The mountains of California . inctmouths. This fragmentary ice-sheet, and the immenseglaciers about Mount St. Elias, together with themultitude of separate river-like glaciers that loadthe slopes of the coast mountains, evidently onceformed part of a continuous ice-sheet that flowedover all the region hereabouts, and only a compara-tively short time ago extended as far southwardas the mouth of the Strait of Juiin de Fuca, j)rob-ably farther. All the islands of the AlexanderArchipelago, as well as the headlands and prom-ontories of the mainland, display telling traces ofthis great mantle that a
The mountains of California . inctmouths. This fragmentary ice-sheet, and the immenseglaciers about Mount St. Elias, together with themultitude of separate river-like glaciers that loadthe slopes of the coast mountains, evidently onceformed part of a continuous ice-sheet that flowedover all the region hereabouts, and only a compara-tively short time ago extended as far southwardas the mouth of the Strait of Juiin de Fuca, j)rob-ably farther. All the islands of the AlexanderArchipelago, as well as the headlands and prom-ontories of the mainland, display telling traces ofthis great mantle that are still fresh and unmistak-able. They all have the forms of the greateststrength with reference to the action of a vast rigidpress of oversweeping ice from the north and north-west, and their surfaces have a smooth, rounded,overrubbed appearance, generally free from intricate labyrinth of canals, channels, straits,passages, sounds, narrows, etc., between the islands,and extending into the mainland, of course maui-. 26 THE MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA fest in their forms and trends and general char-acteristics the same subordination to the grindingaction of universal glaciation as to their origin, anddiffer from the islands and banks of the fiords onlyin being portions of the pre-glacial margin of thecontinent more deeply eroded, and therefore coveredby the ocean waters which flowed into them as theice was melted out of them. The formation andextension of fiords in this manner is still goingon, and may be witnessed in many places in GlacierBay, Yakutat Bay, and adjacent regions. That thedomain of the sea is being extended over the landby the wearing away of its shores, is well known,but in these icy regions of Alaska, and even as farsouth as Vancouver Island, the coast rocks havebeen so short a time exposed to wave-action theyare but little wasted as yet. In these regions theextension of the sea effected by its own action inpost-glacial time is scarcely appreciable as com
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectcaliforniadescriptio
