I. C. Russell — Mt. St. Elias and its Glaciers. 179 



but even in such places the streams are short and soon plunge 

 into a crevasse or a moulin and join the drainage beneath. 



On the lower portions of the Alpine glaciers, tributary to 

 the Malaspina, there are sometimes small streams coursing 

 along in ice channels, but they are short-lived. On the borders 

 of these tributaries there are frequently important streams, flow- 

 ing between the ice and a mountain slope, but where these 

 come down to the Malaspina, they flow into tunnels and are 

 lost to view. 



Along the southern margin of the Malaspina glacier, be- 

 tween the Yahtse and Point Manby, there are hundreds of 

 streams which pour out of the escarpment formed by the 

 border of the glacier, or rise like great fountains from the 

 gravel and bowlders at its base. All of these streams are 

 brown and heavy with sediment and overloaded with bowlders 

 and stones. 



One of the largest streams draining the glacier is the Yahtse. 

 This rises in two principal branches at the base of the Chaix 

 hills, and flowing through a tunnel some six or eight miles 

 long, emerges at the southern border of the glacier as a swift, 

 brown flood, fully one hundred feet across and fifteen or 

 twenty feet deep. The stream after its sub-glacial course, 

 spreads out into many branches, and has built up an alluvial 

 fan which has invaded and buried thousands of acres of forest. 

 In traversing the coast from the Yahtse to Yakutat bay, we 

 crossed scores of ice water streams which drain the ice field to 

 the north. The greater part of these could be waded, but 

 some of them are rivers which it was impossible to ford. 



The most interesting of these is Fountain stream. This 

 comes to the surface in one great spring fully one hundred 

 feet across. The water rises under such pressure that it is 

 thrown twelve or fifteen feet into the air, and sends up jets of 

 spray six or eight feet higher. It then rolls seaward, forming 

 a broad, swift river which divides and spreads out in many 

 channels both to the right and left and has inundated several 

 hundred acres of forest land with gravel and sand. Where 

 the streams flowing away from the glacier are large, they 

 divide as do the Yahtse and Fountain, and enter the sea 

 by several mouths. When they are small, they usually unite 

 to form large rivers before entering the ocean. The Yahtse 

 and Fountain, as we have seen, are examples of the first, while 

 Manby stream is an example of the second class. This rises 

 in hundreds of small springs along the base of the escarpment 

 formed by the great glacier, and flowing across a desolate tor- 

 rent-swept area, unite just before reaching the ocean into one 

 broad swift flood of muddy water, much too deep for one to 

 wade. 



