9 2 
ALASKA GLACIERS 
Connected with the eastern edge of the ice was a long, 
narrow tongue attached to the shore (fig. 49), evidently a 
remnant left by the glacier at some very recent date when 
its front was more extensive. As this strip was not pro¬ 
tected by gravel, it must have been wasting rapidly, and 
the period of its separation may have been only a few 
months. I was in doubt whether to ascribe it to a pro¬ 
gressive shrinkage of the glacier or to seasonal variation. 
FIG. 49. EAST PART OF FRONT OF BARRY GLACIER. 
Showing associated remnant of stagnant ice. From a photograph by D. G. Inverarity. 
On the same coast the forest did not approach the glacier 
closely at the water line, but passed above it, leaving a 
barren zone several hundred feet broad. The common 
boundary of the barren zone and forest was so well defined 
as to indicate that it represented a former limit of the ice, 
but there were no overturned trees. If the forest ever 
occupied the barren zone, and was there destroyed by an 
advance of the glacier, the occurrence was so long ago that 
the overturned tree trunks had disappeared through decay. 
The portions of the forest nearest the ice included no 
trees of large size, but as there were many standing dead 
trunks it is probable that the growth was mature and that 
the small size of the trees indicated merely conditions un- 
