A MONTH WITH THE 1LUIR GLACIER. 61 



passing within some islets that lie about a league to the east- 

 ward of the round islaud, until nine in the evening, when it 

 became calm, and the party rested for the night at the entrance 

 of a brook, in a bay on the northern or continental shore, 

 which from the round island lies south 82° east, distant ten 

 miles.* 



If we understand this, the bay to the north is Glacier 

 Bay, down which the ice must then have extended south of 

 TVilloughby Island and to within a few miles of Cross Sound. 

 Otherwise no such description could have been given. The 

 bay to the east is probably the extension of the sound toward 

 the mouth of Lynn Canal, and very likely glaciers at that time 

 came down toward the west from the White Mountains and 

 produced the appearance described. From what has already 

 been said of the evidence showing the present recession of 

 the Muir Glacier, it is not at all incredible that glaciers 

 nearly filled the whole bay a hundred years ago. 



All this is necessary to a comprehension of a most inter- 

 esting problem presented by the buried forests near the south- 

 west corner of the glacier (see A, Fig. 24). Below this corner, 

 and extending for about a mile and a half, there is a gravel 

 deposit, similar to that on the eastern side, except that it is 

 not marked by transverse ridges, but is level-topped, rising 

 gradually from about 100 feet at its southern termination to 

 a little over 300 feet where it extends north and west of the 

 ice-front (see Fig. 24). The subglacial stream entering the 

 inlet just below the southwest corner of the ice emerges from 

 the ice about a mile farther up, on the north side of the pro- 

 jecting shoulder of the western mountain which forms that 

 side of the gateway through which the glacier enters the in- 

 let. This stream comes principally from the decaying western 

 branch of the glacier before alluded to, and, after winding 

 around the projecting shoulder of the mountain, which is 

 315 feet above tide, has worn a channel through the gravel 



* "Voyage of Discovery around the "World," vol. v, pp. 420-423. 



