G. F. Wright—The Muir Glacier. 11 
7. The Retreat of the Glacier. 
The indications that the Muir glacier is receding, and that 
its volume is diminishing, are indubitable and numerous. 
Little regard need to be paid to the record of Vancouver a hun- 
dred years ago, for he did not attempt to enter the bay at all, 
finding it so full of ice near its mouth as to deter him from it ; 
hence his testimony that the opening was full of ice is so in- 
definite that it has little bearing upon the condition of the 
upper portions of the bay at that period of time. Nor need 
any reliance be placed on the traditions of the Indians to the 
effect that within the memory of their grandfathers the ice ex- 
tended several miles farther down than at the present time. 
The Indians now rarely visit the head of the inlet, and the 
quantity of ice floating on the surface varies so much from day 
to day, and presumably from month to month, that great diver- 
sity of impressions might be received at times separated by 
even short intervals.‘ The convincing evidence of the recent 
retreat of the glaciers of this bay from ground formerly occu- 
pied by them is of _ physical character. 
The islands of Southern Alaska are ordinarily covered with 
forests of cedar, hemlock and fir up to the level of perpetual 
snow. To this rule the shores and islands of the upper part of 
Glacier Bay are a striking exception. Near the mouth of the 
bay forests continue to occur as in other parts, only on a 
diminished scale; but in the upper half of the bay all shores 
and islands are perfectly bare of forests, and the rocks retain 
in the most exposed situations fresh grooves and strize of glacial 
origin. It would be impossible for rocks so exposed in such a 
climate, to retain these for an indefinite length of time. Far 
up on the mountains, also, there are remnants of glacial debris 
in situations such that the material could not have resisted 
erosive agencies for any great length of time. The triangular 
shaped terminal moraine on the eastern side, just below the 
ice-front, presents some interesting features bearing on the 
same point. This extends three miles below the glacier, and 
in its lower portions is thinly covered with vegetation. This 
covering becomes less and less abundant as the glacier is ap- 
proached, until, over the last mile, scarcely any plants at all 
can be found. Apparently this is because there has not been 
time for vegetation to spread over the upper portion of the 
moraine since the ice withdrew, for on the mountains close by, 
where the exposure has been longer, there is a complete mat- 
ting of grass, flowering plants, and shrubs. Again, in this 
triangular moraine-covered space, there are five distinct trans- 
verse ridges marking as many stages in the recession of the ice- 
front. (See fig. 2.) These moraines of retrocession run 
