/. G. Russell — ML St. Elias and its Glaciers. 175 



After the uplift of the mountains, glaciers seem to have 

 taken immediate possession and to have protected the rocks 

 from ordinary stream erosion. It is an interesting fact demon- 

 strated to my own satisfaction at least, that the present ice 

 drainage is consequent on the orographic structure. The 

 glaciers in many instances follow the courses of faults, and 

 ice falls occur in so many instances when the glaciers cross fault 

 scarps, that their presence may be predicted from such a dis- 

 tance that only the general orographic structure is distinguish- 

 able. 



Glaciers. 



Although the St. Elias region is full of novelty and interest 

 to the geographer and geologist, its chief attractions are for 

 the glacialist. 



The lower limit of perennial snow or the "snow line," is at 

 an elevation of about 2000 feet above the sea. Above that 

 elevation all of the mountains excepting the most precipitous 

 cliffs are loaded with snow throughout the year. This snow 

 forms the reservoirs from which flow hundreds of glaciers of 

 the Alpine type. Some of these, as the Seward glacier for 

 example, are fully fifty miles long and over three miles broad 

 at the narrowest point. They are veritable rivers of ice which 

 slowly drain away the snow that accumulates on the moun- 

 tains. Besides the great ice-rivers there are very many second- 

 ary and tertiary glaciers, which do not form well defined 

 streams. Some of these are of the same type as the small ice 

 bodies that still linger in the cirques of the High Sierra of 

 California, and illustrate the fact that the term "glacier" has a 

 wide range so far as the size of the ice bodies to which it is 

 applied, is concerned 



The glaciers of the Alpine type which flow southward from 

 the mountains, for fully a hundred miles west of Takutat bay, 

 unite on the plain between the base of the mountains and the 

 sea, and form one immense Piedmont glacier. This has been 

 named the 



Malaspina Glacier. 



Area. — This glacier extends with unbroken continuity from 

 Yakutat bay seventy miles westward, and has an average 

 breadth of between twenty and twenty-five miles ; its area is 

 approximately 1500 square miles,' or intermediate in extent, 

 between the State of Rhode Island and the State of Delaware. 



The Malaspina glacier is a vast, nearly horizontal, plateau of 

 ice, with a general elevation of about 1500 feet. The central 

 portion is free from moraines and dirt but is rough and broken 



