94 
ALASKA GLACIERS 
The only observed fact bearing on its recent history 
of change is the absence of trees from the valley walls 
near it. 
Two of the hanging glaciers are shown, at the left, in 
figure 50. The cascading tributary and other branches 
of the Serpentine appear at page 124 of volume 1, in a 
plate repro¬ 
ducing photo¬ 
graph no. 292 
of Curtis’s 
series. 
Surprise 
Glacier reach¬ 
es the fiord 
from the west, 
and occupies 
FIG. 51. SURPRISE AND CATARACT GLACIERS. 
Surprise Glacier (at right) has its source in a valley system be¬ 
yond Cataract Glacier. 
a deep and long branch valley. Its sources were not 
visible, being concealed by the curvature of its valley, 
but its moderate grade and the lofty ice cliff in which it 
ends, mark it as an important ice river. 
Its near neighbor, Cataract Glacier, occupies a narrow 
and lofty mountain trough, from the end of which it sends 
a steep, tapering tongue down to the sea. It is interme¬ 
diate in type between the hanging glaciers of the Ser¬ 
pentine valley and the cascading glaciers of the west wall 
of College Fiord. 
The valley containing Harriman Glacier is a continua¬ 
tion of the main trough of the fiord and holds the same 
general southwest trend. The glacier curves toward the 
west and then toward the south, disappearing from view 
at a distance of nearly ten miles. As the most distant 
portion seen has a gentle slope and lies far below the 
bordering mountains, it is probable that the sources are 
still several miles beyond. Its general width is about a 
mile and a half, but its high-grade tributaries are so thick- 
