Page:Canadian Alpine Journal I, 1.djvu/211

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Canadian Alpine Journal

Illecillewaet Glacier (Glacier House).

Its proximity to the Glacier House and the ease with which it can be reached, has caused this glacier to be more visited and more studied than any other in the whole region. Its size is not such as to cause it to command unusual attention, as there are many others which greatly exceed it. But its location has attracted attention to it ever since the opening of the Canadian Pacific railway, and from 1887 to the present, there have been more or less continuous records made. Our work has consisted:

  • (a) In mapping the end of the glacier, with its several moraines and surroundings, showing their conditions through a number of years.
  • (b) Taking a series of "test photographs" in successive years, from the same position.
  • (c) Measuring the amount of recession from year to year.
  • (d) Measuring the rate of flow.

(a) Several maps of the Illecillewaet glacier have been made. We have drawn two, one in 1899, and the other in 1906. Both are from actual surveys and photographs, showing the limits of the ice, the various adjacent moraines, and the rocks marked by various investigators. They may be found in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

(b) Each year since 1899 we have taken a 6½x8½ photograph from a large boulder, located to the right of the trail, soon after it emerges from the forest. These pictures form a most interesting series, and a comparison of them gives a very accurate idea of the many changes in the ice as they have occurred.

(c) Numerous individuals have marked rocks in the bed moraine of this glacier, giving bases from which