/2 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



rushes a mountain stream. W here these streams join to form the 

 river lies a marshy plain, and here I found very interesting fresh- 

 water algae. 



Another very interesting part of the Park is the Teklanika Valley. 

 Into this large valley many glaciers descend, and these glaciers with 

 their neighboring snowfields afford an excellent opportunity for the 

 study of the effect of differing environment upon the ice and snow 

 algae of the region. Such studies were continued throughout my 

 Alaskan trip on the different mountain ranges visited. Throughout 

 my stay in Mount McKinley National Park everything was done by 

 the members of the Park Service, and particularly by H. J. Liek, the 

 superintendent, to aid me in my work. 



From the Park, I went through Fairbanks to reach the greatest 

 glacier of the Wrangell Range, the Kennicott Glacier. In the neigh- 

 borhood of this glacier is one of the greatest copper mines in Alaska, 

 the management of which invited me to be their guest. The surface of 

 Kennicott Glacier is of clean ice, and here I found the characteristic 

 ice algae unmixed with the snow algae which had been present on the 

 glaciers of Mount McKinley National Park. A difference is to be 

 found, too, between the vegetation of the higher and the lower parts 

 of the glaciers of both regions, the snow of the higher part of each 

 sustaining a mixed growth of both ice and snow algae, while on the 

 lower part only pure ice microorganisms are to be found. 



From Kennicott I returned to the coast to continue my studies on 

 the different snowfields and glaciers of the Chugach Range. When 

 coming from Chitina 1 stopped at the Worthington Glacier from 

 which I collected many ice algae, Ancylonema. My next center was 

 the little port of Yaldez lying at the foot of Yaldez Glacier, from 

 which it was easy to reach the snowfields and glaciers of the Chugach 

 Range. 



The most memorable incident of the Alaskan trip was perhaps my 

 visit to Columbia Glacier. To reach the ice, I had to take a motor boat 

 to a small bay beside the glacier and then proceed by row boat along 

 the river that flowed into the bay from the glacier at that point. When 

 I stepped on the ice. I saw for the first time a phenomenon of nature 

 to be seen only on coastal glaciers. The surface of the ice was covered 

 for miles and miles with light brownish-purple algal vegetation called 

 ice-bloom. This effect is produced by immense quantities of minute 

 plants called Ancyclonema, a characteristic plant of the permanent ice. 

 It can never lie found elsewhere, not even on permanent snow. Ancy- 

 clonema belongs to the green algae first found by Nordenskiold on 



