32 
ALASKA GLACIERS 
progress for nearly twenty years. The other masses clung 
to the walls of the trough occupied by Reid Glacier, and 
were still continuous with the ice of the glacier, although 
they had ceased to move. They were simply portions of 
the retreating glacier so well supported by the land that 
they had not fallen into the sea when the deeper parts of 
the ice stream were melted. They were partly covered 
by gravel and other rock debris, but still showed faces of 
white ice near their junction with the glacier. That on 
the west side extended about 1,200 feet beyond the general 
ice front, and the eastern mass was nearly or quite as long. 
From these remnants it is inferred that there was a some¬ 
what gradual shrinkage of the glacier after the record of 
1894, and that it did not immediately assume the propor¬ 
tions observed in 1899. 
The width of the Reid at its debouchure is seven-eighths 
of a mile, and the general height of its ice cliff about 100 
feet. The frequent falling of ice masses during our visit 
gave the impression that it was discharging bergs rapidly, 
but the little bay before it carried less floating ice than the 
open inlet beyond. 
The data compiled in the map of the inlet (fig. 11) are 
of unequal precision. The line representing the ice front 
in 1879 depends largely on the recollection of Muir, 
but his recollection is supported by notes and a landscape 
sketch made at the time. The fronts of Grand Pacific 
Glacier in 1892 and 1894 are believed to be close approxi¬ 
mations, but the front in 1899 has much less authority and 
may involve considerable error. 
The total retreat along the axis of Johns Hopkins Glacier 
in the twenty years preceding 1899 was about three and 
a half miles, and the retreat of the Grand Pacific along 
the line of its western distributary was three and a half 
to four miles in the same period. Reid Glacier retreated 
a half mile after its separation, the period being some- 
