Climatic Changes Indicated by Glacters.—Russell, 329 
‘sheet and marks the stagnant condition of the glacier on which it 
rests. In several instances, especially on the outer border of the 
Malaspina glacier, the moraines resting on the ice are clothed 
with vegetation, which over many square miles has the character 
of a forest, composed principally of spruce trees, some of which 
are three feet in diameter. Within the forest covered border and 
forming a belt concentric with it, there is a barren tract covered 
with stones and boulders. The forests growing on the glacier 
and also thousands of lakelets, both in the outer border of the 
barren moraine and in the adjacent forest-covered moraine, indi- 
cate conclusively that the ice-sheet is stagnant and consequently 
wasting away. On the coast bordering the Malaspina glacier on 
the south, there were formerly two projections called point Rio 
and cape Sitkagi which were noted by the explorers one hundred 
years ago. In traversing this coast in 1891, | found that no capes 
exist at the localities referred to. At the site of cape Sitkagi 
there is evidence that the sea has recently invaded the glacial 
boundary. On the sides of many of the alpine glaciers in the 
St. Elias region there are steep slopes bare of vegetation although 
well below the upper limit of tree-growth of adjacent areas, which 
indicate that the ice streams have recently shrunken within their 
beds. My conclusions after two visits to the glaciers in the St. 
Elias region is that without exception they are rapidly retreating. 
Near point Manby there is a locality where the Malaspina gla- 
cier has‘recently advanced about 1,500 feet into a dense spruce 
forest, cutting off the trees and sweeping them into confused 
heaps. After advancing, the ice retreated, leaving a typical mo- 
raine surface filled with lakelets. This is the only instance of a 
recent advance that has come under my notice. 
The head of Yakutat bay was visited by Malaspina in 1791, 
and again by captain Puget in 1794. Each of these explorers 
found the inlet blocked by a wall of ice from shore to shore. 
No other observations in this connection were made until my 
Visit in the summer of 1890.* From what may now be observed 
it is evident that the Dalton and Hubbard glaciers, which come 
down to the water at the head of the inlet and break off in bergs, 
must have extended some five or six miles beyond their present 
* Map indicating the position of the ice in 1791 is shown on plate 7 
and its extent in 1890. on plate 8, of my report on an expedition to Mt. 
st. Elias, in Nat. Geog. Mag., Vol. 1. This is only a sketch map, and 
cannot be relied upon for measurement of. distances. 
