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



resting on the stagnant glaciers, are composed. The rolling 

 and sliding of the debris down the sides of the lake basins as 

 they enlarge, and from the steep sides of the debris pyramids 

 as the}' waste away, cause it to become more and more broken. 



While traveling over the moraine-covered surfaces of the 

 stagnant portions of the glaciers, especially on bright sunny 

 days or when rain is falling, one is constantly startled by the 

 rattle of stones and bowlders as they roll down the steep walls 

 of the lakelets and plunge with a great splash into the muddy 

 waters below. 



This constant movement in the moraines whereby the blocks 

 of which they are composed are broken finer and finer, is con- 

 fined principally to the stagnant portions of the glaciers. 

 "When the glaciers are moving, lakelets cannot form for 

 the reason that- their basins become broken, and the water 

 escapes. 



Forests on the Moraines. — The outer and consequently older 

 portions of the fringing moraines, are covered with vegetation, 

 which in places, particularly near the outer margin of the belt, 

 has all the characteristics of old forests. It consists princi- 

 pally of spruce trees some of which are three feet in diameter, 

 and cottonwood, alder, and a great variety of shrubs and 

 bushes, together with rank ferns which grow so densely that 

 one can scarcely force a passage through them. The vegeta- 

 tion grows on the moraines resting on the ice, which in many 

 place is not less than a thousand feet thick. 



The vegetation is confined principally to the border of the 

 Seward lobe. Near Icy bay it forms a belt five miles broad, 

 but decreases in width toward the east, and is wanting at the 

 Sitkagi bluffs, where the glacier is being eaten away by the 

 sea. This is an interesting fact, for the reason that on the 

 maps of this coast published by Vancouver, a cape is indicated 

 at the locality where the glacier now comes down to the ocean. 

 Evidently the cape has been cut away during the past one 

 hundred years, and the recession has progressed until the forest 

 covered border of the glacier has been removed. The forests 

 appear again on the margin of the glacier to the east of Sitkagi 

 bluffs, and also on the north border of the glacier. But on 

 the portion adjacent to Yakutat bay it is wanting ; the flow 

 of the ice is toward Yakutat bay, which probably accounts 

 for the absence of vegetation on that portion of the glacier. 

 It is only on the stagnant border of the ice sheet that forests 

 occur. The forest-covered area is by estimate, between twenty 

 and twenty-five square miles in extent. 



Drainage. — The drainage of the Malaspina glacier is almost 

 entirely inter glacial or sub-glacial. There is no surface drain- 

 age, excepting in a few localities where there is a surface slope, 



