7 2 
ALASKA GLACIERS 
resented on a map prepared in connection with expedi¬ 
tions to Alaska under Glenn and Abercrombie, in 1898, 1 
and the same map also indicates the presence of the glacier, 
but neither bay nor glacier is delineated with sufficient 
accuracy to serve as a record for future comparison. The 
name Columbia was given by the Harriman Expedition. 
The general course of the glacier is southward, and its 
width in the lower ten miles is from three and a half to four 
miles. Its sources are distinct and were not seen, but 
beyond the tract covered by our map (pi. xi) it appeared 
to spread somewhat broadly, and the ice field affording 
its chief supply may send streams in other directions also. 
NORTH 
FIG. 37. PANORAMA OF COLUMBIA 
Shows the western division of the front. 
About nine miles from the sea it encounters an outlying 
mountain over 3,000 feet high, by which it is divided, the 
principal current passing to the west. The eastern arm 
descends steeply for three miles and terminates in a 
land-locked valley against a plain of glacial gravel. A 
subdivision of the western arm enters the same valley. In 
1899 it barely touched the eastern arm, so that the moun¬ 
tain was wholly surrounded by ice and could properly be 
called a nunatak. Beyond this point the main stream 
flowed to the ocean, but the surface grades descended 
also toward lateral valleys, and there was waste all about 
1 Maps and descriptions of Routes of Exploration in Alaska in 1898. U. S. 
Geological Survey, 1899. Map No. 8. 
