Variations of Sierra Glaciers. 



23 



the glacier has grown or shrunken in the last twenty 

 years. 



The Lyeil Glacier was not only photographed but very 

 fully described by Russell ; and he published an excellent 

 map which had been prepared by his assistant, Willard 

 D. Johnson. During the past summer I made a photo- 

 graph, here reproduced in Plate VL, and with the aid 

 of Russell's photograph have been able to compare the 

 appearance in 1883 with that in 1903. The glacier seems 

 now to have almost precisely the same size as at the earlier 

 date, the only suggested change being a slight shrinkage 

 near the west end. The arrangement of the numerous 

 moraine ridges is precisely the same as in 1883, from 

 which it may be inferred that the glacier has not in any 

 later year been materially larger than then. It might, 

 however, have diminished and afterward increased. 



The McClure Glacier, lying close to the Lyell, was 

 included in Johnson's map, but it was sketched from a 

 single station only, and its outlines were not determined 

 with the same accuracy. No photograph was made at that 

 time, and so far as I am aware the view I obtained last 

 summer (Plate VII.) is the first one showing the glacier 

 at short range. Comparing it with the map made twenty 

 years earlier, I noted important differences, and these 

 were the subject of correspondence with Mr. Johnson. 

 It is his definite recollection that the ice was then con- 

 tinuous down to the edge of the lake, where it ended in a 

 cliff about twenty feet high. At the present time the lake 

 is bordered only by snow-banks, and the glacier is evi- 

 dently limited by the large V-shaped moraine. As John- 

 son did not map the large moraine, although he did 

 represent other details, we may safely assume that the 



