile soil. It is estimated 

 that there are ten thousand islands between the State of 

 Washington and Mount St. Ellas, and all the larger of them 

 bear snow-covered summits during the whole year. The water 

 in the narrow channels separating these islands is ordinarily 

 several hundred feet deep, affording, through nearly the 

 whole distance, a protected channel for navigation. 



* Quoted by Clarence King, in the "American Journal of Science," 

 vol. ci, pp. 164, 165. 



