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Delayed by Icebergs.

103 melting of the ice when exposed to the air, it seems to liquefy even more quickly when submerged. The changes thus produced finally cause the bergs to reverse their positions in the water. This is done without the slightest warning, and is one of the greatest dangers to be guarded against while canoeing among them. The white color presented by the majority of the bergs is changed to blue when they become stranded, and the surf breaks over them and dissolves away their porous surfaces. A few of the bergs are black in color, owing to the dirt and stones that they carry on their surfaces or frozen in their mass. Quantities of débris are thus floated away from the tide-water glaciers and strewn over the bottoms of the adjacent inlets.

This digression may be wearisome, but one cannot stand on Haenke island without wishing to know all the secrets of the great ice-streams that flow silently before him.

Returning from our commanding station at the summit of the island to where we left our canoe, we were surprised and not a little startled to find that the tide had run out and left the strand between our canoe and the water completely blocked with huge fragments of ice. There was no way left for us to launch our canoe except by cutting away and leveling off the ice with our axe, so as to form a trail over which we could drag it to the water. This we did, and then, poising the canoe on a low flat berg, half of which extended beneath the water, I took my place in it with paddle in hand, while Christie and Crumback, waiting for the moment when a large wave rolled in, launched the canoe far out in the surf. By the vigorous use of my paddle I succeeded in reaching smooth water and brought the canoe close under the cliff forming the southern side of the cove, where the men were able to drop in as a wave rolled under us.

We slowly worked our way down the bay through blue lanes in the ice-pack, against an incoming tide, and reached our tents near sunset. Thus ended one of the most enjoyable and most instructive days at Yakutat bay.

FROM YAKUTAT BAY TO BLOSSOM ISLAND.

Our camp on the shore of Yakutat bay was held for several days after returning from Haenke island, but in the meantime an advance-camp was established on the side of the Lucia glacier, from which Mr. Kerr and myself made explorations ahead.

Before leaving the base-camp I visited Black glacier for the purpose of taking photographs and studying the appearance of an old glacier far spent and fast passing away. This, like the Galiano glacier, is a good example of a great number of icestreams in the same region which are covered from side to side with débris. The cañon walls on either side rise precipitously, and their lower slopes, for the height of 200 or 300 feet, are bare of vegetation. The surface of the glacier has evidently sunken to this extent within a period too short to allow of the accumulation of soil and the rooting of plants on the slopes. The banks referred to are in part below the upper limit of timber growth, and the adjacent surfaces are covered with bushes, grasses, and flowers. Under the climatic conditions there prevailing, it is evident that the formation of soil and the spreading of plants over areas abandoned by ice is a matter of comparatively few years. It is for this reason that a very recent retreat of Black glacier is inferred. Many of the glaciers in southern Alaska give similar evidence of recent contraction, and it is evident that a climatic change is in progress which is either decreasing the winter's snow or increasing the summer's heat. The most sensitive indicators of these changes, responding even more quickly than does the vegetation, are the glaciers.

The fourth of July was spent by us in cutting a trail up the steep mountain slope to the amphitheatre visited during my first tramp. No one can appreciate the density and luxuriance of the vegetation on the lower mountain in that region until he has cut a passage through it. Seven men, working continuously for six or seven hours with axes and knives, were able to open a comparatively good trail about a mile in length. The remainder of the way was along stream courses and up bowlder-washes, which were free from vegetation. In the afternoon, having finished our task, a half-holiday was spent in an exciting search for two huge brown bears discovered by one of the party, but they vanished before the guns could be brought out.

The next day an advance-camp was made in the amphitheatre above timber line, and there Mr. Kerr and myself passed the night, molested only by swarms of mosquitoes, and the day following occupied an outstanding butte as a topographical station. In the afternoon of the same day the advance-camp was moved to the border of the Atrevida glacier at a point already described, where a muddy stream gushes out from under the ice.

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Contrast of Desolation and Verdure.

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Our next advance-camp, established a few days later, was at Terrace point, as we called the extreme end of the mountain spur separating the Lucia and Atrevida glaciers. These icestreams were formerly much higher than now, and when at their flood formed terraces along the mountain side, which remain distinctly visible to the present day. The space between the two glaciers at the southern end of the mountain spur became filled with bowlders and stones carried down on the side of the icestreams, and, as the glaciers contracted, added a tapering point to the mountain. Between the present surface of the ice and the highest terrace left at some former time there are many ridges, sloping down stream, which record minor changes in the fluctuation of the ice. A portion of one of these terraces is seen to the left in plate 10.

Terrace point, like all the lower portions of the mountain spurs extending southward from the main range, is densely clothed with vegetation, and during the short summers is a paradise of flowers. Our tent was pitched on a low terrace just beyond the border of the ice. The steep bluff rising to an elevation of some 200 feet on the east of our camp was formed by glacial ice buried beneath an absolutely barren covering of stones and dirt. On the west the ascent was still more precipitous, but the slope from base to summit was one mass of gorgeous flowers.

Kerr and myself made several excursions from the camp at Terrace point, and explored the country ahead to the next mountain spur for the purpose of selecting a site for another advance-camp. In the meantime the men were busy in bringing up supplies.

Our reconnoissance westward took us across the Lucia glacier to the mouth of a deep, transverse gorge in the next mountain spur. The congeries of low peaks and knobs south of this pass we named the Floral hills, on account of the luxuriance of the vegetation covering them; and the saddle separating them from the mountains to the north was called Floral pass.

In crossing the Lucia glacier we experienced the usual difficulties met with on the débris-covered ice-field of Alaska. The way was exceedingly rough, on account of the ridges and valleys on the ice, and on account of the angular condition of the débris resting upon it. Many of the ridges could not conveniently be climbed, owing to the uncertain footing afforded by the angular

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