158 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



yet obtained concerning these glaciers is that gathered by Mr. Will- 

 iam P. Blake in 1863. According to him, "there are four large 

 glaciers and several smaller ones visible within a distance of sixty 

 or seventy miles from the month " of the river. The second of 

 these larger ones has attracted most attention. This "sweeps 

 grandly out into the valley from an opening between high mount- 

 ains from a source that is not visible. It ends at the level of the 

 river in an irregular bluff of ice, a mile and a half or two miles in 

 length, and about one hundred and fifty feet high. Two or more 

 terminal moraines protect it from the direct action of the stream. 

 What at first appeared as a range of ordinary hills along the river, 

 proved on landing to be an ancient terminal moraine, crescent- 

 shaped and covered with a forest. It extends the full length of 

 the front of the glacier." * 



This glacier has never been fully explored. A number of years 

 since, a party of Russian officers attempted its exploration, and 

 were never heard from again. Mr. Blake reports that, as usual 

 with receding glaciers, a considerable portion of the front as it 

 spreads out in the valley is so covered with bowlders, gravel, and 

 mud that it is difficult to tell where the glacier really ends. But 

 from the valley to the higher land it rises in precipitous, irregular, 

 stair-like blocks, with smooth sides, and so large that it was im- 

 possible to surmount them with the ordinary equipment of ex- 

 plorers. The glacier is estimated to be about forty miles long. 



Another glacier, upon the opposite side of the river, of which 

 Mr. Blake does not speak, was reported to me by those familiar 

 with the country as coming down to within about two miles of the 

 bank. The Indians are very likely correct in asserting that these 

 two glaciers formerly met, compelling the Stickeen River to find 

 its way to the sea through a vast tunnel. It would then have ap- 

 peared simply as a subglacial stream of great magnitude. 



North of the Stickeen River, glaciers of great size are of increas- 

 ing frequency, and can be seen to good advantage from the excur- 

 sion steamer. The Auk and Patterson glaciers appear first, not far 

 north of Fort Wrangel. On approaching Holkham Bay and Taku 

 Inlet, about latitude 58°, the summer tourist has, in the numerous 

 icebergs encountered, pleasing evidence of the proximity of still 

 greater glaciers coming down to the sea-level. Indeed, the gla- 

 ciers of Taku Inlet are second only in interest to those of Glacier 

 Bay. 



In going from Juneau to Chilkat, at the head of Lynn Canal, a 

 distance of about eighty miles, nineteen glaciers of large size are 

 in full sight from the steamer's deck, but none of them come down 

 far enough to break off into the water and give birth to icebergs. 

 The Davidson Glacier, however, comes down just to the water's 



* " American Journal of Science," vol. xciv, 1867, pp. 96-101. 



