I. C. Russell — Mt. St. Elias and its Glaciers. 173 



Disenchantment bay is surrounded on all sides by magnifi- 

 cent mountains. In grandeur of scenery, it is second to none 

 of the wild fiords of southern Alaska. It resembles Lynn 

 canal, which is familiar to many Alaskan tourists, but is nar- 

 rower, more like a river, and the bold, snow-covered, and ice- 

 scored mountains are nearer at hand. The precipitous shores 

 bordering the east and west arm are bare of vegetation, and 

 the southern arm is also desolate, except at the extreme southern 

 end, where the bases of the mountains are forested. Its shores 

 throughout, up to an elevation of over a thousand feet, bear 

 evidences of recent glaciation. An interesting feature in 

 which the southern arm differs from the other portions of the 

 inlet, is furnished by conspicuous gravel terraces, which score 

 its sides in even, horizontal lines up to a height of about 150 

 feet. These terraces sweep about the bluffs of gravel enclos- 

 ing the lake-like expansion at the south, showing that the 

 water-body which made them did not find an outlet in that 

 direction. As the entrance of the bay was blocked with ice 

 when visited by Malaspina and Puget. it seems reasonable to 

 suppose that the water-body in the southern arm owed its 

 existence to the ice dam thus formed. The terraces are there- 

 fore about 100 years old. The numerous small stream-chan- 

 nels which cross them, show what has been accomplished in the 

 way of subaerial degradation in a century. 



Geology. 



Concerning the geology of the St. Elias region our knowl- 

 edge is very imperfect. Owing to the great extent of glaciers 

 and snow-fields, opportunities for studying the formations 

 beneath are exceedingly rare. 



All of the rocks about Yakutat and Disenchantment bays, 

 with the exception of a few intrusions of diorite and certain 

 thin beds of limestone, are brown sandstone and dark shales. 

 The dip of these strata is almost invariably to the northeast. 

 Their thickness is great, but has never been even approxi- 

 mately estimated, owing to the fact that they have apparently, 

 been crushed and overthrust on a grand scale. These beds 

 constitute a well-defined formation, which has been named the 

 Yakutat system. North and west of the area occupied by the 

 Yakutat system, and for several reasons thought to be older, 

 there is a series of shales, limestones and conglomerates, that 

 have been named the Pinnacle system, on account of their 

 appearance in a long line of cliffs at Pinnacle pass. In the 

 cliffs at Pinnacle pass there is a bed of bowlders, which was 

 observed in 1890, but its true character was not fully recog- 

 nized until the following year. It was then found that what 



