HARRIMAN GLACIER 
95 
set as practically to coalesce, especially on the south¬ 
east side, giving a broad expanse of nearly continuous 
ice and neve. This expanse, fully commanded from 
the water, makes the view of the glacier a most im¬ 
pressive spectacle. 
The visible moraines are few and unimportant, but the 
presence of much embedded drift is suggested by a detrital 
bank on which the eastern edge of the ice is seen to rest 
at the front. Above this bank the frontal cliff is low and 
irregular, but elsewhere it is lofty, ranging in height from 
200 to 300 feet. From such a cliff an active discharge 
of bergs might be assumed, but our parties encountered 
only a moderate quantity of floating ice near the head of 
the fiord. 
The glacier is not closely approached by forest growth, 
but shrubs were seen on the shore of the fiord within a 
few hundred yards of the ice. If the ice is diminishing, 
the recent retreat of the glacier front would appear not to 
have been rapid. The condition of the front in June, 
1899, is recorded in a series of photographs. Two of 
these, reproduced in plate xv, show the ends of the frontal 
cliff, where the ice adjoins the valley walls, and will be 
serviceable for future comparisons with reference to ad¬ 
vance or retreat. A third (Curtis negative no. 291), 
published in volume 1 at page 74, gives a distant view of 
the glacier and its southeastern tributaries; and a fourth 
(Harriman negative no. 98), appearing in volume 11 at 
page 262, gives the glacier and its surroundings from a 
somewhat nearer point. 
Some of the minor glaciers associated with the Harri¬ 
man occupy elevated valleys far above the main trough, 
and these upland valleys probably constitute a system 
initiated at an earlier epoch, when the fiord was flooded 
with ice to a great depth. Illustrative examples are 
afforded by two hanging glaciers overlooking the lower 
