162 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mountains, mentioned by Captain Cook, was likewise conspicu- 

 ously evident to us as we sailed along the coast this day, and looked 

 like a plain composed of a solid mass of ice or frozen snow, inclin- 

 ing gradually toward the low border; which from the smooth- 

 ness, uniformity, and clean appearance of its surface, conveyed the 

 idea of extensive waters having once existed beyond the then lim- 

 its of our view, which had passed over this depressed part of the 

 mountains, until their progress had been stopped by the severity 

 of the climate, and that, by the accumulation of succeeding snow, 

 freezing on this body of ice, a barrier had become formed that had 

 prevented such waters from flowing into the sea. This is not the 

 only place where we had noticed the like appearance ; since pass- 

 ing the icy bay mentioned on the 28th of June, other valleys had 

 been seen strongly resembling this, but none were so extensive, 

 nor was the surface of any of them so clean, most of them appear- 

 ing to be very dirty. I do not, however, mean to assert that these 

 inclined planes of ice must have been formed by the passing of 

 inland waters thus into the ocean, as the elevation of them, which 

 must be many hundred yards above the level of the sea, and their 

 having been doomed for ages to perpetual frost, operate much 

 against this reasoning ; but one is naturally led, on contemplating 

 any phenomenon out of the ordinary course of nature, to form 

 some conjecture and to hazard some opinion as to its origin, 

 which on the present occasion is rather offered for the purpose of 

 describing its appearance, than accounting for the cause of its 

 existence." * 



Beyond Mount St. Elias, in the neighborhood of the Copper Eiv- 

 er and Prince William Sound, glaciers are reported by Elliott as 

 numerous and of great size. Mount Wrangel, in the forks of the 

 Copper River, is estimated by him to be upward of twenty thou- 

 sand feet in height. From the flanks of the Chugatch Alps, of 

 which Wrangel is the eastern summit, immense glaciers descend 

 to Prince William Sound, and add greatly to the gloomy grand- 

 eur of its scenery. Glaciers also extend throughout the Kenai and 

 Alaskan Peninsulas, as far to the westward as longitude 162°, and 

 one even has been observed upon the island of Unalaska. 



The region in the interior north of the St. Elias and Chugatch 

 Alps has been but imperfectly explored ; but there seems pretty 

 general agreement that there are no glaciers there at the present 

 time, nor is there evidence that glaciers ever existed in the coun- 

 try. Much of the region is now covered with tundra — that is, 

 with vast level areas which are so deeply frozen that they never 

 thaw out below a few feet from the surface. These are covered 

 with a dense growth of heath and arctic mosses, which afford food 

 for the reindeer, but are useless for man. 



* "Voyage of Discovery around the World," vol. v, pp. 312-314, 358-360. 



