44 
ALASKA GLACIERS 
Since writing the last paragraph I have received from 
the U. S. Fish Commission a photograph made from the 
steamer ‘Albatross ? in September, 1895, and have repro¬ 
duced it in figure 25. This shows that the ice at that 
time was in actual contact with the forest. 
In the standing timber, which comprises both spruce 
and hemlock, and also among the overturned trees, are 
trunks four feet in diameter, and during the whole life of 
these trees — a matter of centuries — this particular spot 
has been undisturbed by the ice. It is thus shown that 
glaciation has here attained within a few years a maximum 
not previously reached for centuries. 
The locality of our visit records at least two glacial 
maxima. As the older till contains tree trunks, it marks 
an advance of the ice after an epoch of inferior develop¬ 
ment. The mature forest standing on this till records 
another long epoch of lessened glaciation, and the recent 
advance a second maximum. It is possible that the epoch 
between the two maxima was of only a few centuries, but 
evidence to be mentioned in another connection indicates 
that it was much longer. 
On our return voyage in July we passed this part of the 
coast at a distance of several miles, and I was able to note 
that the eastern margin of the piedmont division of La 
Perouse Glacier lay parallel to a forest margin, with an 
intervening belt of different color, presumably morainic, 
about 200 yards wide. Similar belts were also seen about 
the flanks of the next piedmont mass toward the east. 
These facts indicate that the recent advance recorded at 
one point on the front of La Perouse Glacier was an ad¬ 
vance of the whole glacier, and render it probable that 
the change was not confined to a single glacier. 
The evidence from the crushing of the forest does not 
tell us whether during the long period before the last ad¬ 
vance the ice had approximately its present extent or ex- 
